AXA sold the most expensive chocolate bars in Germany to sell health insurance

Persuade Germans they need complementary health insurance, when the state does not actually cover the full cost of treatment for everyday mishaps.

Everyday items priced as if the medical bill came with them: a treatment's cost added to the price tag — minor mishaps become major expenses.

TV, digital, banners, print and in-agency print built awareness; interest-clustered audiences met items tailored to their pastimes and followed them to landing pages on axa.de; overpriced chocolate bars were distributed in supermarkets; the sales force echoed the idea on Facebook.

70 million media impressions, 5M+ YouTube views, +32% and +36% traffic on the two product pages, top-3 insurance top-of-mind, awareness +148% against target.

In Germany, 33 million people didn't care about complementary health insurance because they believed the state would cover the full cost of their medical treatments if anything happened. It doesn't. For AXA, Publicis Conseil made that gap physical: it created 'the most expensive everyday items ever' by adding the cost of a potential medical treatment to the price of ordinary products, with the message that without complementary cover, even minor mishaps become major expenses.

The campaign worked in layers: broad awareness across TV, digital platforms, banners, print and indoor print in AXA agencies; clusters of internet users built by interest, served items tailored to their pastimes and led to specific landing pages on axa.de where they could check the financial benefit of AXA's complementary cover; overpriced chocolate bars physically distributed in supermarkets; and AXA's sales force relaying the concept with their own comments on Facebook.

The results: 70 million media impressions, more than 5 million YouTube views, traffic up 32% on the product page for the clinical treatment offer and 36% on the ambulant offer, a top-3 position in insurance category top-of-mind, and awareness 148% above target.

The insight was a false belief — that the state pays — so the idea attacked belief with a receipt, not with fear.

Putting a treatment's cost on a supermarket chocolate bar moves the argument into the exact everyday moment the product insures.

Interest-clustered media meant each audience met the overpriced item they personally would buy.

Make the invisible cost visible by pricing it onto something shoppers already buy — the sticker, not the statistic, is what lands the gap in coverage.

The campaign delivered 70 million impressions and lifted AXA into the category's top-3 top-of-mind; the material records no longer-term sales data.