Featuring a cast of high fashion furry friends, “VIS – The Road Safety Collection”, mixed style with safety, winning TBWA\NZ, Eleven PR, Southern Cross Pet Insurance gold in the Best Integrated Campaign category at the 2022 Pressie Awards. StopPress caught up with Angelina Farry, Managing Director at Eleven, to get the low down on what made this campaign stand out.
What was the most compelling insight behind this campaign?
The Southern Cross Pet Insurance campaign platform is Live Your Pet Life, and it’s a commitment from Southern Cross to find ways to improve the health and life of pets. Injuries around roads are one the most common pet insurance claims, yet they’re not often recognised. If we could raise awareness around road safety, we knew we’d be helping owners help their pets live longer and happier lives.
Rather than scare Kiwi’s with horror stories, we needed an idea that would make pet road safety a talking point when road safety messages are already relentlessly covered in the media. We looked for ways we could make pets visible on roads – day and night – in a way that was fun, unique and unmissable. VIS – The Road Safety Collection is a collaboration with internationally renowned London based fashion designer Matthew Adams Dolan – stylist to stars like Rihanna. We created a limited edition pet fashion range using one off couture designs and reflective garments, and then launched the collection like a fashion range.
Why do you think it won gold?
Pet insurance is usually pet pics and price points, and publicising road safety for humans dominates that conversation. VIS – The Road Safety Collection from Matthew Adams Dolan and Southern Cross Pet Insurance was a unique and well executed way to get people to take notice of the issue. Combining pets, high-end fashion and a celebrity collaboration in such a fun way made the campaign hard to miss. Wehelped pets all over New Zealand be seen and made pet road safety this season’s hottest look.
What was the biggest challenge you faced while creating the campaign?
Working with a designer in New York and Milan while we were in New Zealand presented a few logistical challenges. Fur babies with four paws are a little trickier to dress than people, but we managed to create a range of garments from a Neon Hooded Puffer to a See Me Biker Jacket, with added high vis glitz, so our animals had everything they needed to strut the sidewalk safely.
What was your biggest learning?
Leaning into pet wellness in a fresh way is something our audience took notice of and has helped super charge the brand metrics, but we can’t forget how important craft and the quality of the execution are. The international partnership with Matt added scale, while the detail that went into the garments, photography and activations made it really unmissable. To achieve something at this scale, with so many layers to the execution required a super collaborative effort between TBWA\NZ, Eleven PR and Southern Cross Pet Insurance. Southern Cross is an amazing client partner, with wonderful vision and great clients are what make great work and great results possible.
What does it mean to you to win a Gold at The Pressies in 2022?
We are thrilled to have won and it’s a great recognition of all the work the teams put in, and it is made all the more special when you consider the high calibre of New Zealand agencies. Every year we see the bar lifted higher and this year was no exception. It was the biggest year ever for The Pressies, with more entries from more agencies than ever before, and we’re proud to be working in an industry with such a talented bunch of people.
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