Cases

How do you surge awareness for a natural disaster that most homeowners and businesses believe will never impact their lives?

Floods are the nation’s #1 natural disaster, causing millions of dollars in damage to properties each year. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) was created by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to educate residents and business owners less familiar with the implications of flooding and encourage them to seek protection. Wanting to increase consumer awareness about the value of flood insurance and curb the loss of hundreds of policies dropped each year, FEMA teamed up with Ogilvy PR for a solution.

As with any consumer outreach effort, insight starts with research. Ogilvy interviewed a range of key influencers including floodplain managers, lenders, real estate agents, insurance agents, and emergency response personnel to uncover some of the barriers they face when offering education and selling flood insurance to consumers. Our research affirmed the common misconception that many believe homeowner’s insurance covers flooding, reinforcing the prevailing need for a core campaign message that dispels this false perception.  

In June 2004, we launched FloodSmart. Informative and engaging, the online resource supports a series of interactive toolkits and materials – including real flood stories, a flood risk profile, and a flood cost calculator - that demonstrate the potential risks, while providing the facts about insurance. Emphasizing map changes and levee communities, Ogilvy PR developed a strategy for communicating the toll that flooding can take on a home or a business.

The results? FloodSmart rose to the occasion. Since launch, it amassed 1 billion media impressions in nearly 5,000 media outlets (including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Weekend, Black Enterprise, Insurance Journal, O, The Oprah Magazine, CNN and the Today Show); 6.7 million visits to FloodSmart.gov; 231,200 calls generated through direct response television commercials; and 50,297 consumer leads delivered directly to local insurance agents. Most importantly, the campaign has generated a 25.2% increase in flood insurance policies, representing a total of 3,933,206 policies sold—far exceeding the established objective of a 5 percent increase each year.