ACLI
Illustrating how the life insurance industry provides financial certainty for everyday Americans
The Challenge
In communities across the nation, life insurers are providing a critical and far-reaching support system that touches nearly every stage of American life, from first jobs to retirement and everything in between. But too often, life insurance is narrowly understood as a benefit only applicable at the end of life. To shift this misperception, the American Council of Life Insurers came to POLITICO Focus. ACLI’s aim was to educate policymakers and key political influencers about the many wide-ranging benefits of life insurance and the vital role the industry plays as a constant, stabilizing force. They further sought to showcase how exactly the industry drives economic resilience across the country and creates generational security in the everyday and extraordinary moments of millions of Americans’ lives.
The Strategy
Seeking to create a compelling messaging platform that would allow ACLI to effectively set the record straight on the life insurance industry, POLITICO Focus produced “A Picture of Strength,” an immersive, human-driven digital storytelling experience that paints a stirring portrait of how the industry offers certainty amidst the many uncertainties of life. Enlisting real stories of real people, the experience leveraged custom watercolor-style illustrations to portray the metaphor of life as a blank canvas that gradually transforms into what is the vibrant, abstract masterpiece of the shared human experience.
The vertical scroll design guided readers through a series of richly textured, hand-painted vignettes, representing common milestones and universally relatable life events — starting a new job, recovering from injury or illness, opening a business, preparing for retirement, enduring the death of a loved one — all situations where life insurance benefits play a quiet but vital role in providing strength, stability and security. These emotionally moving first-hand accounts were paired with validating economic impact data and contextualizing executive quotes to credibly make the case for how the life insurance industry provides a financial safety net that protects dreams and strengthens families and communities throughout all of life’s unexpected moments.
- Custom illustration
- Human interest storytelling
The Results
The campaign was strategically promoted and distributed across POLITICO.com through high impact homepage units and via high-performing paid social placements — ensuring the message reached policy influencers where they engage most.
Notably, the campaign’s creative and strategic vision was recognized with two Gold awards — one for Native Advertising and one for Graphic Design/Illustration — from the international marketing and communication MarCom Awards competition, highlighting both its storytelling effectiveness and visual impact. The content clearly resonated with audiences, well exceeding established page view goals and garnering an average time on page nearly two minutes more than POLITICO Focus’ typical benchmark.
Reaching the Right Audience
With creative that outperformed across promotional platforms, “A Picture of Strength” delivered a compelling narrative to a premium, high-value audience that re-shaped public understanding, including individuals who, compared to the average POLITICO audience, were:
