Allianz ups the emotional ante with Matildas star Amy Sayer

Allianz Australia has once again raised the emotional stakes with a new iteration of its “Care You Can Count On” platform, this time following Matildas star Amy Sayer as she spends 457 days recovering from an almost career-ending injury.

Set to Sia’s soaring “Unstoppable,” the new television campaign uses the metaphor of being adrift at sea to chart Sayer’s journey from time away from the game to recovery and her return just in time for the Women’s Asian Cup. The Cup matches began on Sunday.

Created by Howatson and Co, the campaign launches as Australia hosts the major women’s tournament and forms part of Allianz’s long-running sponsorship deal with Football Australia.

Speaking to Mumbrella, Allianz Australia GM of customer strategy and marketing Laura Halbert, said: “A lot of people who’ve experienced something really traumatic feel very isolated. But with care and with friends and family, you’ve got the opportunity to come back and not give up and get back on the pitch. It’s a lovely, inspiring story.”

“Music’s really important, it’s a great shortcut to driving emotion. We went through dozens of songs and she [Sia ] came outta nowhere and just fit perfectly.”

Although Sayer is the ad’s focus, Halbert noted that the team took care to ensure all brand assets were included, from Allianz Stadium in Sydney to the finch and eagle characters of the original “Care You Can Count On” campaign.

The latest ad follows a similar formula as the launch campaign, which charted the emotional journey of a mother finch on a quest to protect her egg, set to Avril Lavigne’s “I’m With You”.

“We’ve really done a lot of work to make sure this is a beautiful story, but it also makes people feel something: feel sad, then feel inspired, and make sure it’s got all branded assets to ensure the brand recall,” Halbert said.

Halbert joined Allianz Australia at the end of 2023 and spent the following 12 months working with the insurer’s agency-of-record, Howatson and Co, to refresh its position in the Australian insurance market.

“The brief [at the time] was really that we were at a point, strategically, where it was time to grow,” she said.

“I spent time listening to the board, the CEO, the executive team and really, we looked at the data. It was very clear what our challenge was. It wasn’t awareness. It wasn’t consideration, it was first choice preference because we didn’t stand for anything.

“For us then, it  really was about a classical approach to brand strategy, about creating a beautiful platform for this iconic brand locally.”

Halbert said that, for this new iteration, running across cinema, BVOD, YouTube, outdoor, digital, and social channels, activating Allianz Australia’s sponsorship meant making the brand stand out amid a sea of competing logos.

Matildas star Amy Sayer fronts Allianz Australia’s “Care You Can Count On” campaign ahead of the Women’s Asian Cup.

“All major sponsorship assets are really busy; the job to be done is to really understand your brand strategy, the role you play in that,” she said. “Then be consistent. Make assets that last years so it sticks, so we get the recall up, memorability up, and preference for our brand.”

Last year, “Care You Can Count On” was voted Australians’ favourite insurance ad of the past 12 months in research by TRA, but, like all other insurance brands reviewed, it struggled with memorability.

However, Halbert remains buoyed by the campaign’s long-term impact and the progress the brand has made over the past year.

“Unaided awareness is up,” she said. “Consideration, likability and trust are up over six points. That’s a lot in a year.”

Although Halbert did not go into the numbers in detail, she said the team is very comfortable with the improvements made and with the brand’s position relative to its peers.

“We are really proud to make assets that last years, so that it sticks, so we get the recall up, memorability up, and, most importantly, preference for our brand,” she added.

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