Budget Direct delivers light surprise in new spot
Budget Direct has launched a lighter (excuse the pun) iteration of its ‘Insurance Solved’ brand platform, via 303 Mullenlowe Sydney.
The new campaign sees insurance detectives Sarge, Jacs, and Chief the dog save the day once again when a car carrying party balloons starts flying.
It is a contrast to the brand’s typical action-packed, sometimes scary, spots, which chief growth officer Jonathan Kerr admitted “just kind of happened”.
“I really believe in needing to create some kind of emotional connection or response to any advert we do, to get into long-term memory, it needs to have emotional pull,” he told Mumbrella.
“We don’t really set out to make an ad that is more dramatic or less dramatic, we are just trying to think about what is the most beautiful way to connect with people’s hearts and minds.”
In a media release sent on Tuesday, Bart Pawlak, CCO at 303 Mullenlowe Sydney, said the element of surprise was essential.
“Based on Budget Direct’s consistent commercial performance, it’s fair to assume that most Australians are familiar with the brand and its value proposition. So it’s increasingly important to surprise and delight with the way we deliver the Insurance Solved message,” he said.
“There are numerous entertaining twists and turns to come in the campaign, and this latest spot showcasing the perils of overdoing it on the party balloons is no exception.”
Kerr said this format, the emotional storytelling, works well for Budget Direct, especially because of the brand characters. Through the characters, which he said “have lives and emotions and bit and pieces going on”, the narrative of flying cars feels reasonable and believable.
“In their slightly whimsical world, this type of storyline would play out with these characters. And that narrative structure makes that connection with people’s hearts and minds,” he told Mumbrella.
“We believe that if viewers go on that journey, it’s going to be far more memorable. And this time, it was one that had an uplifting feel.”
However, he acknowledged that it is a thin line to walk, and balancing brand codes and consistency is difficult.
“These characters are completely synonymous with Budget Direct, but at the same time, they don’t vampire the brand. When people see these characters, they think Budget Direct. And that’s the alchemy you should look for.”
Budget Direct did once cross the line, with a former character Captain Risky — an uninsurable stunt rider. Captain Risky was the star of the brand’s campaigns for around four years, until 2018. It was then later that year that Sarge was introduced.
Captain Risky
“[He] was a massive success for us, but we eventually started to realise that if we showed Captain Risky at the start of an ad, everybody would know him, but we wanted people to know the brand, we wanted people to say Budget Direct in their minds, not Captain Risky.”
The new campaign is live across TV, cinema, BVOD, online, social, OOH, and radio.
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
Senior Marketing Manager, Marketing, Media & Acquisition, Growth Ops – Katie Lansdale
303 MullenLowe Sydney
Chief Creative Officer – Bart Pawlak
Creative Director – Adam Whitehead
Chief Executive Officer – Joanna Gray
Client Service Director – Ben Glasson
Chief Strategy Officer – Jody Elston
Head of Production – Skye Lanser
Executive Broadcast Producer – Rachel Devine
Production Partners
Production Company – Good Oil Films
Director – Hamish Rothwell
DOP – Crighton Bone
Executive Producer – Sam Long
Producer – Tracey-Lee Permall
Editor – Lucas Baynes
Post Production – Blockhead VFX
VFX Supervisor – Nigel Mortimer
Post Executive Producer – Charlotte Plowman
Original Music & Sound Post: Sonar Music
Composer: Matteo Zingales
Senior Sound Designers: Andy Stewart & Nat Joyce
Stills Photographer – Matt Baker, LOUIS & CO
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Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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303 Mullenlowe
303 Mullenlowe Sydney
Bart Pawlak
Budget Direct
Campaign
captain risky
chief
Insurance Solved
Jonathan Kerr
Sarge and Jacs
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