As it competes against larger, well-known rivals, Kin Insurance, a direct-to-consumer startup, wants to break the mold of the standard 30-second celebrity cameo insurance company commercial. To do that, the brand is introducing a pseudo-celebrity of its own: the “Florida Man,” that omnipresent headline figure known for getting naked and stealing a cop car, or a floating tiki hut. 

“We would see these headlines. Just random, salacious headlines, Florida man this, Florida man that, and there was a little feeling of, wow, these headlines are giving Florida a bad rap,” says Victor Lee, chief marketing officer of five-year-old Kin, which does business in Louisiana, California and, of course, Florida. “Florida sits in the crosshairs of climate change and sometimes things happen. And so we wanted to take a different take on it.”

Its new campaign (shown below) created with VaynerMedia, is the largest in Kin’s history. 

Kin showcases its own “Florida Man” in a mockumentary style spot more than seven minutes long. He stumbles his way through the kinds of situations that make viral headlines, with a quintessential Florida flair — drowning in a piña colada after getting knocked out by a falling coconut or crashing a garden party and drinking out of a birdbath. This Florida Man is benign — perhaps more so than the actual Florida men that earn themselves segments on the news—clumsy, and plagued by bad luck. 

“The longer you live here, the greater your chances for your luck to fall,” the Florida Man character says in the commercial.

The spot is certainly a departure from the formula of other big insurance brands, like Progressive's Flo and company, State Farm's Jake from State Farm, and Allstate's Mayhem. 

“We don't want to run a standard insurance campaign. Discount here, mascot here, celebrity endorsement here,” says Lee, who joined the brand in April. “It ends up being ‘insert logo here for somebody else.' We wanted something that was special to us.”

Unlike rivals that use third-party brokers, Kin, which announced its decision to go public last month, connects with customers for a more direct experience. For example, Kin sent SMS messages to check in on customers impacted during Hurricane Elsa and make sure they were prepared for the storm. If there was trouble, customers could begin the claims process immediately. 

“[Kin] was built the way it was built to allow that one-to-one relationship,” says Lee. “To really adopt a behavior that consumers are used to right now, which is this direct relationship.”

The creative team hoped to cast a more compassionate light on Florida, a state that often finds itself a punchline. Kin wanted to showcase Florida’s strengths, such as its beautiful weather and wildlife, as well as the realities of living in the Gulf South in the 21st century when it comes to climate disasters.

“The Florida Man meme has been blowing up in culture, so we decided to put a new spin on it – it’s not Florida Man who causes the headlines, it’s Florida, Man,” says Rob Lenois, chief creative officer, VaynerMedia. “To bring this to life, we made a mockumentary."

While Kin plans to specifically target Florida with the “Florida, Man” mockumentary short, it hopes to expand its business beyond Florida, Louisiana, and California.