Post Event: DeadHappy on insurance drive in a hearse

Here’s a lookback at this intriguing and talkable brand experience camapign by 10 Yetis Digital when the agency launched multi-layered Tombstone Taxis marketing campaign for life insurance brand DeadHappy in May this year.

The life insurance company on a mission to change attitudes towards death – DeadHappy – recently appointed digital marketing agency, 10 Yetis Digital, to carry out a targeted marketing campaign within Leeds and Newcastle, coinciding with a number of out of home activations already scheduled to take place.

During the second half of May, a branded 22-foot 1974 Cadillac Miller Meteor hearse – owned by DeadHappy – was driven throughout the streets of Leeds and Newcastle, offering free lifts to anyone who fancied hopping in and having an open and honest conversation about death.

As well as offering lifts to those on the streets, people were able to visit a dedicated landing page on the DeadHappy website to submit their details in the hopes of being selected to ride in the hearse with a friend or loved one.

Alongside this, the digital marketing agency also arranged for a selection of 10 ‘tiny tombstones’ to be dotted throughout each city in various locations, poking fun at various aspects of life that may also be grieved, from losing one’s dignity on the dancefloor to losing a sense of adventure from becoming a workaholic. Each branded tiny tombstone contained a QR code which took finders to the DeadHappy website which explained more about the activation.

Finally, a tongue-in-cheek advert was placed within the obituary section of the Newcastle Chronicle, emulating an obituary in memory of ‘Life Insurance (nee Traditional)’, mocking how the usual process of obtaining life insurance is complicated and expensive.

All of this took place while a multi media campaign, organised by DeadHappy and supplied by All Response Media, was positioned throughout the cities with the message “Spoiler alert: we’re all going to die” – again, to encourage people to talk to their loved ones about death, how they want to be remembered and what they’d like to happen to any life insurance money (or to get a policy if they don’t yet have one). Some conversation, however, was driven towards social media to complain about the advertising, labelling it insensitive, but the life insurance brand was, well, dead happy to cause a bit of mischief.

Andy Barr, CEO and co-founder of 10 Yetis, commented on the campaign:

“We’ve admired DeadHappy for a long time; they’re one of the most fun brands in the UK right now. They don’t want to offend anyone, simply cause some mischief and get people talking about the inevitable. Being involved in the Tombstone Taxis campaign was a lot of fun; seeing people’s reactions of a hearse offering free lifts or just generally being driven down the road outside of the usual setting caused quite a stir. We hope that this campaign will continue to develop and evolve and that we’re able to help Dead Happy encourage more people to talk about their death before it’s too late.”