Dive Brief:

• Esurance unveiled "Surprisingly Painless Gifting," a limited-edition line of gift wrap featuring the face of the brand's spokesperson Dennis Quaid, along with cards, boxes and tags that express "honest and simple" sentiments around gift giving. The products can be ordered for free at SurprisinglyPainlessGifting.com starting Dec. 17, per a news release.
• The gift wrapping items include humorous messages like, "We're work friends and I don't know you that well, so here's a gift card," "Pick out something nice and tell everyone it's from me," "Before you open this, I'd like to remind you that you're very hard to buy for" and "I vaguely described you to the guy at the store and he told me to get you this."
• Esurance is also hosting pop-ups in Chicago and New York offering shoppers free packaging using the Dennis Quaid wrapping paper. The brand is encouraging consumers to share photos of their Surprisingly Painless Gifts on social media with the hashtag #SurprisinglyPainless.

Dive Insight:

Finding the perfect gift is one of the most stressful aspects of the holiday season for many consumers, and Esurance is attempting to ease the pain with its line of gift-wrapping items featuring humorous taglines. While the brand admits that holiday gifting and insurance don't seem to go together, Esurance is leveraging the holiday theme to highlight its commitment to making the insurance experience "surprisingly painless." By offering online ordering of the items, the company will be able to collect useful information about potential customers to develop stronger messaging and offer more tailored experiences.

Esurance is also continuing its partnership with Dennis Quaid by featuring his likeness on the gift wrap. The insurance platform debuted the broader "Surprisingly Painless" campaign with Quaid in August to highlight how the company eases the insurance process. A 60-second spot featured Quaid breaking the fourth wall, speaking directly to viewers and acknowledging that he was in a commercial.

The gift-wrapping pop-ups will help Esurance create a presence in high-traffic shopping areas around the holidays, when 80% of consumers are planning to spend the same or more on gifts in 2018 compared to last year, per an OpenX survey. Memorable, in-person experiences can help brands boost awareness and engage directly with consumers, and the events are often popular with younger consumers who tend to prefer in-person interactions with brands.

Quirky holiday gift wrap is growing in popularity this season. Along with Esurance, Jimmy Dean debuted sausage-scented wrapping paper for its holiday recipe exchange promotion last month, and KFC featured fried chicken-themed wrap in its holiday merchandise line last year.