Aviva, the savings, investments and insurance group, is to launch ‘Forward thinking’, its first-ever pan-European advertising campaign. The print, online and television corporate campaign, targeting Europe’s opinion-former community, will begin on 10 October.
Aviva, the savings, investments and insurance group, is to launch ‘Forward thinking’, its first-ever pan-European advertising campaign. The print, online and television corporate campaign, targeting Europe’s opinion-former community, will begin on 10 October.
As part of the campaign, the company has commissioned four unique film shorts featuring people who have a particularly powerful vision of the future. The film series will be featured on the CNBC Europe television channel until April 2006.
The ‘Forward thinking’ film concept, which was developed by Sintra Designs with RSA Films, celebrates the remarkable achievements of four individuals:
- Professor Brian Hoskins, Professor of Meteorology at Reading University and a leading authority on climate change
- Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of the self-funding Kids Company which helps disadvantaged and vulnerable children who fall through the social services net
- John Talbott, a director of Europe’s largest self-sustaining community at Findhorn in Scotland
- Isola Akay MBE, founder of the All-Stars boxing gym, London.
Stephen Pain, group corporate affairs director at Aviva, who commissioned the campaign, said: "Forward thinking is at the heart of Aviva’s business model: we wanted the creative and production processes to be as genuinely free-spirited and inspiring as the individuals featured in the films. RSA Films has done an outstanding job in capturing the forward thinking spirit of our subjects. We’ve had a great team working on this project and I hope that our inclusive approach to campaign development heralds a new way forward in corporate communications".
Image stills from the Aviva ‘Forward thinking’ films can now be viewed at: http://links.cnbceuropeshared.com/avivaimages
From 10 October, the Aviva ‘Forward thinking’ films can be viewed online.
The ‘Forward thinking’ campaign has been developed in conjunction with Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO (the advertising agency) and Starcom (the media-buying agency), and the branded content was developed with Sintra Designs (brand content agency) and RSA Films (the film production company). Media partners for this campaign include CNBC Europe, The Economist, the Financial Times, the Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal Europe and AvantGo.
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Media enquiries:
Sue Winston, head of group media relations, Aviva plc +44 (0)20 7662 8221
Nigel O’Connor, Financial Dynamics +44 (0)20 7269 7105
Notes to editors:
1. The first Aviva ‘Forward thinking’ film short will be aired on CNBC Europe at 1000hrs (UK time) on 10 October. The press campaign launches on 17 October.
2. Aviva is the world’s sixth-largest insurance group based on gross world-wide premiums and market capitalisation (at 31 December 2004); it is one of the leading providers of life and pensions in Europe and has substantial businesses in other markets around the world. Aviva’s main activities are long-term savings, fund management and general insurance, with world-wide total income of Ł40 billion and assets under management of Ł280 billion at 31 December 2004.
3. RSA Films – A Ridley Scott and Tony Scott commercials production company founded in 1968.
4. Sintra is a brand strategy agency designing solutions for corporate creative in content production. The agency philosophy is to trial new creative approaches through collaboration with the directorial talent embedded in production companies. For this project Sintra briefed and selected RSA Films for its client Aviva.
5. CNBC Europe is the only pan-European real-time financial and business channel dedicated to European CEOs and senior corporate executives, the European financial services industry and the European investor. Today the channel is available in 90 million homes, 1,400 banks and financial institutions and 340,000 hotel rooms (4* and 5*) throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa. CNBC Europe is a service of Dow Jones and NBC Universal. NBC Universal is the broadcasting unit of General Electric Company (GE).
6. Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO is in its 9th year as the UK’s largest advertising agency. The agency continues to build on a successful new business record with recent key client wins including IPC’s Nuts, RAC and SwitchCo. The agency was named ‘Agency of the Year’ at Eurobest Awards, Europe’s leading advertising competition. At the prestigious Creative Circle Awards in March 2005, AMV won more awards for more campaigns across the 2 greatest number of clients than any other advertising agency. AMV also secured more awards for more clients than any other agency in the Marketing Society Awards 2005
7. Starcom MediaVest Group (www.smvgroup.com) encompasses an integrated network of highly specialized consumer contact companies. SMG's global organization includes strategic marketing communication architects who are highly specialized in media management, response media, internet and digital communications, as well as multicultural, entertainment, gaming, sports, sponsorship, event marketing and media. With nearly 4,500 employees in 89 markets worldwide, SMG delivers brand-building results for many of the world's leading companies. It is part of Paris-based Publicis Groupe SA Starcom UK is the UK division of the Starcom MediaVest Group of businesses and is the second largest media agency in the UK (www.starcomww.com).