MetLife drive places

Developed by Hong Kong-based agency Eight Partnership's Shanghai office, the push centred on print and outdoor activations. Launched late last month, the campaign — tagged 'MetLife. Your friend for life' — kicked off with a single-day 'dominance' of the China Business News newspaper, in which every advertisement was dedicated to MetLife's Snoopy, along with a 20-storey animated billboard on the Aurora building in the Pudong area.

The drive also included outdoor billboards and posters along high-traffic roads and waterways along the Bund in Shanghai. Internal communications initiatives targeting MetLife staff and its sales agents were also employed, in a bid to ensure a consistent brand message was delivered face-to-face. "It seemed natural and obvious to us to fully leverage this famous celebrity as a focal point for the campaign," said Eight China managing partner, Charles Brian-Boys. "We took the corporate values of MetLife, and married them to Snoopy, your friend for life," he added.

Eight Shanghai business director Edward Chau said: "Some financial services professionals have reservations about the use of a cartoon character, but Snoopy has always generated terrific positive recall... it was a really logical customer-driven choice."