Wizards, Heroes and Nostalgia: Liberty Mutual Tickles Us with Bizarre TVC

Liberty Mutual has shared the latest instalment of its long-running 'Truth Tellers' campaign. Instantly recognisable for its Statue of Liberty boardwalk, the campaign has always featured an array of characters and a consistent message about customising and saving. But while the message has always remained the same, the campaign has evolved over the years in its style of humour, and this new round of commercials takes the hilarity to a new level.

For the first time in the history of the campaign, the iconic New York city boardwalk gets a new look in one of the four new TV spots created by Goodby Silverstein & Partners (GS&P).

'Video Game' plays out as an old animated 8-bit-style arcade game featuring a hero, a wizard and lots of nostalgia.

In 'Double Dutch', three children jump rope on the boardwalk as they count up to the amount of money one can save with Liberty Mutual - which can take a while.

'Fliers' features a salesman in a cell phone costume that turns out to be a working phone until it gets wet.

'Unique Business' features a boardwalk vendor who sells some - let’s say - unconventional items.

“We know how lucky we are to work with a brand team who wants to push the humour and memorability with each round just as much as we do,” said Josh Hacohen, associate creative director at GS&P. “It makes the process a joy, and I think it shows in the work.”

The new commercials, which have already begun airing, certainly set the hilarity bar for the round that will come next. Humour has worked well for the brand.

The latest work follows GS&P’s last round of 'Truth Tellers', where TV spot 'Bad Job' became Liberty Mutual’s most successful ad ever, scoring at least six percentage points higher in Liberty’s internal ad effectiveness metrics than any other Liberty ad ever. In fact, since the launch of the 'Truth Tellers' work with GS&P in December 2018, the campaign’s average brand memorability (as measured by PMI Brand Effects, formerly Nielsen Brand Effects) has grown 10% over pre-Dec 2018 levels.