A personal reflection on the UnipolSai #UnMesePerTe Campaign.

Alessandro Gassmann testimonial for Unipolsai campaign UnMesePerTe

UnipolSai’s new #UnMesePerTe campaign has been on air on major Italian television networks for the past few days.

The narration is entrusted to the beautiful voice of Alessandro Gassmann testimonial of UnipolSai – Spot and Web.

What I am expressing is not a judgment on the quality of the commercial and the work done by the creative agency BAM. But the implication of Communication that it carries.

An approach that I personally judge to be borderline.

Why?

Let’s start with the full transcript of the entry

We had to stop. All of us.
For the past month stop work, stop sports, stop our everyday life.
Engines off and cars getting little or no use.

That’s why UnipolSai has decided to give you a month’s worth of car insurance back.
A small contribution: because our desire to lend a hand, that, no one can stop it.

Together we will start again, we assure you.
Choose the future.

UnipolSai Insurance. Proudly Italian.

And this is the commercial

The spot is really beautiful, kudos to the agency. It gets right to the heart.

All in all, it speaks a sacred truth. In some respects it communicates an extremely strong element that until now, no one, including the government and Consumer Associations, has analyzed and evaluated:

The machines are either idle or are used at 5/10% of normal usage. So why pay for a service that we do not use?

When I first saw the commercial, I thought:

“finally a Company that really thinks about its Customers, that puts the Customer at the center.”

A Company that plays it forward and returns a contribution to its customers, knowing that, that money, all things considered, pays for a service provided only in part.

I got excited, I’m honest. You rarely get to see companies that “really” put their customers at the center.

Like so many commercials, UnipolSai’s #UnMesePerTe appeals to feelings, emotional transportation.

So you are hardly inclined to read the textual part.

As you can read very clearly at 0:16″ the commercial communicates:

“Let’s give back one month’s auto liability policy to 10 million customers.”

Then I watched the commercial a second time and I have to say, I got really pissed off.

At 0:21″ it reads.

“Through a voucher to be used at policy renewal.”

So it is not true that UnipolSai returns one month’s auto liability policy to 10 million customers.

This is a very big lie and a distortion of reality, bordering on the legal and ethical.

Because if it were true he would return it regardless!

Cripes but isn’t there a Consumers Association pissed off about this?

UnipolSai provides you with a voucher that can be used from April 22, 2020 when renewing the Policy.

Therefore:

Today I have no benefit whatsoever. Dear UnipolSai you are not helping me at all.

I will get the benefit only if I renew the policy. This is called an attempted sale!!!

From a legal point of view, the text on the commercial is very clear.

Ethically and morally absolutely not for a variety of reasons:

If a commercial grabs you emotionally, you don’t look at all the clauses in the foot of the video
If you listen to the commercial while you are working, washing dishes etc… in short you are only hearing the audio but not watching TV you cannot read the stipulations!
If you are a blind person, you cannot read the clauses. Of course a blind person does not drive the car but your child does!!!

People want clarity, honesty, fairness.

As Seth Godin says , “It is easier to love a Brand when the Brand loves you back as well.”

If we are fair to consumers, we gain their trust.

And if our product does not measure up to that of Competitors, we have to do only one thing: improve it.

Happy Sunday to all.

If you found this article interesting, I encourage you to read these as well:

#UnMesePerTe the new UnipolSai television campaign.

So you are hardly inclined to read the textual part.