Liberty Mutual puts a bird on it in new campaign from Goodby

Liberty Mutual is taking a page from its insurance peers Geico and Farmers by featuring an animal in its marketing. This week, the Boston-based brand is debuting "LiMu Emu and Doug," its new feathered mascot and his moustached partner, as a pair of bumbling '70s-style detectives keen on making sure Liberty customers get the most out of their insurance. The duo star in a series of buddy-cop spots to push out the message that Liberty offers customized insurance where customers only pay for what they need. "Humor drives memorability—the funnier the ads, the more people tend to remember them," says Emily Fink, chief marketing officer at Liberty. She says that the company recently began adding some humor to its "Truth Tellers" campaign, which has been running for the last five years, and saw ad effectiveness increase, and notes that the new work taps into consumers' common fear of overpaying for insurance. The push, which uses a mix of real bird and CGI for the LiMu character, is a new direction from Goodby Silverstein & Partners. Liberty first tapped Goodby in 2017 as its creative agency. The "LiMu Emu" work will run alongside "Truth Tellers," Fink says. Liberty also worked with The Mill on LiMu; Initiative, which Liberty began working with last year, handled media duties. The campaign will include a mix of 30- and 15-second spots, radio and digital extensions. Liberty's in-house agency, Copper Giants, will create social media assets for channels such as Instagram stories, Facebook and Twitter. In 2017, Liberty spent $270.4 million on measured media in the U.S.; in the first 11 months of 2018, the brand spent $246 million, according to Kantar Media.

Liberty Mutual puts a bird on it in new campaign from Goodby

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