Bestow’s First Brand Campaign Asks “What If Everyone Knew You Didn’t Have Life Insurance?"

Buying life insurance often gets put on the back burner. One study showed that while 75% of Americans intend to buy life insurance, only 19% of them actually do. That said, the category has gained new relevance - and growth - amid the pandemic. Life insurance application activity for Americans under 44 has risen by about 3.4% year-to-date.

In this context, Bestow, an exciting new life insurance challenger brand, is looking to get on people's radar. The company partnered with creative agency, Preacher, to build its first-ever brand campaign to not only create awareness, but also steer people who've lacked follow-through in the past to get the financial protection their families need.

The three-year-old startup has completely reimagined the way you buy life insurance, making it something that can be confidently accomplished in as little as 10 minutes, with no medical exam needed. Due in part to increased life insurance demand during the pandemic, Bestow has experienced a record sales year and impressive quarter over quarter growth in 2020. For example, March - September 2020 sales were up 4x YOY. 

The campaign 'What If Everyone Knew You Didn't Have Life Insurance?' looks to surface the latent guilt 'life insurance idlers' feel about not having purchased a policy already and positions Bestow as the solution to get rid of your guilt in minutes, all from your phone, without the standard doctor’s visit or mountains of paperwork. The work, which comes to life in three :30 second spots, centres on conversations with loved ones and close friends, dramatising the uncomfortable scenarios a lack of life insurance could create - such as being judged by your mom friends or being lectured to by your older brother - and offering a quick resolution to ongoing procrastination: Bestow.

The campaign launches 19th October across digital video, display, social, and audio with an initial focus on the Texas market (Bestow’s home state), followed by a national rollout slated for January.

Tannen Campbell, chief marketing officer at Bestow, said: “Busy parents know they need life insurance, but with so many competing priorities, they just never get around to it. We’ve all felt the guilt that comes when you’ve put something off too long. Our new campaign makes light of that while providing a completely-online, affordable solve. You can apply at Bestow in minutes, and most importantly, before anyone finds out that you don't have life insurance."

Creative director at Preacher, Kellyn Blount, concluded: "There are things we all know we should do. But when you’re the only who knows you need to do it, not doing it gets a lot easier. That was our insight. People who should have life insurance don’t because they’re the only ones who know they don’t. And like most people, they allow the task to fall to the bottom of today’s to-do list over and over again. By posing the question 'What if everyone knew you didn’t have life insurance?' and playing out scenarios where people’s private procrastinations become very public, we hoped to make the all-too-easy-to-postpone responsibility of getting life insurance much less so."