Manulife SG pushes protection offering with Greek sculptures and ‘ancient tragedies’

Manulife Singapore has launched an integrated campaign named “reimagining ancient tragedies” to promote its protection offerings, according to a press release. Launched over social media, out-of-home advertising and on-ground activations, the campaign also saw a partnership with a sculptor to replicate the statues of famous Greek gods Apollo, Venus de Milo, Euripides and Bathsheba.Produced by creative agency TBWASingapore, the campaign seeks to bridge art with protection to kickstart a dialogue around protection planning. As it revisits the fate of the four iconic statues and the various injuries they each suffered and became famous for, Manulife Singapore explores severity of the statues’ broken limbs and critical illnesses from a protection and claims perspective.“We wanted to broach the topic of total permanent disability protection in a way without fear-mongering or being too cliché. We wanted the public to imagine these iconic statues living in present day and what would happen if they had been Manulife’s customers and covered by our protection plans,” said Cheryl Lim, Manulife Singapore VP, head of brand, communications and sponsorships, in a statement to Marketing.The campaign roll-out began with creative outdoor advertising on taxis and bus stop canopies across the island, followed by an animated content film. The video has garnered near to 800,000 views on YouTube in two weeks.As part of the campaign, Manulife Singapore has also launched a travelling interactive augmented reality (AR) exhibition running until 1 September. At the exhibition, the public is invited to interact with the four statues and discover their stories through mobile-enabled AR technology. Through an interactive “scan” of each statue, Manulife illustrates the severity of the statues’ medical conditions against Manulife’s broad range of protection and critical illness plans. The campaign is also supported by influencer engagements and lead generation exercises across Singapore.Behind the conceptAccording to TBWASingapore’s creative group heads Colin Koh and Douglas Goh, the agency wanted to play on the drama and tragedy surrounding the famous ancient icons to “get the right attention the campaign message deserves”. “By bringing back Venus, Apollo, Euripides and Bathsheba, we’re hoping a little history will make a significant impact,” the  creative duo said in a press release.Meanwhile, Lim told Marketing that the campaign was inspired from the company’s net promoter score feedback and research, which found that that Manulife Singapore is perceived to be strong only in retirement and wealth management solutions. The campaign therefore, aims to debunk the misconception and drive home the message that the company is a strong player in the protection space too.Manulife Singapore has rolled out a series of creative campaigns this year, from #adulting, to “Stop the Drama” and “Mrs Fortune Teller“. Lim explained: “With a tight budget and high KPIs, the strategy to do more but smaller campaigns spaced out throughout the year to get a big halo effect.”When asked if there is any synergy amongst them, Lim said:The campaigns are intentionally different to be eye-catching and surprising.“As each campaign has different target audience and different business objectives, we did not want to box our brand in to only speak in a specific tone,” she added.