With around 10 million views across all social media platforms, Leadway Assurance’s “No Looseguard” campaign has struck a nerve. The campaign has reached more than 25 percent of Nigeria’s social media population, sparking conversations around insurance.
In a country where only 0.5 percent are insured, and where gross insurance premiums account for just 0.4 percent of GDP, most insurers have opted to stay in the background. For them, virality is an afterthought — if it’s considered at all. However, Leadway Assurance is towing a different path.
The company is already distinguished as Nigeria’s largest insurer, with a total asset base of N799 billion as of full-year 2023. That same year, it collected N104 billion in insurance premiums, representing more than 10 percent of total premiums generated in the Nigerian insurance industry. Yet, despite this scale, Leadway is behaving less like a legacy giant and more like a challenger brand, agile, culturally attuned, and unafraid to experiment. Its viral “No Looseguard” campaign, launched in February 2025, reflects that bold new approach.
The campaign is built around a simple but culturally resonant idea: Don’t get caught slipping. Stay covered.
Executed as a digital-first campaign through a series of video ads with heavy rotation on social platforms, the campaign blends humour, realism, and local slang to deliver a compelling message. The ads are as entertaining as they are instructive. The campaign was created by Purple Stardust, a creative agency under the Intense Group.
In one commercial, a sharply dressed man visits a neighbourhood and ignores the local area boys. When he returns, his car has been vandalized, a textbook case of “looseguard”.
In another ad, a flamboyant trader celebrates a big business deal by throwing money around in a nightclub. Just as he starts enjoying his moment, he receives a message: the goods he was counting on have been destroyed in a road accident. As panic sets in, his confident demeanour leads to chaos, from “Odogwu to Odiegwu.”
The phrase “No Looseguard” is drawn from Nigerian Pidgin English and directly translates to an instruction not to let one’s guard down, to remain alert and prepared. It’s a phrase deeply embedded in urban Nigerian culture, often used as survival advice in a society marked by unpredictability. Within the insurance context, it becomes more than just a warning, it’s a metaphor for risk management, financial preparedness, and proactive protection.
Leadway is not simply selling insurance. It’s bridging street wisdom with financial literacy. Through the lens of the campaign, the message becomes relatable: If you run a shop, protect your inventory. If you own a car, insure it. If you’ve built something of value, make sure it’s covered.
Diana Mulili, the Chief Digital Officer of Leadway Assurance, said to BusinessDay,
“For too long, insurance in Nigeria has been seen as an expensive afterthought, a luxury, not a necessity. Our strategic intent is to flip that perception by meeting people where they are: culturally, emotionally, and digitally. Through ‘No Looseguard’, we’re showing that insurance isn’t just for the wealthy; it’s a smart, everyday tool to protect your hustle, your assets, and your future from life’s unpredictability.”
The campaign has been rolled out primarily across digital platforms, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, where Nigeria’s youth spend a significant portion of their time. In addition to its serialised video content, Leadway has supported the push with graphic illustrations and interactive social media engagements, keeping the message front-of-mind and highly shareable.
This shift in tone and format represents a notable deviation in a country where, despite frequent emergencies, infrastructural challenges, and daily uncertainty, insurance is often overlooked. Leadway’s campaign is not just a marketing win, it’s a cultural intervention. It has successfully sparked interest among young Nigerians, generating organic discussions about the real-life value of insurance in today’s Nigeria.
The effort has not gone unnoticed. In the media and advertising community, the campaign won in the Use of Media category at the 2025 Pitcher Awards, cementing its status as a standout brand communication effort. Within the insurance industry, it may prove to be even more significant, signalling a potential turning point for how insurance is marketed in Nigeria.
In a sector long dominated by formal language and technical messaging, “No Looseguard” breaks the mould. It combines entertainment, local identity, and consumer education, all while keeping insurance at the centre. And if other insurers adopt this model, adapting it to their audiences, the industry could finally begin to move out of obscurity and into the national consciousness.
In doing so, it may not only reshape brand strategy within the sector but also contribute to nudging up Nigeria’s persistently low insurance penetration rate.
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