National Accident Helpline (NAH) has brought back one of its most recognisable brand icons with the relaunch of its mascot, the Underdog. First appearing in TV adverts more than a decade ago, the character has been reimagined in 3D animation and repositioned as a champion for customers, marking a bold step in the company’s refreshed brand strategy.
NAH is a leader in the personal injury sector and has been in business over 30 years (since 1993). In 2019, NAH launched its own law firm, National Accident Law (NAL), and now has employees working all over the UK to support people injured in accidents that weren’t their fault.
Reviving the Underdog: a fresh brand identity for National Accident Helpline
Launching NAH’s new brand was partly a re-launch, as a beloved mascot was returning: the Underdog. Featured in adverts for National Accident Helpline from 2010 to 2015, the Underdog was a Claymation character created by Aardman and voiced by the comedian Joe Pasquale.
Now, the Underdog is back as his own brand. He has a new look, a textured 3D digital animation, and an updated message – once the underdog fighting for the compensation he deserved, he’s now championing others and is passionate about helping them get justice for their accident and personal injuries.
This launch project was a collaboration between the Marketing, Customer Operations and People teams. The internal launch of the brand and the celebration of the Underdog’s returned was time to coincide with the week NAH soft-launched the brand externally and began its PPC campaigns for its new website.
To align with NAH’s external soft launch of the Underdog brand, the project team wanted to create excitement, connection, and celebration among employees as they recognised this event internally. The launch event took place during NAH’s conferences in May.
Their goal was to celebrate the launch of the brand, and all involved, and build excitement and connection among the employee group. Showing people the brand’s new look, and helping them to understand its new mission, were integral to this launch.
How NAH created excitement with gift boxes and branding
As this soft launch was happening digitally, the team felt it important to tangibly bring to life the Underdog character and brand for its employees. They liaised with Resource to plan and create employee gift boxes that would help them achieve everything they had in mind for the launch.
Due to the impending launch, they had a tight deadline and limited internal resources. However, they spoke with the Resource team to curate gift box items that aligned with the brand and would convey what was needed.
The brand launch coincided with NAH’s bi-annual internal conferences, two events over two days. To help the Underdog to do a takeover of the event, and create a buzz as employees arrived, they also planned to create an atmosphere with decorations around the building and meeting area. The team designed and ordered roller banners, posters, and branded balloons to help them achieve this.
Additionally, they planned for a digital extension of this printed launch campaign. They designed a screensaver to go live after the conference ended, and created a Teams profile for Underdog so that he could surprise and delight employees by reacting to and commenting on their posts about the launch.
From confetti to cake: bringing the mascot launch to life
On the first conference day, employees arrived at the office to find it decorated with Underdog balloons – brand colours and logo – and with character roller banners and posters dotted around the office and covering the main meeting space.
During the event, the launch team shared snippets of information about the Underdog brand launch, and the beloved character’s return. Then, toward the end of the conference, the Head of Brand and Marketing delivered a presentation re-introducing the Underdog to employees. The presentation featured a game, information on the character’s history and where NAH hope to take the brand.
After the presentation, NAH’s longest-serving employee was invited to cut a ribbon and officially launch Underdog. As he cut the ribbon, confetti cannons erupted and showered employees in colourful tissue paper. Employees were then offered a glass of alcohol-free prosecco, and we unveiled a handmade Underdog cake, in the shape of the character, baked and designed by an employee.
The employee gift boxes were then hand-delivered to all employees. Simultaneously, the Underdog screensaver was activated to be on employee’s screens for when they returned to their desks.
Any employee not present at their event would then receive their gift box the next time they were in the office – if they were an office worker – or posted to their home address if they were remote or on maternity leave.
The conference is repeated in another venue in a different part of the country. This event is for NAH’s law firm employees; however, the content does not vary dramatically from the head office version. It was important that the launch team mirrored, as much as possible, the celebration created the day before. Therefore, this event was largely the same as the first. The decorations were used, boxes hand-delivered, ribbon cut, and cake shared.
The employee gift boxes contained a brand leaflet, pen, notebook, lanyard, stickers and chocolate. The launch collateral, including the employee gift boxes and the balloons, roller banners, and posters, was all printed by Resource. They were excellent in meeting the project team’s deadlines and providing sturdy, clear, and quality print materials. The collateral was all designed internally (by the Marketing team and a freelance designer) and printed by Resource.
The execution extended to include a digital campaign on Viva Engage, which saw the Underdog character reacting to and commenting on people’s posts on the platform when they shared photos of the event. All comments were in his tone of voice to continue to bring the brand to life and build a connection between employees and the Underdog.
How the brand launch boosted engagement at National Accident Helpline
The execution of this project saw the team deliver excitement and connection across all employees in attendance at the conference. Additionally, the print material and digital campaigns helped them continue the excitement and reach anyone not in attendance.
Although they are still waiting for quantitative data from their event survey, there was a lot of qualitative data on the day and beyond. Employees reported loving the boxes, hoping for me and being pleasantly surprised to receive them. This feedback ticks the boxes of what the team had hoped to achieve with the print campaign.
Members of the Leadership team specifically fed back to the Marketing team to recognise their work on the internal launch, with one member of the Senior Leadership Team described the Underdog Viva account as “genius”.
The activity on Viva Engage significantly increased during and after the conferences, and due to the digital campaign, with employees enthusiastically posting about the return of the Underdog.
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