Bruce Whitfield interviews Marnus van Heerden, co-founder of Pineapple Insurance.

- Pineapple Insurance's quirky billboard campaign was the pick for last week's advertising "zero" on The Money Show, which sparked heated debate on LinkedIn

- Co-founder Marnus van Heerden explains the thinking behind the billboards and how Pineapples's strategy has really worked for the company

On The Money Show's "Heroes and Zeros" slot last week, Pineapple Insurance fell foul of Zetu Damane as her choice of advertising "zero".

While the insurer's quirky billboard campaign did stand out, it didn't direct consumers' attention towards the brand said Damane (Chief Strategy Officer at Think Creative Africa).

The focus is definitely on that big copy about how bad insurance ads are, and then 'Pineapple' in that small little bit... so a lack of emphasis on the right thing.

After the criticism sparked heated debate on LinkedIn, Bruce Whitfield invited Pineapple co-founder Marnus van Heerden onto the show.

RELATED: Do insurer's quirky billboards just catch your eye or get you to google them?

Van Heerden said the point raised by Damane is one that was hotly debated by his own team.

He explains how they eventually settled on a "copy-first" style after one comment pointing out that the billboards would be on commuter routes.

...so most people... don't just see the billboards once; they'll see them every day over a period of three to six months.

The first time they might think 'oh that's a funny billboard, the second time they might wonder who did it, the third they might think 'oh, Pineapple'... the fourth time they'd be like 'oh they do insurance' and the fifth time 'let me google them and see what they actually do'.

The strategy has paid off with increased traffic for Pineapple, van Heerden says.

We've actually seen that trend across our digital stats... Initially you could see a slow uptick, but after about Day 7 or 8 there was a massive spike as people became familiar and started to talk, to this point where we're seeing about a 2 000% increase in the traffic just as a result of this campaign.

I really enjoyed the debate between you and Zetu last week. From our side we're incredibly humbled by the outpouring of support on the billboards. Its been really humbling and amazing to see.

Scroll up to listen to the full conversation

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