A new privately owned player, Trippi, has entered the $2bn (by annual gross written premium) Australian travel insurance industry as revenue in the category peaks post covid times, and Australians travel in record numbers.
And to drive cut through the brand has deliberately courted a provocative creative stance that has already drawn the ire of the Brazilian Embassy and the broader Brazilian community across Australia.
Trippi is majority owned and created by incubation and private investment business Viper Capital.
“Most big insurance companies in Australia don’t offer travel insurance, which means the category is full of unknown brands who focus on last minute convenience buying and functionality. This underpins it as a grudge purchase around what is for most people the highlight of their year. We felt we could position a brand closer into the holiday experience and identify with a large segment of fun-loving Aussies around what holidays really represent. We are talking partying, indulging, a touch of hedonism …maybe even getting a bit naughty”. said Phil Hayden, co-founder of Trippi and Viper Capital.
The creative platform was produced from a collaboration with creative and design agency Inventive Heads.
“Our insurance can be tailored to areas of cover, and limits and excesses to save you money. However, we wanted to tie this saving to a benefit, one that basically says Trippi gives you more money to spend on the fun holiday stuff, by minimising the amount you get slugged on the less exciting insurance stuff,” said Hayden.
The ads run across oOH outdoor posters and online with lines of
-Save on Trippi Travel Insurance and take more Dong (with an image of Vietnam)
-Save on Trippi Travel Insurance and spend more doing it Greek (Greek island
image)
-Save on Trippi Travel Insurance and spend more enjoying The Powder (ski
holiday cover)
The business launched at the start of the year with 3 outdoor executions of which one was quickly withdrawn and sees others going up this month in the run up to the northern hemisphere summertime trips.
We had an outdoor ad that said, “Save on Trippi Travel Insurance and spend more partying with a Brazilian.”
Whilst the sign off was for travel insurance to South America the image was of a bikini wearer from the front cheekily implying the hair removal procedure, not the person from the country. However, the outdoor company insisted we could not feature a cropped body part and should be imagery of a full person. Therefore, we featured a Brazilian Carnivale girl which drew emails of complaints from the Brazilian community saying we were promoting their women as prostitutes, and culminated in a “cease and desist” letter from the Brazilian embassy for promoting sex tourism to their country”
“The irony was the most censored ad actually became the most complained about,” said Hayden.
“We actually self-referred it to the Ad Standards Council in February, and they sensibly found it clear of any such violation. We just hope they do the same when they are presented with the next one from Trippi…..! …..” .
