Campaign Imminent: Aflac taps first-ever Hispanic PR AOR (Score 47)

Sales Lead: Aflac is not Af-lacking in agency partners, folks; just two months after appointing a new CMO, Aflac named RockOrange as its Hispanic PR AOR.

• The agency will focus on building the insurance provider's CSR and education efforts among the Hispanic market.
• Aflac is working to build awareness of My Special Aflac Duck, a core CSR effort that involves a robotic duck designed to help kids cope with things like sickle cell anemia and cancer.
• RockOrange is Aflac's first Hispanic PR AOR.
• The agency's PR AOR, Tina Caballero, will lead the account team; managing principal David Naranjo and VP of strategy Maria Ospina will also work on the account.
• We had figured that agency reviews would follow Aflac's January 2023 appointment of CMO Garth Knutson.
• The company will likely:
  • Launch a new campaign soon
  • Shift strategy to ramp up Hispanic initiatives
  • Keep increasing digital spend
  • Conduct additional agency reviews
• Target demographic: 
  • Gen-Z and millennials
  • Especially Hispanic audiences

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: Since the beginning of 2023, Aflac has allocated roughly $8.2m toward national TV commercials, down slightly (6%) from the roughly $8.7m allocated within the same 2022 timeframe.
  • Last year: The company allocated around $50m toward this channel last year after having allocated 35% more, around $67.5m, in 2021.
  • 2023 ad programming: Aflac's 2023 commercials have targeted the male-skewed audience of shows such as College Football, NFL Football, the 80th Annual Golden Globe Awards, The Bachelor, and American Pickers.
• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: The company has spent approximately $524.2k on digital ads YTD, up 23% from the approximately $441.3k spent by this point last year.
  • YTD data: So far this year, Aflac has earned ~38.6m digital impressions via desktop video/Twitch (40%), YouTube (37%), Facebook (14%), and Instagram (9%) ads.
  • Last year: In 2022, the company's estimated full-year spend decreased by 6% to $4.7m from that of $5m in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • The company utilizes print, digital, OOH, local broadcast, Google Ads, Facebook, Twitter, and online video (primarily via Youtube.com) ads.
  • Aflac sponsors podcasts such as Stuff You Should Know, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, and Monday Morning Podcast.
  • The insurance provider also invests in short form DRTV.
    • It has very highly concentrated network TV coverage, and a new campaign will likely launch within the next 30 days or so.
    • Aflac's top TV networks include UNI, TDC, ENET, GALA, and YES.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: Since PR hires often precede additional agency reviews, get in touch soon to offer creative, media, digital analytics, social media management, experiential, and/or influencer services.
  • Additional reviews are especially likely in this case since Aflac's CMO hire.
• Current agency roster:
  • RockOrange: Hispanic PR AOR
  • Marina Maher Communications: PR AOR
  • Dagger: Creative and social AOR
  • Spark Foundry: Media agency partner
  • You Are Here: Branding, identity, and strategy agency partner

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix; podcast insights by Podchaser; DRTV insights by Media Analytics.