Partners Life is dipping its toes into the filmmaking business, and is supporting a new Kiwi documentary The Pinkies Are Back - a story which follows breast cancer survivors who form the Pink Dragons, a competitive dragon boating team.
The project was brought to Partners Life by one of its clients, Yvonne Godfrey, who details her own experiences with breast cancer and recovery in the documentary.
Partners Life MD Naomi Ballantyne said that supporting the movie offered Partners Life the chance to spread its message to a much wider audience, and said the ‘Kiwi movie with Kiwi humour’ fit very well with its own approach to interacting with the public.
“The movie is a vehicle for getting those messages out to a much wider audience compared to, for example, a sponsorship,” Ballantyne told Insurance Business.
“Supporting a movie isn’t something we would normally do as a life insurer, but the fact that the story was about breast cancer survivors who are picking their lives back up after the worst news possible brought it much more into our realm.”
“Yvonne Godfrey is a client of Partners Life, and she had talked to her adviser about being part of this movie,” Ballantyne explained.
“He then brought it to us because he thought it would make sense as a partnership, and that’s how it started - a customer of ours who we helped financially through the claims process was now also picking us up through the involvement with the documentary.”
Ballantyne said that one of the key selling points of the movie was its uniquely Kiwi feel, something which Partners Life also embodies in its communications and advertising.
“What came across to us immediately was that this is a Kiwi movie with Kiwi humour and fantastic characters,” she said.
“We’re a Kiwi life insurance company, and we often use humour in our ads when trying to get people to talk about subjects they really don’t want to think or talk about. So, from that perspective, we thought it would be a really great fit.”
From a life insurer perspective, Ballantyne said this project will also help get across the advantages of insurance for something like breast cancer - something which isn’t yet fully understood by a lot of the public.
“The first advantage of cover in a diagnosis like this is the immediacy - you can see a specialist straight away because it’s all paid for, and you don’t have to go on any waiting lists,” Ballantyne explained.
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“As soon as you have cancer diagnosis, you don’t want to wait, because any waiting is scary. You just want it done, fixed and gone, and so immediate access to help is very important.”
“The type of help you can get is also important,” she added.
“The public system is limited to parmac-subsidised drugs, and there are very specific guidelines around things like reconstruction and prosthetics. When you go private, you have access to every option that is possible for you - including the non-pharmac drugs, which tend to be newer and more effective. That really makes a massive difference.”
“We’re excited and proud to have worked with New Zealand producer and director Lisa Burd to help tell the story of these determined and brave ladies,” she concluded. “We know audiences across New Zealand will love this film as much as we do.”
