How does an insurer valued at $1 billion insure itself against brand failure? By using TV to build its brand and data-driven marketing channels to drive customer sign-ups.
Launched in 2015, Hippo Insurance this summer raised a $100 million investment round, ratcheting up its valuation.
The company has a fresh approach to providing insurance – analyzing data from municipal building records, satellite imagery and (through a partnership with Notion) smart home devices to enable customers to qualify for coverage instantly.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Hippo marketing VP Andrea Collins lays out her strategy to grow the Hippo bigger.
“In each individual state, we have a product that has clear defined coverage around what people actually own in their homes,” she says. “Our current focus right now are these localised launches and these regional campaigns.
“We know where our price is best based on how quickly and at what a high rate that people convert at. I can get that down to the zip level. I know per zip code – and that could be a few thousand people – how well our product is priced and that allows me to go in and usually convert a lot quicker.”
Collins says Hippo is growing thanks to the use of search, direct mail, radio and television. While Hippo primarily uses television for reach, it continuously measures campaign performance using TVSquared to ensure its message is resonating. It uses those TV performance insights to understand and then optimize how spots drive response to other channels, especially search.
Despite the industry’s growing interest in addressable TV advertising, with which advertisers can precision-target different ads to different homes, Collins says Hippo is using TV more in the traditional sense – for building initial awareness in the brand.
“TV is not a medium that you want to test out messaging … You want to have a pretty good sense of what’s actually going to drive awareness or growth or whatever your goal is before you actually start down the path of TV because you could waste a lot of money otherwise,” Collins says.
This video is part of a series from the Beet Retreat in the City, “We’re Going Local!” hosted by GroupM Worldwide and sponsored by Amobee, Comcast Spotlight, TVSquared and WideOrbit. Please visit this page for additional segments.
