Aussies love insurance ads but can’t name the brands: TRA research
Brand marketers in the insurance category are winning over Australians with emotional storytelling and humour, but new research reveals that brand attribution continues to be a key challenge.
This is according to a recent study from research agency TRA, which asked over 1,000 Australians to name their favourite ad from the last 12 months.
Allianz’s recent repositioning, ‘Care You Can Count On’, topped the list, with nearly half of respondents able to vividly describe the ad. However, they were not able to name the brand behind it.
According to the report, the “significant” lack of brand attribution could be due to the “newness of the communications” or a lack of brand codification. The report said that over time, the eagle could become a more salient asset, but it is early days.
This disconnect presents an important and nuanced takeaway for brand marketers, according to Alex Forrester, business director at TRA.
“It takes time to build connection and recall, but this campaign has overcome the biggest hurdle — it has captured attention,” Forrester said in a release.
“And we can already see the makings of distinctive assets with the eagle being cast as the ‘hero’ and bringing the logo to life. Providing Allianz commit to the creative idea, we can see this campaign only getting stronger with the benefit of time.”
He said this challenge wasn’t unique to Allianz. Other brands that were in the top 10 included AAMI, Youi, and Budget Direct, which were all frequently misattributed too — often to one another, proving category sameness is still a challenge.
“The storytelling format of accidents, errors and insurance-type scenarios, featuring across the brands appears to confuse audiences. Allianz’s strategy to diverge from category norms may well work in their favour while building something unique over time.”
Despite this, Budget Direct’s ‘Sarge, Jacs, and Chief’ characters show the success of character-based storytelling, coming in at third on the list. In the report, TRA said it “seems to be paying dividends” for the brand.
Youi’s ‘Shop Around’ — which was fourth — works because it “strips things back to what feels real”, according to the report. The ‘Hair Cut’ spot features a simple. relatable moment delivered with humour.
AAMI placed in ninth with ‘When Australia Happens’, which anchors chaos with its familiar ‘Lucky You’re With AAMI’ tagline. In the report, TRA described it as “dramatic without being overdone, modern without losing legacy”.
Other insurance brands in the top 10 were RACQ and HBF, with the ‘You With RACQ?’ and ‘Quokkas’ campaigns, respectively.
TRA’s study was dominated by the insurance category, which is known to take the brand storytelling approach more frequently.
It demonstrates that “media spend isn’t everything”, according to Forrester. In Nielsen’s 2024 Advertising Spend report, the category ranked seventh at $435.9 million (compared to retail, which topped the ranking at $2.53 billion).
“Creating a favourite ad means tapping into emotion, while sustaining brand impact over time requires consistency and strategic use of brand assets,” he said. “Brand marketers who balance these elements will drive long-term effectiveness.”
Aldi was the only supermarket to make the top 10, alongside creative heavyweights KFC, Specsavers, and Telstra.
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