Budget Direct stands out as ‘least confused’ insurance brand
Budget Direct has the lowest rate of viewer confusion among top insurance brands, according to data that has come to light as the brand releases another iteration of its “Insurance Solved” campaign.
Developed by 303 Mullenlowe, the “Man Cave” campaign launched this week, addressing the “big three insurance proof points” — saving time, saving money, and for the first time, sharing how much Budget Direct has paid out in claims.
Research agency TRA last month found that insurance brands are often non-attributed or misattributed to one another. This includes the likes of Allianz, AAMI, and Youi. TRA told Mumbrella that while Budget Direct is impacted by broader category confusion, it isn’t necessarily contributing to it.
“25% of the top 10 insurance ads are like this. That said, this is not the case across the board. For instance, the current Allianz spot is only correctly linked to the brand about half the time as mentioned in the original piece,” Alex Forrester, business director at TRA, said.
“But we do not observe this same magnitude with Budget Direct; in almost all instances where the platform is described, people name Budget Direct. There are occasional examples of confusion between Budget Direct, AAMI and Youi – but among the top 10 insurance ads, Budget Direct has the lowest rate of favourite ad attribution issues, at just 15%.”
The new campaign features regulars Sarge, Jacs, and Chief the dog investigating the disappearance of a man who has retreated to his basement with the aim of finding the best insurance quote.
Chief creative officer at 303 Mullenlowe Sydney, Bart Pawlak, said the data revealed in the ad is “quite astounding”.
“Millions of Aussies receive a high-priced renewal and yet they seem trapped by the misconception that switching is too time consuming or not even worth it,” he said in a release. “‘Man Cave’ is designed to remind them that quoting Budget Direct first is often the shortest route to finding a cheaper quote, in a tone that they’ve come to appreciate and expect from the brand.”
Jonathan Kerr, chief growth officer at Budget Direct, told Mumbrella it “sat up really nicely as an opportunity to have some fun, entertain, but also point out how people could save a whole bunch of time and money”.
He said: “We always want to keep people wondering where we’re going, that’s the way we engage people in by being different and distinctive. But we also want to leave a little smile on peoples’ dials.”
As mentioned, Budget Direct wanted to include just how much it had paid out in claims over the past year, for the first time (it’s $1.5 billion). For Kerr, finding a way to weave that into the conversation was tricky.
“How on earth do you get that into a conversation, you know what I mean? You tweak it, you play around with it, and it either works or it doesn’t,” he said.
“It’s quite a process,” he said. “But I always find that we know when we’re onto something when it starts to write itself, working with 303, when that happens, we know there’s something in that. But if it’s too difficult, it’s always wrong. And this was quite a hard one.”
Part of the reason this was difficult, he said, was because of the nature of how Budget Direct and 303 Mullenlowe produce the spots — doing three campaigns at a time.
“We bring our actor over from the UK who plays the character of Sarge [Hamish Clark, from the BBC’s ‘Monarch of the Glen’] so we make the most of that. It comes with a burden, but it also makes us really think about it,” Kerr told Mumbrella.
He said he and the team are “always introspective”, looking back at what worked well and what didn’t in previous iterations of “Insurance Solved”.
“We just feel like we have to engage and entertain people for them to be bothered to pay attention. So we earn our stripes by making hopefully good ads, and that tends to play out in terms of results.”
In two independent ad rankings last month, Budget Direct’s previous “Insurance Solved” spot featured among the top five most liked and most unforgettable recent ads.
Cubery’s ranking placed it fourth, with 90% of Aussies loving it, while TRA placed it third.
While acknowledging that being a highly active advertiser does “some of the heavy lifting”, Kerr said these results were nice to see: “It’s wonderful to get that kind of recognition.”
The campaign is live across TV, cinema, BVOD, online, social, OOH, and radio channels.
Credits:
Budget Direct
Chief Growth Officer, Growth Ops – Jonathan Kerr
Associate Director, Marketing, Media & Acquisition, Growth Ops – Andrea Peters
General Manager, Marketing and Communications, Growth Ops – Warren Marsh
Head of Brand, Sponsorship & PR, Growth Ops – Katie Lansdale
303 MullenLowe Sydney
Chief Creative Officer – Bart Pawlak
Creative Director – Adam Whitehead
Chief Executive Officer – Joanna Gray
Client Service Project Lead – Jen Hird
Chief Strategy Officer – Jody Elston
Head of Production – Skye Lanser
Executive Broadcast Producer – Jacqueline Archer
Production Partners
Production Company – Good Oil
Director – Hamish Rothwell
Producer – Tracey-Lee Permall
Executive Producer – Sam Long
DOP – Crighton Bone
Edit House – ARC
Editor – Lucas Baynes
Edit Producer – Sally Quade
Post Production – Blockhead VFX
VFX Supervisor – Nigel Mortimer
Post Executive Producer – Charlotte Plowman
Original Music & Sound Post – Sonar Music
Social Media Campaign – Hello Social
Stills Photographer – Matt Baker, LOUIS & CO
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Lauren McNamara was the associate editor at Mumbrella. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS. She left Mumbrella in August 2025.
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