Create, don't copy: SafetyWing's case against marketing best practices | Joey Flores

SafetyWing is building a social safety net for people who live, work, and travel across borders — covering health insurance, income protection, disability, and life insurance that follows you around the world. The company was founded in 2017 and has insured over 400,000 people through its consumer products. Its Trustpilot rating sits at 4.3 stars. Its NPS score is 10x the insurance industry average.

In a recent episode of BUILDERS, we sat down with Joey Flores, Head of Marketing at SafetyWing, to learn how a nine-year-old company built category leadership in global health insurance by rejecting fear-based marketing and betting on an aspirational brand identity.

Topics Discussed:

• How SafetyWing builds trust across a product category where customers hope they never need the product
• Why SafetyWing uses cartoon birds instead of the fear-based visual language that defines traditional insurance
• How "create, don't copy" shapes every marketing and brand decision at SafetyWing
• Why the company launched a US-specific team health plan after years of global-first products
• How SafetyWing is using AI to compress the time between claim submission and resolution
• The ambassador program featuring extreme adventurers and what it reveals about SafetyWing's brand strategy
• How the brand's distinctiveness shortens the customer recognition path in a crowded market

GTM and Technology Adoption Lessons:

• Brand distinctiveness as adoption infrastructure: Joey said the cartoon birds create a shortcut. "the birds are just so damn memorable, like, you don't expect it from an insurance company."

• Aspirational branding in a fear-driven category: Traditional insurance marketing creates urgency through fear of loss. SafetyWing chose the opposite. Joey explained: "We don't think of ourselves as an insurance company. We're building a social safety net that follows people all around the world, literally with the mission of empowering them to go wherever they want, safely, securely, and feel like if something does happen, they are covered."

• Trust has to be rebuilt with each new product: SafetyWing's 4.3 Trustpilot score and 10x industry NPS are earned on existing products. But when the company launched income protection, Joey noted: "when we, when we roll out new products, for example, there's a bit of like doing that again, right? Like, okay, I trust you with my health. But like, you know, our newest product has income protection.

• Create, don't copy as a design constraint: When redesigning the homepage, the team came in with a standard three-plan pricing layout. A founder pushed back. Joey said: "every landing page I've ever been on has three plans next to each other. And the goal is always that you pick. The consumer will pick the middle plan... I was like, this is just like, I'm so tired of seeing this.

• Ambassador programs as brand proof: Sponsoring Ria G., who is running 20,000 km from China to Portugal, completing her 66th consecutive ultra marathon at the time of recording, is not a traditional brand awareness play. It is a live demonstration of what SafetyWing makes possible.

• AI for claims process improvement: SafetyWing deployed AI to flag missing claim documents at the point of submission rather than days later after human review. Joey described the practical impact: "it doesn't just shorten it by the two days it took a human to review it, it may shorten it by the two weeks that they would have waited to sit down again and do it."

• US expansion as a distinct product bet: The global team health plan has been running for years. The US plan launched at the start of 2026 because US healthcare operates in a different regulatory and pricing environment.

// Sponsors: Front Lines - Silicon Valley's leading Podcast Production Studio. We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. Mention you are a listener and get a 10% discount. www.FrontLines.io/Podcast-as-a-Service