Inside Special NZ’s Titanium Lions-Nominated “The Last Performance” Campaign

“If you were a showrunner and you heard that an ad agency wanted to talk to you about a life insurance company, infiltrating your storyline and using your characters, we would all run a mile,” Lisa Fedyszyn, executive creative director at Special NZ, told B&T.

But that was the premise for the agency’s “The Last Performance” campaign for Partners Life.

Selling life insurance to Kiwis has proven tricky in the past — the country ranks fourth-worst among the 38 OECD members for under-insurance — but Special’s novel approach has seen it win the Grand Prix at Spikes Asia and given its client demonstrable results thanks.

Morbidly, Fedyszyn said, “Research showed that New Zealanders engage with death when it’s not their own.

This appetite for the consumption of someone else’s death plays out in the media landscape.

“True-crime podcasts, murder mysteries and dark comedy are hugely popular genres in New Zealand,” explained Fedyszyn.

“Humour and entertainment make the subject of death more palatable for New Zealanders. So, we chose to activate where people are already engaging with it.”

This led to the team reaching out to South Pacific Pictures, the production company behind The Brokenwood Mysteries.

Set in the fictional small town of Brokenwood, the show follows a tried-and-trusted cop show format. Big city sleuth detective inspector Mike Shepherd is sent from Auckland to Brokenwood (population 5,000) to investigate a local police officer. A murder investigation follows and, once the case is solved, Shepherd decides to stick around indefinitely.

Fortunately for South Pacific Pictures, it transpired that Brokenwood was a town of “secrets and suspicions” where “memories — and animosities — run deep,” according to the show’s promotional materials. Nine series later, including a year-long break in 2020, the show has embedded itself in Kiwi pop culture.

The show featuring a death every episode gave Special the idea to integrate the campaign into the show and get Partners Life out there to consumers in a new and interesting way.

The show featuring a death every episode gave Special the idea to integrate the campaign into the show and get Partners Life out there to consumers in a new and interesting way.

Lisa Fedyszyn, Special NZ’s executive creative director.

“We’re not selling life insurance, we’re selling death insurance. Not being straight up about what we were selling wasn’t helping anyone,” said Fedyszyn.

“Getting the TV show onboard with the idea was difficult to start. From a TV development point of view, advertising is seen as a necessary evil that ‘broke up’ your content while paying some of the bills.”

This tension between content and advertising required Special to navigate between brand, agency and show delicately.

“We set out to strategically detail the benefits of the partnerships to the showrunners. We created a pitch document for the production company, which described the benefits of the partnership. This included the brand’s ability to create additional talkability around the show, the offer to use the production company’s crew and directors. As well as respectfully writing to the tone of voice of the characters and The Brokenwood Mysteries.

“By understanding what was in it for a team of partners who typically shied away from advertising, we created breakthrough work that helped a brand weave its way into the most unlikely of places — a primetime television show.”

Creating and placing the spots at the end of each episode was a challenge in itself. But the bigger challenge was whether Partners Life would see any results from the campaign. Don’t forget, Kiwis are typically unbothered about life insurance.

“Our message reached 59 per cent of New Zealanders,” said Fedyszyn, “as well as brand consideration being up five per cent, brand awareness up six per cent and appetite for life insurance up 12 per cent.

“In confronting the uncomfortable subject of death head-on, and in wrapping its discomfort in entertainment – Partners Life got more New Zealanders to willingly think about life insurance.”

This combination of novel campaign creative and demonstrable client results led Special NZ to win the first of potentially many awards.

“Winning a Grand Prix Spikes has been such a highlight!” said Fedyszyn.

“Peer recognition lets you know that your work is on a particular level. Which is reassuring and pleasing for everyone involved.”

Fedyszyn said that the agency being shortlisted for the Dan Wieden Titanium Lion at Cannes made her “proud” and that it “reflects that shared ambition and collaboration with our innovative client Partners Life and the entire agency.”

But is she confident of scooping the top prize in Cannes? Special is up against some stiff competition. From Australia, The Monkeys is up for the gong following its “The First Digital Nation” campaign for the tiny Pacific nation of Tuvalu.

There are 15 other campaigns from around the world shortlisted. Including work from Wieden+Kennedy. Is Fedyszyn confident of picking up the top prize?

“If there is one thing I’ve learnt from my time in advertising (and I hope, it’s more than one thing) is that there are no guarantees when it comes to winning awards. Judges from around the world each bring a different lived experience and bring a different critical lens. Which makes the possibility of winning at Cannes even more rewarding,” she said.

The winners of the Titanium Lion will be revealed on 23 June.