FMG: We’re here for the good of the country
(StopPress, March 13th) http://stoppress.co.nz/news/bcg2-lets-rural-insurer-fmgs-clients-tell-story

In March 2015 bcg2 released its first brand campaign for rural insurer FMG, and is rolling out over multi-media channels after winning the account last September, basing it on the tag line ‘We’re here for the good of the country’.

The company says the campaign, which went live on 1 March, reflects FMG’s role as New Zealand’s leading rural insurer helping farmers, growers and rural businesses to manage their risks and achieve more, “While this positioning firmly establishes FMG’s rural focus, it also pays tribute to the way these communities underpin the prosperity of New Zealand.”

The agency’s director of strategy and planning Abe Dew says one of the strategic pillars of the campaign is based on the idea that FMG is a mutual structure where policy holders are actually members rather than just customers.

“In reality if you have a policy for FMG you are a part owner in the business to some degree. It’s an attitude and that is closely aligned with the code of conduct in the country and that is mutual support we made a mutual business structure based on the idea of helping each other out.”

To keep the face of FMG as transparent as possible, Dew says bcg2 got FMG clients to talk about their experience with the company, to express the hands-on relationship FMG has with its clients.

“They will walk up or drive up 10,000 driveways per year to check up on them,” says Dew. “If you think of the kind of interactions you have with a normal insurance company you never hear from hem and when you do you get the third degree. But with FMG they will give advice and are willing to walk the farm.”

He says the premise of getting customers to speak also comes down to the idea that those in rural community trust each other, not necessarily people outside of those communities, so the best way to get across the message was to have rural farmers and growers talking about their business and their relationships.

“If you think about it, most insurance companies would never dare to put their customers on TV. FMG can do that, so it seems like a fantastic idea rather than make stuff up. It shows the transparency and the integrity that FMG shows its clients,” he says.

Dew says bcg2 took strategic approach in terms of how they rolled out the campaign, as they were dealing with a rural audience and wanted to reach them in the best way possible, with the campaign rolling out mainly through the web, radio and print and Ooh! Digital as well as utilising internal sales and promotional materials, with the online video drawing attention to the aspects of FMG’s culture and values that make them distinctive from conventional insurers.

“At this stage it is primarily online and print which has been going out and again it’s focussed on channels of interest to the rural community rather than main net broadsheets.”

Dew says the feedback for the campaign so far has been positive, “we have been going through a process of internal launch through the FMG business,” he says “…and at the FMG conference when we played the videos to the 250 or so attendees they actually got up and applauded after each one of them. And that’s what’s so striking as well from a cultural motivation point of view, it’s rare that your customers give you a pat on the back and say they trust you to help us and you are part of the a family. So for the team to see their customers giving them that kind of accolade is a really nice thing.”

FMG head of marketing, communications and digital Glenn Croasdale says, “Our aim for the ‘rural conversations’ campaign was to bring to life the strong advocacy FMG enjoys from its clients and demonstrate this as authentically as possible. FMG celebrates 110 years of servicing the rural community this month, so it was great to be able to launch this campaign and share some of the unique points of difference that have made us New Zealand’s leading rural insurer.”

To capture these conversations, bcg2 worked with director Kevin Denholm of Exposure International Ltd to interview more than 20 FMG clients from Invercargill to Kaipara over a two-month period.

“It’s extremely brave for a client to invite its clients to speak about them in an unscripted, no-holds-barred way. But it’s typical of the sort of down to earth, ‘call a spade a spade’ approach that FMG exemplifies,” says bcg2 CEO and ECD James Blackwood, “We were fortunate to have Kevin on board to tease out some fantastic performances from some classic kiwi characters.”