American Family Insurance and Disney Advertising have teamed for “Designed To Last,” a branded reality competition that the companies bill as a first-of-its-kind offering. The four-episode series — which premieres today, May 5, and will stream on Hulu – is a way for the Fortune 500 insurance company to engage with consumers via a form of content with which they’re familiar.

“We wanted to take advantage of the fact that people sit down and binge TV shows. It's a moment where you pause and you're taking in information, you're taking in content. It's a way of being entertained, sometimes a way of escape and relaxation,” said American Family Insurance CMO Sherina Smith. “We wanted to lean into that trend with consumers, that viewing habit, to bring compelling information that is also edifying.” 

The competition show brings together teams of architects, engineers and inventors who compete in a series of design challenges that revolve around home preparedness and protection amid specific environmental threats, including wind, water, fire, snow and ice. The show is hosted by Maria Menounos and features award-winning contractor Eric Eremita and designer Wendell Holland as judges who will award a winning team with a $100,000 grant.

“‘Designed To Last’ really shows what's possible when brands invest in content that's audience-first, elevating the storytelling and thinking long-term, and it's a signal that we're seeing in the marketplace of how we're redefining advertising and content,” said John Campbell, senior vice president of entertainment and streaming solutions at Disney Advertising.

American Family Insurance utilizing a branded show is a return to one of the earliest forms of TV advertising and comes as marketers turn to different forms of content marketing that mirror consumer behaviors. Marketers including E.l.f. Cosmetics and Garage Beer have turned to branded films, while P&G and Marc Jacobs have experimented with micro dramas. The show comes as Disney, which will hold its upfront presentation on May 12, is doubling down on brand partnerships around major tentpoles like “The Devil Wears Prada 2” and “The Mandalorian and Grogu.”

“There are a few areas of booming, tremendous growth across our platforms, [and] film is definitely one of them,” Campbell said. “From the theatrical release to all of the social content leading up to the special look that lands on our streaming platforms to the actual release into the Pay 1 window, we're seeing a tremendous amount of brands coming to us in order to take advantage of that full life cycle.”

Collaboration amid competition

“Designed To Last” is the culmination of two years of work with Disney that began with insights about how American Family Insurance helps its consumers inspire, protect and restore their dreams, such as home ownership, and involved an analysis of shared audiences between the brand and publisher.

American Family has previously utilized a mix of traditional ad platforms, including TV and social media, as well as content marketing, like a series focused on family stories. While the brand has a variety of partnerships spanning major sports leagues and enlists brand ambassadors across sports and pop culture, including Derek Jeter, Kathy Ireland and “Property Brothers” hosts Drew and Jonathan Scott, it does not use the type of brand character popularized by marketers across the insurance industry.

“It is a category that leans into emotion, and most of our competition is leaning into the emotion of humor, which I get: It brings levity to a moment that can be stressful,” Smith said. “We lean the other way. We lean into the security and the safe space that we think people want.”

American Family Insurance’s partnership with Disney spanned content studio Disney CreativeWorks as well as legal, PR, sales and project management teams, among others. The brand also worked with Elite Media to create “Designed To Last” and Publicis agency Infinite Roar on a supporting media plan for the series.

“Nothing of this magnitude can happen without the full, integrated village that brings these things to life,” Smith said of an effort that spans insights, content, audiences and media. “It's our creative partners … who have been hand-in-hand with us to really bring [this] to life … in a way that's watchable.”