RCN/PRIME | FICTIONAL INSURANCE | 2025
A Country Where Dead Characters Get Insurance Payouts / RCN/PRIME "FICTIONAL INSURANCE"
When a soap opera character gets into an accident, they're never insured. It's such an obvious gap that nobody thinks about it. A campaign out of Colombia let viewers take out insurance on their favorite characters.
The problem
In Colombia and across Latin America, insurance tends to be seen as a boring expense that has nothing to do with you. RCN and Seguros del Estado, timed with the broadcast of the popular telenovela "Darío Gómez, el rey del despecho," looked for a way to weave the topic of insurance into the story itself, rather than into an ad break.
The insight
The heroes of action shows and melodramas get caught up in accidents, crimes, and disasters practically every episode, yet none of them are ever insured. That's what they focused on. Viewers are genuinely emotionally invested in these characters, so the bet was: could that passion be turned into an understanding of something as dull as insurance?
The idea
Before each broadcast, viewers could choose their favorite character on a digital platform and decide what kind of insurance to take out on them. If that character then actually suffered an accident or misfortune in the story, the viewer would receive a "fictional insurance payout." Instead of interrupting the show with a commercial, they let the insurance product live inside the story itself.
What happened
The campaign won Gold in Media and Silver in Brand Experience & Activation at Cannes Lions 2025, becoming one of the most awarded campaigns in Colombia. Lead generation reportedly rose by more than 400%, with a 90% positive response especially among younger viewers.
Afterthought
It's remarkable how insurance, long a byword for boredom, turns into something like a bet the moment it's tied to fandom. Rather than an insurer saying "we're here for you," saying something as blunt as "you get paid if this character dies" apparently hits much harder—a pretty unsentimental read on human psychology. It's a great example of an ad that doesn't shout from outside the story, but moves in and lives inside it.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2025
