Zurich Insurance's Latest Ad Takes Sustainability to the Next Level

Zurich UK has launched its first sustainable TV advertising campaign in a new collaboration with creative agency FCB Inferno. 

As the business sets out on its mission to drive brand consideration through an emotional connection with consumers, the agency, who were appointed earlier this year after a three-way pitch, was briefed to develop a campaign which encapsulates the motivation to ‘sustain’. The campaign is about protecting the future of everything we love, sustaining our way of life, families, livelihoods and hopes and dreams. 

In a less traditional approach, the insurer has utilised the most sustainable approach possible to create the new advert. By re-using existing footage and extending the lifespan of the content, the brand limits the carbon footprint created by traditional productions, travelling to locations to film with a complete crew.  

Alongside national TV advertising, the new campaign will incorporate advertising on Radio, Sky outlets such as Adsmart, YouTube, social channels and key trade media outlets from now until October 2022. 

Tracy Waxman, head of brand and marketing at Zurich UK comments, “This campaign puts insurance at the heart of our customer's lives, showing the role that we play in helping customers sustain the most important aspects of their worlds. Using locations, film crews, actors and generating original footage has always been a very traditional way of creating TV adverts. As always, we’re keen to adapt to new ways of doing things to be kinder to the environment by upcycling existing content.”

Katy Wright, managing director at FCB Inferno added, “Zurich is a brand that is passionate about their purpose of becoming more sustainable and they are committed to leading by example. We relished bringing this to life with considered production techniques and without compromising the creative impact, and we are incredibly proud of the final result.”

As a brand Zurich are passionate about sustainability, already they have:

• Committed to a set of science-based targets to hit net zero carbon emissions by 2050. They were the first insurer to sign up to the UN Business Pledge in 2019 to keep global warming to 1.5oC. 
• Since 2014 they have offset their emissions so that their operations are climate neutral. They have a target to cut carbon emissions associated with their operations by 50 per cent by 2025. They will achieve this target by; working with customers and suppliers, and cutting the carbon footprint of their operations and investments. 
• They’ve announced a series of actions to deliver on this goal – including a 70% cut in air travel emissions – that altogether are expected to cut carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions in the Group’s operations by more than 40,000 metric tons annually by 2025, or 20% compared with 2019. 
• Zurich has a responsible investment strategy, based on the principle that doing well as a business goes hand in hand with doing good for society. Recently Zurich UK switched $1bn of investments into a new fund which will deliver a 30 per cent reduction in associated carbon emissions. 
• Zurich is also a founding member of the Net-Zero Asset Owners Alliance, committing to align our investments portfolios with a 1.5°C climate scenario.
• Earlier this year they announced the appointment of their first CSO in the UK, a role which will be held by John Keppel who is also part of the Executive Committee.