VIA and Colonial Life make bold move with national network TV spot and "One-on-One" NCAA Basketball sponsorship
Portland, Maine, February 4 , 2008—The VIA Group today launched a major integrated national campaign for Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company (Colonial Life). Elements of the campaign include TV, print, online and sponsorship efforts. The work is VIA's first for Colonial Life since announcing its agency-of-record status in December of last year and is the client's first integrated national campaign.
Founded in 1939 and based in Columbia, S.C., Colonial Life is an industry leader in voluntary insurance, benefits communication and enrollment services for employers and their employees. The company has more than two million policies in force nationwide.
The 30-second TV spot titled "Sheryl's Your Guy" features "Sheryl," one of Colonial Life's "benefits guys" visiting with ordinary citizens of Kingman, Arizona─including a mechanic, a plumber and a teacher─in their places of employment. Jeff Bednarz directed the spot, and Barry Lisee was executive producer. "Sheryl's Your Guy" will air through February and March on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 during NCAA Basketball, NFL, Sportscenter and NASCAR programming. The campaign also features Colonial Life's sole sponsorship of the "One-on-One" matchup analysis to run during ABC's college basketball game of the week each Saturday for the remainder of the regular NCAA season.
"The creative and strategic work that we have done with VIA will speak to new customers nationwide telling them that Colonial Life's 'benefits guys' meet one-on-one with employees and help them with their benefits decisions" said Tom Gilligan, senior vice president of marketing and branding at Colonial Life. This campaign powerfully captures the essence of the Colonial Life brand and the service that our benefits counselors provide."
Print ads will run in major broker and human resources trades, targeted state business-to-business publications and national small business magazines, including
BusinessWeek Small Biz and My Biz. The online campaign targets people seeking a career with Colonial Life and will appear on Monster, CareerBuilder and Yahoo!
"Until now Colonial Life has been a quiet leader in their industry," said Greg Smith, VIA's chief creative officer. "This is a great step for Colonial Life, and VIA's goal was to create a campaign that speaks to new customers while remaining true to this leading brand. We wanted every potential new customer to feel comfortable and secure in contacting one of Colonial Life's 'benefits guys.' Working on this campaign was both a welcome challenge and a great opportunity."
About Colonial Life
Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company is a market leader in providing insurance benefits for employees and their families through their workplace, along with individual benefits education, advanced yet simple-to-use enrollment technology and quality personal service. Colonial Life offers disability, life and supplemental accident and health insurance policies in 49 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Similar policies, if approved, are underwritten in New York by a Colonial Life affiliate, The Paul Revere Life Insurance Company. Colonial Life is based in Columbia, S.C., and is a subsidiary of Unum Group.
The VIA Group
Founded in 1993, VIA is an agency with a long track record of helping companies grow by producing creative and effective marketing, branding and advertising programs. Current clients include TD Banknorth, LoJack, Maidenform, Colonial Life, DuPont,
HP Hood, Dunkin' Donuts, New England Aquarium, Analog Devices, Silverstein Properties and Guardian Industries, who are served from offices in Portland, Maine; Boston; and New York City.