When CRASH Services came to us, they faced a challenge that would make most brands break out in a cold sweat: a misunderstood market and a service often confused with insurance. Our job? Make CRASH stand out, be understood, and be remembered.
The Challenge: From Confusion to Clarity
Accident management isn’t something that rolls off the tongue, and it certainly isn’t top of mind for most people. Unlike insurance, which is a necessary evil we all begrudgingly accept, accident management is a service that many don’t even realise exists until they need it. And when they do need it, they’re often confused about what it actually is – many assume it’s just part of what their insurance company does.
Moreover, people are conditioned to avoid thinking about accidents altogether. The mindset of “It’ll never happen to me” leads to a lack of planning and preparation. Even in the best-case scenarios, dealing with post-accident logistics—such as navigating insurers, organising replacement cars, and getting vehicles repaired—is time-consuming, stressful, and far from straightforward. This avoidance of planning and lack of understanding only heightened the challenge CRASH Services faced.
This confusion presented our first hurdle. We had to educate the market, but we also had to do it in a way that cut through the noise and left a lasting impression. We knew that a traditional, information-heavy approach wouldn’t work; people simply don’t engage with ads that make them think too hard. Instead, we had to tap into their emotions and make CRASH Services feel like the obvious choice.
Enter Creativity: The Power of a Fluent Device
Research consistently shows that creativity isn’t just a nice-to-have in advertising – it’s a powerful driver of profitability(1). Creative campaigns are more effective at capturing attention, engaging consumers, and, ultimately, driving sales.
We knew that to make CRASH Services memorable and profitable, we needed to develop a fluent device – a consistent, easily recognisable element that would stick in people’s minds(2). Think of the iconic “Fixer” from Direct Line or the “Should’ve gone to Specsavers” tagline. These campaigns worked because they created mental shortcuts that people could easily latch onto, and that’s exactly what we aimed to do for CRASH.
Our approach was simple yet strategic: create scenarios or characters that are distinctive, relatable and recognisable to a local audience that could be repeated across multiple touchpoints.
This repetition would build familiarity and, more importantly, recall. By establishing a consistent narrative, we could make CRASH Services not just another option, but the only option that felt right when someone had an accident.
Humour: The Secret Ingredient
But we didn’t stop there. We knew that in order to truly resonate with our audience, we needed to add another layer: humour. Humour isn’t always about making people laugh – it’s about making them feel something positive, something memorable(3). For accident management – a service that most people are unaware of, and might dread as much as a visit to the dentist – a bit of humour could make a big difference.
The result: a campaign that combines creativity, fluent devices, and lightheartedness, to make CRASH Services stand out, be understood, and most importantly, be remembered. And as research shows, when creativity is at the core of your strategy, profitability follows.
Source
1. Drivers of advertising profitability 2023, by Paul Dyson, WARC Best Practice, Spotlight EMEA, September 2023.
2. Look Out: The Advertising Guide for a World That’s Turning Inwards Book by Orlando Wood.
3. ibid
