Problem

Willow Creek Insurance is a venerable name in the Upper Midwest. Recently, however, they have been fending off competition from national insurance groups fronted by aging celebrities like Joe Namath. These national companies don't know local communities, but its hard to tell people that.

Redlbl was challenged to help Willow Creek put the “local” back in their local agency. A trip to their home office in Barnesville, MN is what got our idea rolling. We spent a few days taking pictures of the sights and sounds of this thriving bedroom community for the Fargo Moorhead area. As luck would have it, we spent the first day shooting pictures of Homecoming for the Football team which later ended up winning the State Championship for the first time in school history. Charmed, we’d say.

Solution

Call it serendipity but whoda' thunk that Barnesville, MN is frequently confused with the larger Minnesota town of Burnsville, 250 miles to the South? Well, it is, and we decided to show the local color and flavor of Barnesville and the land of Willow Creek in a online serial you can view below:

The best way to describe the campaign is to quote from the VLOG page that describes the purpose of our story-telling: 

“For over 60 years, The Willow Creek Insurance Agency has been based in Barnesville, Minnesota. Some folks over the years have confused our lovely town with a suburb of Minneapolis, about 250 miles to the South, called Burnsville. There are many fine agencies in the land of the Burnsville Blaze, but if you want a local agency that serves Northwestern Minnesota, North Dakota, and snowbirds in Arizona, it’s Willow Creek.

So, we hope you’ll indulge us and spend time with our homegrown new online serial “Barnesville, Not Burnsville” and the misguided adventures of a man who lost his way and found his soul – in Barnesville. Enjoy.”

Results

While it is still too early to comment on the campaign, we recently launched a large media effort with press kits and other give-aways designed to showcase the fun we are having with the work.