Blog: From Noddy to Sweep, kids TV has been helping insurers sell products since 1985

Earlier this week insurtech start-up Bought By Many unveiled its first television campaign featuring Sweep, the squeaky puppet canine from the children’s programme The Sooty Show to help market its pet insurance products.

Indeed to highlight how different its products are Bought By Many garnered some quotes for Sweep based on the assumption he is a perennial Cocker Spaniel puppy who lives in Somerset.

You might think Bought By Many had broken new ground by using an icon from Kids TV past to promote its cover, but in actual fact insurance companies have been raiding the archives of television companies for some time as these below examples illustrate.

So whilst some insurance companies have recently chosen aging punks [Iggy Pop for Axa-owned Swiftcover], US actors [Harvey Keitel as Winston Wolfe from Pulp Fiction for Direct Line] or sports stars [David Coulthard for Aviva] to sell cover, others have looked to icons from more innocent times to push their marketing messages. 

Noddy and Big Ears - Direct Line 1985

Proving to be a trend setter in more ways than one, Royal Bank of Scotland and founder Peter Wood launched Direct Line not with the iconic red phone it has became known for, but characters created by that most traditional of childrens’ authors, Enid Blyton.

However, the pay off at the end of the clip does see Noddy’s neighbour Mr Tubby Bear uproot a red phone box, after the titular character has told Big Ears that all they have to do is “pick up the nearest phone” to get help after their car had broken down.

In many ways he was the early Fixer …

The Chuckle Brothers - Van Compare  2011

It is perhaps easy to forget the cross generational appeal of Paul and Barry Chuckle given the fact their TV programme Chucklevision ran for over 20 years.

That was probably one of the key reasons Van Compare chose to feature the pair in a series of adverts where the strapline “van insurance for grown- ups” was perhaps out-of-kilter with the Chuckle Brothers’ catch phrases such as “to me, to you” and their DIY mishaps.

The pair – real names Paul and Barry Elliot – later went to appear at the British Insurance Brokers’ Association conference and proved an incredible hit, with attendees queuing up for selfies.

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo - Go Skippy - 2013

Going back further than The Chuckle Brothers, the adventures of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo [1968-1970], was the story of a young Australian boy Sonny who befriended a smart marsupial, leading to plenty of adventures in Waratah National Park. Like a down-under take on Lassie, if you will.

This was not the most obvious choice for an insurance start-up’s mascot; especially one involving the erstwhile Bad Boy of Brexit, Arron Banks.

But the business stressed there were similarities between the two, not least that Skippy and chums were always helping people – something it also planned to do.

“What’s that Skip? Tenuous? Get back to stopping them damn koala poachers…”

The Green Cross Code Man – More Than - 2014

Not a TV show per se, but someone who was very much ingrained on my childhood in an era of many scary and odd looking public information films such as the Prodigy sampled “Charley Says”.

One of the most famous was the Green Cross Code Man who made it his mission to teach children about roadside recklessness and the etiquette of crossing safely.

Fast forward to 2014 and to mark Road Safety Week RSA resurrected him achieving copious amounts of press coverage in the process including national newspapers and TV shows such as The One Show and ITV News. It also won Insurance PR Campaign of the Year at Post’s 2015 Insurance Marketing and PR Awards.

Explaining to a new generation of children that the helpful – now greyer – gentle giant David Prowse was in fact also Darth Vader, however, might have been more than difficult for a few.  

He-Man and The Masters of the Universe – Moneysupermarket.com - 2017

Bringing us right up to date, Money Supermarket has recently moved from builders and strutters in hot pants and heels to the nemesis from the eighties cartoon series-come extended toy advert He Man and the Masters of the Universe.

Soundtracked by another TV mainstay from the same era, Fame, Skeletor struts his stuff on earth having arrived Eternia in search of cheaper insurance.

Darren Bentley, marketing director at Money Supermarket, explained: “We thought it would be fun to subvert expectations of one of the best-known super villains from our childhoods and show that, no matter who you are, you’re bound to feel epic if you save money on your household bills.”

So there you have it; from the first direct player over 30 years ago, to an innovative insurtech start-up today, kids’ TV has offered today’s insurance marketers lots of potential to tap into their inner child to promote their products.

One wonders whether their equivalents in the future will be using the likes of Peppa Pig and Paw Patrol to push drone insurance and connected home products?  

The second Insurance Marketing and PR Conference takes place on Friday 9th June at etc. Venues, 155 Bishopsgate, London and you can be there. This year’s IMPRC focuses on strategies for true customer centricity, and tackles the question of how to understand your customers. For more information, including how to reserve your place click here.