The Public House have launched a new communications campaign for FBD to promote their car, home and farm insurance products. Most insurance shoppers consider less than three insurers at renewal time, so being top of mind is crucial. The campaign is the latest iteration of FBD’s ‘Support. It’s what we do’ platform, first developed by the agency in 2019.
Sarah Walsh, head of strategy, FBD, said knowing that people only think about their insurance when it comes to renewal time, the focus for the campaign was to create something memorable to stand out in the category using a simple insight – although FBD has been a household name for over 50 years, many still don’t know what the acronym stands for.
The ads use that thought to tell a new story about support. The lack of knowledge creates a fun place for FBD’s new campaign, while also setting up a satisfactory response. The campaign employs humour as a creative device, one of the most effective techniques for driving engagement and memorability for brands, yet one that is used less often these days.
Mikey Curran, associate creative director at The Public House, said the campaign is unmistakably FBD’s and that nobody else in the insurance business could run or emulate it. The Public House hired Abstraction Pictures to help create the TV ads, social and digital assets. The campaign went live on St Stephen’s Day and will run throughout the year.
FBD was first established in 1969 as Farmers Business Developments. Its founding chairman was Paddy O’Keeffe, then editor of the Irish Farmers Journal. In 1988, a corporate restructuring took place and there was a flotation on the stock market of FBD Holdings plc, which owns FBD Insurance.
