Project Overview
Wells Insurance Centennial Campaign: A Century of "Peace of Mind"
With over a century of experience in the insurance industry and a track record of finding clients' savings and simplifying their coverage, Wells Insurance Agency understands its customers’ insurance policies are more than a product; they’re peace of mind.
To celebrate 100 years of business excellence as a family-owned and operated independent insurance agency, we partnered with Wells Insurance to develop and guide its 2020 Centennial Marketing Campaign to help share and communicate its depth of industry relationships, experience, and insights with its potential and existing customer base. Leaning upon its industry experience and knowledge, multi-carrier insurance accessibility, and existing company ethos, “The Wells Way”, we helped Wells redefine its approach to customer retention by highlighting their accomplishments and setting a clear focus on their leading business aspects: experience, price, and connections.
Year
2020–2021
Role
Senior Designer · Creative Lead
Agency
Sage Island
Contribution
Art Direction · Copywriting · Creative Direction · Front-End Design · Graphic Design · UI/UX · Visual Design · Web Design
Results
36K+
+349.4% increase in Facebook Total Impressions (MoM)
+269.23%
Increase in Social Web Traffic originating from channels (YoY)
5:00 min.
Average Time on Page via organic entrance: 100% activation (MoM)
Brand Strategy
Leveraging a 100-Year Legacy to Build a Modern Brand Narrative
The foundational principle of the Wells Insurance 2020 Centennial Campaign was a deep-rooted understanding of the company's ethos, known internally as "The Wells Way." For over a century, the agency's guiding philosophy has been centered on a singular mission: to provide "peace of mind" to its customers. This core value proposition, far more than a simple product offering, became our "north star" for the entire marketing and design initiative, and the central tenet for our creative and strategic decisions.
The campaign was conceived not merely as a celebration of a milestone but as a strategic opportunity to reinforce Wells’ position as a trusted, enduring presence in its industry. In a competitive market often dominated by transactional messaging from rivals, Wells chose to lean on its history as its most powerful differentiator. The company's 100-year history isn't just a number; it is concrete proof of its stability, experience, and integrity.
The Campaign Naming Ideation: From Brainstorm to Brand Message
The selection of a campaign name was a rigorous process of ideation and refinement that resulted in a robust messaging framework, not a single tagline. Our team's initial brainstorming session produced a wide array of concepts, including "100 years of connections," "The Wells Way," and "With Wells, you're family". While many of these phrases captured aspects of the brand, the final choice, "Peace of Mind," was selected for its universal resonance and its direct link to the company’s mission. It served as the singular, emotional core of the campaign.
Discovery
During our discovery phase, we identified that the true value of insurance for a customer is not just functional (reducing risk) but profoundly emotional (reducing anxiety and providing hope). By choosing "Peace of Mind" as the campaign's unifying theme, our creative team tapped directly into this emotional core, elevating the conversation beyond price or policy specifics. The deliberate strategic alignment between the brand's long-standing mission and the campaign's core message created a critical component of our brand strategy, providing an authentic and resonant narrative.
The ideation process wasn't about discarding ideas, but about creating a comprehensive brand phraseology. This toolkit of phrases was designed and deployed across various marketing touchpoints serving distinct purposes while maintaining a unified voice. For instance, "Peace of Mind" became the overarching theme, while "We'll Take the Risk, You Take the Reward" was chosen for its compelling, direct tone in ad headlines. This approach ensured that the campaign's messaging was both flexible and consistent, providing the creative team with a rich verbal palette to execute our multi-channel strategy.
Visual Identity
Centennial Brand Guidelines: Architecting a Visual and Verbal Identity
We partnered with Wells to develop an identity system and Centennial brand guidelines for the anniversary year and future, aiming to create a cohesive, customer-focused aesthetic and voice that embodied the agency, its culture, and its dedication to building trusted relationships with clients.
Within the brand guide, we crafted a series of service-oriented, authentic personas featuring traits, attitudes, and values that presented Wells’ key audience segments. Additionally, we designed brand phraseology and language that would serve as a core element in communicating the personality and tone of the Wells brand across all campaign touchpoints.
The Wells brand guide explained how to properly use its newly designed Centennial logo lockup, typography, colors, iconography, and other design elements within the brand identity system. The guide also included design applications for both internal and external marketing communications across print and digital channels.
Multi-Channel Strategy—Traditional Marketing and Advertising
Tactile and Tangible: The Importance of Physical Presence
Building on the visual identity system we developed, we turned to traditional marketing methods to support the year-long legacy event. We launched a localized print campaign that included marketing materials such as digital billboards, print ads, direct mail pieces, and on-and-off-site retractable banners aimed at attracting new visitors to wells100.com—a centennial landing page strategically designed to showcase the agency’s 100 years of industry experience, dependable coverage, and trusted service.
To capture the centennial brand experience, we also created on-site signage for Wells’ headquarters located in the business district of historic downtown Wilmington, NC. Utilizing our visual identity system, we transformed the building's exterior into a public-facing campaign asset, creating custom die-cut display case window decals and backdrops, along with simplified messaging thanking the community for its business and for allowing Wells to provide “peace of mind” to its loyal customers for the past century.
By reinforcing the core "peace of mind" promise, our attention to physical detail grounded the campaign in the local community, demonstrating that Wells Insurance was not just a business but a vested, tangible part of the region.
Multi-Channel Strategy—Digital Marketing
The Digital Ecosystem: The Central Hub of a Modern Campaign
Working alongside our traditional marketing efforts, Wells also engaged our team to strategize further and develop additional digital content supporting its hallmark year. The digital strategy for the centennial campaign was designed as a layered marketing funnel, with each component serving a specific purpose.
To increase engagement and generate new audience leads and opportunities at the top of the funnel, we created and launched a monthly content strategy that combined social media marketing, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and a Google AdWords campaign aimed at Wells’ niche insurance sectors—including personal, commercial, marine, and group health insurance.
We enhanced our digital strategy by launching a YouTube channel and producing promotional videos to inform viewers and support the campaign. Our approach focused on reaching new audiences, building trust with useful content, and converting visitors into leads through accessible online tools.
All of this paid and organic traffic was strategically directed to our dedicated centennial landing page, which served as the campaign's central hub.
Web Design and Development
Refining the Digital Footprint for Lasting Impact
Seeking to enhance its online presence and generate new leads via the Centennial marketing campaign, we also partnered with Wells to refine their website, CMS, and integrated third-party tools, elevating the client experience.
Following a thorough site audit, we collaborated with Wells to overhaul their sitemap, focusing navigation on core insurance products and services. This structural change improved the site’s logic and usability.
We next prioritized key touchpoints. A homepage redesign featured prominent calls-to-action and a global quick quote module, addressing the critical customer need for immediate, accessible information. We also streamlined Wells’ service landing pages, previously cluttered with dense industry jargon, by designing a flexible, customized single-page template. The template utilizes a consistent layout, improved typography, and curated photography to establish visual hierarchy and clarity.
The combined creative and UX approach boosted SEO and created a scalable, uniform system for future content, demonstrating a strategic commitment to long-term brand equity and customer satisfaction.
Credits
Digital and Content Strategy: Mike Doute
Full-Stack Development: Brian Carroll
Project Management: Kim Lannou, Gregory Mason
Matt Miller
Art Direction · Design