Challenge

• Baloise Group wanted to launch a new mobile-first insurance product, into the fiercely contested European market.

• AKQA was tasked with understanding the audience, market and competitors, plus creating the brand proposition, name and identity.

Solution

• Hearing from your insurance company is not something to look forward to, because it typically concerns a renewal or a claim. We turned that thinking on its head, creating the first insurance brand people would be happy to hear from.

• FRIDAY is a breath of fresh air. It’s a vibrant, human brand that captures the spirit of the day everyone looks forward to the most. (With future innovative services in the roadmap that live up to the promise of the North Star.)

Learning & Impact

• Be a pirate. Don’t think the same way your competitors do. From the outset, we avoided thinking of FRIDAY as an insurance company.

• We conceived the new venture as ‘a digital business that cares for your things as much as you do, and helps you to get the most out of them’.

• The strong brand and proposition helped FRIDAY acquire over 45,000 customers in the first 18 months, and raise 114m euros in funding. FRIDAY has grown from 3 to 90 employees, and is on course to meet its goal - to become Germany’s most popular digital insurer by 2021.

Team

• I was lead strategist, delivering market analysis, competitive insights, target audience definition, product guidance, and brand model. Also lead role in stakeholder management, scoping and setting up the project.

• Overall creative direction from the ever-impressive Anthony Lui, brand identity development by Pedro Lourenço, naming by Clare Fuller and experience design by Ashley Youett.