Next Insurance dropped insurer clichés for a cast of friendly cartoon characters

A digital-first insurer for small businesses wanted its branding and tone of voice to motivate owners to 'get going', instead of trading on the category's fear-first clichés.

Bright palettes and a cast of friendly, motivational cartoon characters — a toolbox, a chef's hat — drawn in a style that recalls old cartoons from hard times.

Messaging shifted from risk to opportunity under the tagline 'get going'; Next commissioned small-business owners and creators around the US to contribute to corporate apparel, gift items, photography, videography and custom on-hold music.

Creative Review ran the work as a case of brands using friendly characters and illustration to liven dry subjects; no performance figures were published with the coverage.

In September 2021, insurance firm Next unveiled a brand redesign led by design agency Collins, built to steer clear of what the agency called the category's two clichés: insurers 'are either your overly earnest protectors from doom, or rely on the absurdity of animals and athletes to help you remember them'. Instead, the digital-first small-business insurer took an illustrated approach with bright palettes and a cast of friendly, motivational characters — including a toolbox and a chef's hat.

The illustration style is deliberately reminiscent of old cartoons, and Collins tied it to history: the characters are meant to draw a line between the Covid-19 pandemic and earlier periods of adversity, such as the 1920s depression and the economic turbulence of the 1970s. The move fits a wider pattern of brands leaning into friendly characters to liven up dry subjects.

The system extended beyond a logo and palette. A tagline urged small business owners to 'get going', messaging focused on opportunity rather than risk, and Next commissioned small-business owners and creators across the US to contribute to corporate apparel, gift items, photography, videography and custom on-hold music — putting the customers the brand serves inside its own brand world.

The character cast is drawn from the customer's world — a toolbox, a chef's hat — so the brand talks to tradespeople and food businesses in their own objects, not in insurance symbols.

Grounding the cartoon style in the Depression and 1970s gives the optimism a rationale: this is what cheerfulness looked like the last times were hard.

Commissioning the brand's own small-business customers to make its apparel, music and content makes the 'we back small business' claim structural rather than stated.

In a category built on fear, warmth is the differentiator — and borrowing a visual style from earlier eras of adversity makes optimism feel earned rather than naive.

Creative Review covered the rebrand in September 2021 as part of the wave of brands adopting friendly characters; the article published no performance figures. The brand continued positioning around small-business opportunity rather than risk.