Words: 2152
The aim of the campaign was to stand out from all the other Australian insurance companies. Each insurance company are all competing for the same customers, however they all Offer the same thing. Therefore consumers are left confused when deciding to stay or change brands. However, MIAMI have recognized those customers who do not make insurance claims and have safer driving record and therefore have developed the Safe Driver Rewards. Which rewards safe drivers who do not claim on their insurance and gives them a 15% discount off their insurance as well as other benefits.
In order to differentiate themselves MIAMI created the Rwanda and Skeet campaign which follows the love story of Rwanda and Skeet and how Rwanda was able to afford a luxurious holiday thanks to how much she has saved while being with MIAMI. The campaign has continued for over 3 years resulting in a love story that all Australians have followed and fallen in love with. The first phase of the campaign started in 2011 with Rwanda leaving work and being applauded for her safe driving. The idea of Rwanda was for her to be a lovable character that all Gussies could relate to.
Therefore this socially awkward quirky character then became the face of MIAMI safe driver rewards. We then next meet Rwanda in a beach at Bali getting massaged by a Balinese women complimenting her beautiful break foot. Mall’s first stage of the campaign was to slowly introduce the characters to the audience. Making us become familiar with them and giving us the opportunity to put a face to a name before we even have to put together a story line. We are then introduced to Skeet a young Balinese local who is a waiter at a beach resort.
According to Marketing Magma ‘The overarching strategy behind this campaign was to give the MIAMI Insurance brand a personality, something that Australians are entertained by, relate to and can engage with and remember for 52 weeks of the year. ” (Marketing magazine, 2014) Once the characters were introduced to the audience MIAMI were able to expand out the campaign furthermore. Although, due to the popular success of the campaign so far the audience were doing there own advertising for the commercials. This included Faceable pages such as “The sexual tension between Rwanda and Skeet. That was circling social media and got over 60 000 hits within the first week. MIAMI were able to introduce and create two extremely lovable characters all in a 30 second commercial. Catch harass such as “eyes on the road Rwanda and you look so hot today Rwanda, like a sunrise. ” Started to become spoken by audiences in everyday life and therefore the word of MIAMI was always around and known. (MIAMI 2014) (MIAMI, 2014) The second phase of the love story between Rwanda and Skeet continues with the commercials seen on television Australia wide.
We are now introduced to an app where you can take photos and save details of other drivers when in an accident. The add was creatively comparing the relaxing holiday Rwanda just went on to how relaxed you can be if you are in an accident and with MIAMI. Now with the app it “relieves you of the stress of being in an accident. ” Through the use Of Rondo’s love story MIAMI are able to demonstrate to the audience how relaxed their life can be if they are with MIAMI. The next ad is Rwanda going to her school reunion and bumping into her old high school sweet heart Trend.
This creates a problem in the storyline and lets the audience become active and voice their opinions on the dilemma letting them become involved in the campaign. 2 Social media became a massive part of the MIAMI campaign as the nation was asked to vote via a website to vote if they wanted to see Rwanda stay with Skeet or her high school sweetheart Trend; #teammates trended Australia wide leaving the love story open to develop further. Mall’s website created for the voting be;en the two sparked a debate on social media leading to the campaign becoming discussed regularly throughout the nation, everyone was hooked on the humorous fantasy.
Suddenly everyone found themselves surrounded by retail merchandise with slogans from the infamous commercial series from t-shirts to key rings, quotes from the series were also rolling of the nations tongue, we couldn’t get enough of it. Social medias such s Twitter, Faceable and Mainstream have give MIAMI the platform to gain further advertising via the community as the audiences participation on their personal social media sites have allowed further publicity to AM . Marketing Magazine, 2014) Mall’s campaign featured on many other Australian media platforms such as The Today show where they interviewed Skeet about his relationship with Rwanda. The campaign was also featured on widely listened to radio shows like Fifty and Wipe where they did a parody of the song Don’t Stop Believing inspired by the romance of Rwanda and Skeet. Radio hosts Hughes and Kate also did there own parody by re creating the commercial and using the actor who plays Skeet to appear in it as well.
Hams and Andy went even further and created a stint trying to locate Trend, Rounds former high school lover in order to prove that Skeet was positively the right one for Rwanda. MIAMI made even more publicity after placing the foot billing showed in the original TV commercial on eBay with all proceeds going to a charity. The use of the many parodies in the media can be considered as intellectuality you only need to see these parodies and no matter how badly they are made anyone will be able to relate them back to the campaign. (Nova Youth, 2014) (MIAMI Youth, 2014) Strengths within Malls campaigns is the use of a narrative and the lovable and relatable characters leaving the audience connected and involved within the Rwanda and Skeet Fantasy. MIAMI was able to make multiple advertisements based off the couple by placing relatable drama between the couple and involving all audiences to become involved with the story line. The narratives strategy based off toying with the populations emotions to gain more following the ads was a major benefit for the company, I will discuss the usability of propaganda notions later in this Essay.
The nations involvement created a further debatable platform on social networking giving the campaign further publicity. Rwanda and Skeet’s characters were so humorous and entertaining for us all they inspired the likes of apparel and internet mimes, parodies and cartoon strips based off the comical pair. MIAMI managed to make car insurance which is a standard for most individuals into something extremely entertaining and enjoyable which no other car insurance company has managed to do 4 before.
Anchorage is also a major Competing companies have also used anchorage in their commercials but the majority of the population know of the couples one liners over a semi catchy jingle produced by the likes of Coles or Alliance insurance. The repetition Of ideas linked between all advertising platforms has benefited MIAMI to the ideal extreme, anything suggestive of Rwanda and Skeet’s romance and you’re automatically linked to the commercials and advertisements based off the couple.
Bali is an extremely popular tourist destination for Australians so through using it as the key destination made it more relatable for the audience. Through the use of signs “which is the sum of the signifier and signified. ” (Lacey,2009) MIAMI purposely used a stereotypical red head sunburns heavily Australian accent woman as the signifier which is the physical part of the sign (what you can see) and automatically audiences link her to being an everyday middle class working Australian just like them.
This is known as the signified which is the mental part of the process of signs. (the words you use to make meaning of what you have seen) These two components link create a signification. (Lacey, 2009) Subconsciously the audience trust Rwanda as she s a relatable character she is just like the audience and her life is completely the same as the audience, she works an office job and having to stress about car insurance is the last thing she wants to worry about.
This also becomes a metaphor as the audience witness Rwanda laying in the sun with a drink in her hand and extremely relaxed talking about the money she has saved from being with MIAMI car insurance and how she benefits from the rewards. Then when realistically thinking how difficult car insurance is in real life having to compare different companies and having to decide how to pay and what unifies you gain. MIAMI have suggested that relaxed Rwanda means a relaxed process into swapping to MIAMI.
Through the use of having Rwanda be so relaxed and happy demonstrates that if the audience moved to MIAMI they can be relaxed and happy also. The campaign developed by MIAMI has been highly successful though it has some minor weaknesses. Rwanda and Skeet’s characters were extremely hyped up instantly, the characters were so entertaining and enjoyable that the meaning behind the campaigns got lost, what was MIAMI actually selling?
The advertisements were known as a love story over a car insurance many, the Australian public were so caught up in the love story between the couple that it was forgotten that they were based around the insurance company. A send weakness I found in campaign is the unrealistic expectations from the safe driver rewards program offered by MIAMI. The first commercial released by MIAMI was in regards to Rwanda being able to afford an exotic holiday to Bali from the savings she made by being a safe driver and not claiming any accidents via her insurance company (MIAMI).
The safe driving rewards offered by MIAMI started by receiving a 15% discount from you original insurance price if you haven’t claimed for 8 years and has since bumped up to 9 years. (Miami. Com. AU, 2014) The ads falsely show that you are able to afford an exotic holiday based off these saving, however with the actual saving you’d only make it to Talleyrand for a week not Bali. MIAMI have given false hope and 5 tried to persuade audiences to swap to their company as some people base their decisions off what they see rather than read and believe themselves to be saving more than what’s implied. Mound minor differences between the meaning of Propaganda vs. the meaning of Advertising, when using advertising many Television commercials, radio ads, billboards and ads found in magazines can come across also as propaganda. According to Randal Marlin in his book Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion. Propaganda is extremely hard to define however can be described as “communication practices that mislead people to get them to do things they would not do were they adequately informed. (Marlin, 2002) The MIAMI insurance campaigns are influenced by Propaganda. The concept of propaganda is to manipulate the viewer or readers emotions in favor of your idea or product. Malls ads are informative over descriptive, they play out the best case scenario with little warning of the truth which I stated in my weakness involving the campaign. MIAMI exaggerates the truth in their campaign series making viewers fall for their motives when the reality is if you’re a customer your exotic holiday is most likely not going to be paid by the insurance Company.
A select few consumers are aware of the exaggerations via the commercials and have proceeded to go on to the website and read the fine print and are deciding for themselves whether or not they want to buy the service MIAMI has offered. Malls campaign has created the concept that if you are a safe driver and haven’t claimed an accident through the company your beneficial rewards can be used as such things as an exotic holiday to reward your good behavior.
The campaigns are based around the notion that safe drivers are to be rewarded and acknowledged on a greater scale by offering a 15% discount to what they classify as a safe driver (not claiming for 9 years). Rwanda has been portrayed as a relatable middle classed Australian which allows her character to be relatable to the majority of the nation, her wizard and comical personality traits are an added bonus with the drama packed campaigns.
Although there are minor weaknesses within the MIAMI campaign the strengths have outplayed them with the use of broad advertising and propaganda have tugged at the nations heart strings making the entire campaign a massive Australian hit. 6 References Marketing magazine, (2014). The Rwanda and Skeet narrative: campaign post- analysis.