Turning the table on Kurt beaudion, a 2024 Ad Judge
AIRB's campaign from ZGM
November 6, 2024

Kurt Beaudoin, 2024 Applied Arts Advertising Awards judge and Director of Storytelling at ZGM in Edmonton, AB, shares the recent witty campaign for the Automobile Insurance Rate Board. ZGM rose to #39 on the 2024 Strategy Report Card from #50 in 2023, with campaigns like this one there is no wonder why.
Even though the Automobile Insurance Rate Board (AIRB) has existed for many years, they’ve barely advertised. ZGM was given the privilege of officially introducing AIRB to the market, so they chose to do it in the boldest, most unexpected way they could think of. The idea came to them pretty much instantly after receiving the brief. AIRB is just two letters away from one of the most recognizable brands in the world right now. And the opportunity to compare the two was too great to pass up.
They chose to pronounce AIRB as air-bee. AIRB had been calling themselves A-I-R-B up until this point. The agency hoped this would score them some brand recognition points and introduce the outlandish situation they were about to depict: that AIRB is a great place to go for information on auto insurance, but a terrible place to go for a holiday.
The spots were shot in one day at an office in industrial Mississauga. The director, OPC's Sophia Smith, and her team transformed the space into a perfectly normal office. The talent was a dream to work with. So many moments that ended up in the final cuts were improvised—just the results of natural chemistry between our actors. Shooting crazy things in an otherwise professional environment made it feel like the last day of school. One of the kiddos even cried when the day was done because they wanted to keep rolling.
ZGM found that working with Sophia was such a collaborative process. When they received her treatment, they were blown away by how she created an entire world with our scripts. Each character had a full back story and personality. It felt like their ad campaign transformed into a pilot episode.
Proof that when the stars align (and a big dose of elbow grease) great work emerges!