Halo and Pineapple: Disrupting the Insurance Category with Bold Out of Home (OOH) Advertising
Local agency Halo, in collaboration with its client, the disruptor brand Pineapple, walked into the Effies SA and walked out with the Grand Effie. This victory was a testament to their innovative and bold approach to insurance advertising, which stood out in a category often dominated by one-dimensional, price-driven messages.
A Bold and Honest Campaign
The Halo Pineapple campaign used Out of Home (OOH) advertising to its full potential, crafting a message that took the mickey out of insurance and resonated deeply with a generation that felt ignored by traditional insurers. Dean Oelschig, founder and managing partner at Halo, admits they didn’t expect to win the Grand Effie, even though the results of the campaign were remarkable. “What matters most is how well it worked for the brand, and that’s what we showed in our entry,” says Oelschig.
Disrupting a Difficult Category
The insurance industry, by nature, is a challenging category to navigate, and Pineapple set out to disrupt this space. According to Oelschig, the category had remained stagnant, with many brands focusing on "switch and save" messages and price-driven promotions. "The category itself has remained one-dimensional," he explains. Pineapple, on the other hand, was built on the concept of fairness, and Halo sought to reflect this in their campaign, creating something that was honest about insurance and advertising.
Connecting with the Audience
Halo and Pineapple identified a market segment that insurance companies had long neglected: a generation that is active online, engages with memes, and is generally disinterested in insurance. “We wanted to create something that spoke to them honestly,” Oelschig says. “They do not love insurance, and we owned up to that.” The result was a self-deprecating, honest campaign that resonated with the target audience and was embraced for its authenticity.
One standout example was a billboard that read, “Never heard of Pineapple? Honestly same,” which perfectly captured the tone of the campaign. This refreshing approach helped challenge the industry's norms and pushed boundaries.
Challenging the Norms of Advertising
The campaign’s approach was not just refreshing—it was disruptive. “We took the mickey out of insurance, we took the mickey out of everything,” says Oelschig. People loved it. They shared it, even creating their own versions of the campaign billboards. This organic engagement contributed to Pineapple’s impressive business results, with the brand experiencing triple-digit growth despite a tough economic climate.
Oelschig believes that no other insurance company had ever dared to challenge the category so directly before. “I think the honesty was refreshing and people responded to it,” he explains. The campaign’s boldness paid off, attracting attention and customers alike.
Out of Home Advertising: Done Right
The campaign’s extensive use of Out of Home (OOH) advertising played a critical role in its success. Oelschig credits the clients for their willingness to embrace OOH as a primary medium. Pineapple's CEO, Marnus van Heerden, applied what he calls the "volcano technique," a strategy where the impact of a campaign is concentrated in specific, localized areas to create enough noise to be heard far and wide.
The results were remarkable. Despite not having previously run an OOH campaign in Cape Town, that region became one of the most successful for Pineapple. The campaign was deployed across Gauteng on 106 OOH sites, each with a unique creative execution. “We had to write 106 lines. I think at the end of the day, we just had fun with it,” Oelschig recalls.
The Importance of Scale in OOH
Oelschig highlights the importance of scale in OOH campaigns. “You can do five great billboards, but few people hear about it or know about it. But if you do 106, people start taking notice.” The concentrated, high-impact strategy ensured that Pineapple's message was seen by a vast audience, driving both awareness and engagement.
For a startup like Pineapple, OOH was an ideal choice. Rather than fragmenting their efforts across multiple media channels, the brand chose to focus its energy and resources on OOH, maximizing its impact.
Lessons Learned: Great Work Requires Conviction
Oelschig believes that great advertising takes more than just creative ideas—it takes conviction. “Pineapple was bold in their choice, and they trusted us that the work would work against the conventions of the category,” he says. “They backed the work, they gave it scale, they gave it airtime. And it reaped the rewards.”
The campaign’s success is a clear indication that great work, especially in traditional media like OOH, still has the power to capture attention in today’s fragmented digital landscape. It’s a reminder that to truly stand out and disrupt a category, you need to be bold, honest, and committed to making an impact.
The Halo Pineapple campaign is a prime example of how OOH can be used effectively to challenge conventions and engage an audience in an unexpected and authentic way. With creativity, strategy, and the right medium, Pineapple has set a new benchmark for the insurance industry, proving that sometimes, it takes a little fun and honesty to win big..
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