Insurance fraud and superheroes. Not the most obvious combination.
By Travis | Covéa Insurance
When I was asked to develop Covéa’s ghost broking awareness campaign, I don’t think anyone expected I’d end up creating a superhero.
Ghost broking is a serious issue. Fraudsters sell fake or invalid motor insurance, often targeting young people looking for a cheaper deal. The trouble is that some people don’t realise they’ve been scammed until they need to make a claim or are stopped by the police.
And I wanted to help young people spot the warning signs before that happens through a fun and creative approach.
Getting their attention
The audience is primarily 15 - 18-year-olds. People who are less likely to have bought insurance before. So, I think it’s fair to say that listening to someone from an insurance company explain the dangers of fraud probably isn’t high up in their interests.
We started developing short videos based on situations young people might recognise, particularly the temptation of finding cheap car insurance online.
It was all very safe, very corporate. The same old informational content that every insurer had done to death.
And that’s when I knew it really needed to be unique. Humorous, yet informative.
That’s where the superhero idea was born.
Meet Fraudulante
Fraudulante is my answer to Ghost Broking.
With a quotable catchphrase of “Duh duh duh, not today!”, my superhero appears when something suspicious is going on.
It is deliberately silly. Some may have even said cringe?
But any reaction means one thing: it’s landed and people remember.
Whether the audience questions ‘what on earth is happening’ or ‘how do I avoid these risks,’ the videos are serving their purpose of elevating the conversation on insurance fraud. I want young people to remember that if an insurance deal looks too good to be true, it probably is.
By tapping into the humour, trends and content young people already engage with, I hope we can make the message more memorable and get more people talking about the risks of ghost broking. I’m having a lot of fun putting the videos together, from coming up with the scenarios to filming and editing them.
One of the more unexpected moments was becoming a stunt double for the morning, using my professional wrestling experience to teach our ‘villain’ how to throw himself on the floor – safely. It is definitely something I never imagined I’d be doing as part of my job at an insurance company!
What happens next?
We’re now getting ready to test the approach internally before taking it into schools.
That’ll give us a chance to see which bits work, what people remember and whether anything needs changing.
I’m particularly interested to see how people react to Fraudulante when we bring the campaign to life outside social media. We’ve put a lot of work into it, so it’ll be good to get some proper feedback.
Was a superhero the right idea?
Only time will tell!
But I’m really enjoying working on something that’s different from the usual insurance campaign. If we can get young people to stop and question, then all the planning, filming and editing is worth it.
After all, they only need to remember one thing:
Check it’s legit before you click!
