New York Times

By: Stuart Elliot

1/11/10

THE familiar duck is front and center as Aflac expands efforts that began last year to tell consumers more about how its insurance products work. But the relationship between Aflac and the agency that created the character in 1999 is ending.

In recent days, a cartoon version of the duck turned up on billboards in high-traffic sites like Times Square, bearing a mysterious Web address, youdontknowquack.com. On Monday, a multimedia campaign will direct consumers to a second Web address to reveal what the message means.

In a commercial, an announcer declares, “If all you know about us is” — and at that point the duck interrupts, shouting, “Aflac!” — “then you don’t know quack,” the announcer continues.

“To find out all the ways Aflac’s got you covered,” the announcer concludes, “visit knowquack.com.”

The agency behind the campaign is the Zimmerman Agency in Tallahassee, Fla., part of the Omnicom Group. The Kaplan Thaler Group in New York, a Publicis Groupe agency that has created ads for Aflac since October 1999, played only a supporting role.

It turned out that as the campaign was being readied, executives at Aflac were considering placing their creative account in review. News of the review was reported on Dec. 22 by AdWeek.com, which followed with a report that Kaplan Thaler had decided against taking part.

“It’s been 10 years, and a lot has changed in 10 years,” said Jeff Charney, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Aflac — formally, the American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus, based in Columbus, Ga. He is among those changes, having joined Aflac in November 2008.

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Aflac has hired a search consultant, Select Resources International, to oversee the review, Mr. Charney said. It could be completed by early March. Aflac spends about $75 million each year on advertising.

Kaplan Thaler, in a statement, attributed its decision to a policy against participating in reviews for accounts it already handles. Frequently, such reviews end with the account leaving the incumbent agency.

The odds against Kaplan Thaler’s retaining the Aflac assignment were also long because after years of humorous ads using the outspoken duck to generate high levels of awareness for the Aflac brand — along with double-digit sales gains for Aflac products — the economic crisis hit the company hard. After all, insurance is for workers, not the unemployed.

“We are pleased to know that the Aflac duck will continue to be the cornerstone of the advertising going forward,” the Kaplan Thaler statement said. “We wish Aflac, and our fine-feathered friend, continued success and the very best.”

Mr. Charney echoed the Kaplan Thaler sentiments.

“We love the duck,” he said, and “we love what Kaplan Thaler has done for us.”

However, in “looking at the next 10 years for the duck,” he added, “we’re looking for the best partner to be fresh and creative and innovative.”

Mr. Charney praised a campaign created in April by Kaplan Thaler that began the efforts to better explain Aflac’s supplemental insurance coverage, which pays cash benefits to people unable to work because of sickness or injury. Aspects of that campaign will be part of the new campaign, he said, among them the word “Aflacts” to describe information about the policies and a theme, “We’ve got you under our wing.”

“Consumers really loved it,” Mr. Charney said, referring to the Kaplan Thaler work, “and our salespeople loved it.”

“We wanted to take it further, take it to the next level,” he added, saying the “You don’t know quack” campaign, created by Zimmerman, does that because “it cracks through the clutter and gets you to understand the facts about Aflac.”

“We wanted to make sure we have the agency that could portray the duck in the most relevant way,” Mr. Charney said, and produce campaigns that would integrate traditional media like television and print with nontraditional approaches like social media, events, sponsorships, promotions and merchandise.

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The new campaign is such an initiative, he added, because it is composed of 45 elements that include presences on Facebook and YouTube; trivia questions on TV; a line of duck clothing; a Quack energy drink; video clips called “duckumentaries,” featuring customers talking about experiences with Aflac; commercials during the NBC coverage of the Winter Olympics; and a Nascar car bearing the cartoon duck and the “You don’t know quack” theme.

As Kaplan Thaler winds up work for Aflac, the agency is starting on an assignment as the lead agency for NAPA Auto Parts, which it landed four days before the Aflac news became known. The agency also recently became the creative agency for the Wendy’s fast-food chain, owned by the Wendy’s/Arby’s Group.

Kaplan Thaler is also a finalist in a review for the creative account of the retailer Ikea. That review includes the incumbent agency, which is Deutsch in New York, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 12, 2010
The Advertising column on Monday, about a new campaign for Aflac, misidentified the agency behind the new advertising campaign. It is the Zimmerman Agency of Tallahassee, Fla., part of the Omnicom Group — not a Tallahassee office of Zimmerman Advertising, another Omnicom agency.