PAY FOR THE AIR YOU BREATHE

TitlePAY FOR THE AIR YOU BREATHE
BrandGPI HOLDING
Product/ServiceECOPOLICY - ECO-FRIENDLY CAR INSURANCE POLICY
Category B03. Consumer Services
Entrant Company LEAVINGSTONE Tbilisi, REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA
Advertising Agency LEAVINGSTONE Tbilisi, REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA
Credits
Name Company Position
Levan Lepsveridze Leavingstone Creative Director
Natia Gogia Leavingstone Executive Producer
Ia Darakhvelidze Leavingstone Art Director
Salome Zhvania Leavingstone Strategic Planner
Vakho Vakhtangishvili Leavingstone Digital Director
Giorgi Maisuradze Freelance Web Developer
Giorgi Prangishvili Leavingstone Web Designer
Pavle Gabrichidze Leavingstone Digital Advertiser
Giorgi Avaliani Leavingstone Copywriter

The Campaign

Situation - insurance company GPI Holding tried to support eco-friendly car drivers with exclusive benefits, because air pollution is 9 times over the limit in Tbilisi, Georgia. Challenge - poorly maintained vehicles are main cause of air pollution, but drivers don’t hold themselves responsible for this global problem, also ignoring GPI Holding's generous offer. Objective - encourage eco-friendly car owners with better insurance deals, and remind all Georgian drivers that polluting air is a serious offence, providing a push to toward changing their driving habits. Strategy - we decided to make the public problem of air pollution very personal using a familiar prevention mechanism - traffic fines. Execution - we established a fake law enforcement agency Ecopolice and spread rumours that Georgian government was going to tax air. Ecopolice agents distributed 60 000 fake “pollution fines” imitating the design of authentic parking tickets. Fake news report featuring real Member of Parliament and ecology experts discussed the air taxation initiative became a viral hit. Fake fines led to a website measuring harmful impact of the exact car you owned, providing helpful instructions, and generating custom car insurance offers, based on estimated harmful emissions. Results - the long-forgotten issue of air pollution became a hot topic. Popular TV shows, news programmes and opinion leaders started discussing it in public. Apart from raising awareness, and helping all drivers with instructions on how to minimize the damage, the campaign increased sales leads for GPI Holding by 400%, with a 25% growth in insured vehicles.

The Brief

Goal #1 is to offer special deals on car insurance to eco-friendly car owners who are difficult to find among millions that pollute Tbilisi every day. These drivers own generally newer vehicles (2010 and later) and are conscious about their impact on the environment. Goal #2 is to educate the rest of the drivers about the grave nature of the problem, provide easy-to-follow guidelines on how to achieve meaningful reductions in emissions, and obtain even more insurance leads.

Execution

We decided to turn a public headache into a private one. We established a fake law enforcement agency Ecopolice and spread rumours that the government was make car owners pay for air pollution. A fake viral news report featuring Head of the Parliamentary Ecology Committee, and other real ecology experts made the story even more believable. The viral report was supported by a social media campaign focused around the disastrous situation regarding air pollution regulation. Ecopolice agents in special uniforms handed out 60 000 "pollution fines" with a warning to check how much you'd have to pay. Fake fines led to a website measuring harmful impact of the exact car you owned, providing helpful instructions, and instantly generating a custom car insurance offer, according to a vehicle's estimated emissions.

People started noticing a shared problem, only when they had to pay for it out of their own pockets. Output/Awareness The long-neglected issue of air pollution gained nation-wide exposure with 152 free media appearances, including primetime talk shows, news programmes, popular online publications and an engaging social media campaign centered around the fake governmental initiative. The YouTube video of the fake news report got to 70 000 views in two days (compared to around 300 000 views for the most popular Georgian video online). Action/Business Impact During the campaign GPI received 12 980 sales leads during the campaign (around 400% growth in statistics), and rewarded 25% more eco-friendly car owners with better insurance deals.

The Strategy

GPI Holding aims to appeal a growing base of drivers who own relatively new cars. These vehicles generally have a radically improved carbon footprint compared to the vast majority of cars on Georgian roads, but they are also more expensive, so the insurance rates are usually higher. As most insurance decisions are made based on premium amounts, we aimed to support this segment from the obvious financial perspective - flexible discount on insurance payments - the less car pollutes the city, the better insurance rate. At the same time, we need to attract wide public exposure to promote the environmental cause among all (!) drivers, provide instructions on how to minimise their damage, and a custom discount on car insurance offer to make sure their vehicles are also taken care of.