The lack of access to certain basic services, climate risks or the concentration of educational and work opportunities in cities are some of the factors that are leading to the growing depopulation of towns in Spain. And with it the possibilities of progressively losing the rich and necessary contributions of the rural world to society and the economy multiply; an issue that the insurance company Axa and the postal operator Correos warn about in their new communication campaign.

Both brands have joined together in “Esperanza de Pueblo”, designed by the creative agency Leo España, from Publicis Groupe, and focused on the need to protect the ecosystem of the towns of our country. According to the company, there are currently more than 8,000 municipalities that occupy 80% of the territory, but have less than 20% of the total population, which indicates the way in which demographics have been transformed in recent decades.

With the intention of raising awareness of a situation that could continue to worsen, the campaign aims to express on a visual level the threats to which people are exposed through the concept of life expectancy. Thus, it is based on the idea that towns, like people, have an expectation of survival influenced by multiple factors and reflects this through everyday scenes, such as a woman in labor who has to travel 80 kilometers to the nearest hospital or a strong storm that threatens homes.

The advertisement, filmed in a real town, also highlights the alliance established by Axa and Correos at the beginning of last year. Thanks to the agreement, the public courier company acts as a marketing agent for Axa insurance through its network of offices and professionals trained for sales. The piece positions both Axa and Correos as facilitators of life in the towns and protectors of the rural ecosystem.

As Axa explains in a statement, more than 30,000 customers and 10 million AXA Correos premiums have been obtained in one year. Correos has put at the service of the insurer a network of more than 1,000 offices and a team of 1,700 professionals throughout the national territory. He assures that in the first year of the alliance more than 275,000 people have been interested in taking out insurance at the Post Office, and that 25% of that figure corresponded to rural areas, which, according to the company, brings insurance closer to the most unprotected areas.

The announcement is complemented by an interactive digital platform, called “AXA – Esperanza Pueblo”, which illustrates the situation of the towns. The user can search for the name of the town they want and discover its current life expectancy based on existing socio-economic factors. The system, as the insurer explains, is based on its own algorithm based on official data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), as well as social and environmental aspects and access to basic services, such as public transport or the presence of Post Offices.

Artificial intelligence has made it possible to detect patterns, trends and possible
anomalies more quickly and accurately, as well as identifying and incorporating information related to the cultural identity of each municipality. The insurer points out that all these variables determine the ability of each locality to stay alive over time. However, users can intervene in the information on the platform by notifying changes or indicating what aspects would be lost if the town disappeared.

“Hope of the People” will have activations on television, radio, press, as well as digital media and social networks, with the intention of achieving massive reach and achieving the participation of the entire population. Media planning is carried out by WPP Media.