American Family Insurance, NBC Universal Digital and MSN Renew Their Successful Marketing Campaign

AFI, Mindshare and its mega-media partners respectfully launch season two of the successful series 'In Gayle We Trust,' introduce first Latino financial advice micro-site, and unveil an insurance--focused social simulation game

News provided by

American Family Insurance

Jul 21, 2010, 11:42 ET

MADISON, Wis., July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Due to the overwhelming success of its campaign in 2009, American Family Insurance has once again teamed-up with its media agency, Mindshare, to orchestrate a multi- faceted branded entertainment marketing campaign that includes NBC Universal, MSN and WildTangent. The program integrates entertainment and education to engage consumers with the brand, its products and its agents. The components of this campaign are uniquely suited to connect with consumers about issues that matter most to them – community, family and financial self-reliance.

"This has been the largest integrated marketing success in the company's history and we are thrilled to bring it back with our partners at NBC Universal Digital, MSN and Mindshare Entertainment, in addition to extending it with our new partner WildTangent. We have made the American Family Insurance brand come to life in a way that resonates well with our audience," said Telisa Yancy, director of advertising, American Family Insurance. "Extensive distribution across digital, video-on-demand, and offline media ensured the show was available to a highly engaged target audience when and where they wanted to watch."

"In Gayle We Trust" marks the first time NBC Universal Digital has renewed a Web series for a second season. BuildingABrighterFuture.com has been relaunched to provide consumers with the latest expert personal finance advice on MSN.com and "iAMFAM," a new online social simulation game developed in partnership with WildTangent, is aimed at helping Americans start a family, manage a career, or buy and maintain a house. Mindshare Entertainment co-produced and oversaw all the content for the campaign, including the Web series "In Gayle We Trust" with NBC Universal Digital Studios and BuildingABrighterFuture.com with MSN, which provides consumers with the latest expert personal finance advice.

While each American Family Insurance-sponsored program delivers against a unique marketing strategy, all three are aligned by a similar theme emphasizing American Family Insurance agents' role as trusted advisers. It allows the brand to break outside of the traditional marketing communication methods in a highly impactful way, expanding its reach through multiple consumer touch points and driving business.

"The strong results garnered from season one of "In Gayle We Trust" and the pickup of season two marks a vital next step in the development of original digital content as an integral part of the media mix," said Cameron Death, Vice President, NBC Universal Digital Studio. "It represents a significant accomplishment as we continue to create quality and original digital entertainment with brand-name association such as the one we have with our partner, American Family Insurance, which also returns as the exclusive sponsor of this appealing series."

This campaign builds on the effectiveness of individual media partners by integrating them with a theme that naturally draws consumers from one to the next. All three campaign elements launch in July 2010.

Bringing American Family To Life

	"In Gayle We Trust" is an intriguing 10-episode digital series with a quirky edge. The program follows the lives of the fictional residents of Maple Grove. Insurance agent Gayle Evans (Elisa Donovan, "Clueless," "Beverly Hills, 90210," "Sabrina the Teenage Witch") is at the hub of the town's business, serving as the sounding board, guru and trusted adviser among the town's idiosyncratic clientele.

	According to InsightExpress, AdInsights Brand Study, 73 percent of those who viewed "In Gayle We Trust" expressed that the quality exceeded expectations for original online programming and 74 percent said it was better then some television programs on-air. The strong content resulted in a purchase-intent increase of 24 percent for American Family Insurance, 12 times the normal average for online marketing, and a 30 percent increase of people identifying the brand as "innovative."

	The comedic short stories were produced by NBC Universal Digital in association with Mindshare Entertainment. They are available at ingaylewetrust.com and promoted on-air on NBC and USA Network, as well as NBC Universal's significant digital and mobile platforms, all major video-on demand platforms and social networks. It was recently awarded the nextMEDIA Banff World Television Festival Awards for "Best Branded Entertainment."

	"In Gayle We Trust" photos and press materials are available at www.nbcmv.com and clips and interviews are available at nbc.epk.tv.

"We saw fantastic results from our campaign last year indicating that the series and online resources were well-received by the public," said Yancy. "We anticipate that this year we will continue to see increased traffic and engagement on our campaign Web sites, widespread viewership of our Web series, and increased agent interaction."

	BuildingaBrighterFuture.msn.com offers families straightforward and trusted personal finance advice reinforcing American Family Insurance's position as a trusted adviser for families seeking a brighter future. Featuring MSN's Liz Weston, the most-read personal finance columnist on the Web, www.buildingabrighterfuture.msn.com offers video shorts, tips sheets, a blog and interactive tools to help families address today's personal finance challenges and equip them with reliable, straightforward advice and information to help them build a brighter future.

	This year American Family Insurance will help introduce the first Latino MSN/Branded Entertainment and Experiences micro-site, Creando Futuros Brillantes, found at http://creandounfuturobrillante.msn.com. Hosted by Latino finance expert Elianne Gonzalez, the site is geared to address financial issues within the Hispanic community. The Hispanic community has few digital guides in the finance space, and the site includes specific solutions for this community focused on saving, small business, and the importance of insurance to protect families.

	iAMFAM is a social simulation game where players grow and nurture a virtual family by maintaining day-to-day and major financial decisions. Happiness, the overall goal of the game, is maximized by fulfilling players' goals and making sure that their physical, mental, and financial health is at the highest levels. The game is developed for the Facebook platform, enabling players to invite their Facebook friends to become neighbors who can visit and interact with each other's virtual houses and send gifts to each other, and even marry their children to become extended family. Players also encounter random positive and negative events. Negative events such as property damage, theft or sickness can result in financial setback preventing the player from advancing. No matter what twists life throws at them, American Family Insurance protects players from financial setback enabling them to continue on in the game of life. The game will be supported on an on-going basis with content updates to keep gamers engaged over time.

	All the individual media partner elements are digitally linked and provide an American Family Insurance agent locator tool. These sites also feature the capacity for consumers to engage with American Family Insurance through the use of interactive tools without leaving the portal. They also link to an updated www.amfam.com site offering new interactive information and quoting tools.

About American Family Insurance

Based in Madison, Wis., American Family Insurance offers auto, homeowners, life, health, commercial and farm/ranch insurance in 19 states. American Family ranks 344th on the Fortune 500 list and is the nation's third-largest mutual property/casualty insurance company.

About the NBC Universal Digital Studio

In addition to original episodic programming across all genres, the NBC Universal Digital Studio creates deep interactive experiences that drive high levels of engagement with audiences and presenting brands. The studio offers advertisers full service solutions with access to top writers, producers and talent, high quality production expertise, consumer insights, measurements and analytics and scale to reach their target audiences.

Source: InsightExpress is a leading provider of high-quality, digital marketing research and plays a preeminent role in the measurement of advertising effectiveness across online, mobile and other media.

About Mindshare

Mindshare is a global media and marketing services network with billings in excess of $27.8 billion (source: RECMA). The network consists of 115 offices in 82 countries throughout the North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific, each dedicated to forging competitive marketing advantage for businesses and their brands. Mindshare is part of GroupM, which oversees the media investment management sector for WPP, the world's leading communications services group.

SOURCE American Family Insurance