CGU Insurance debuts campaign with 5-minute 60 Minutes spot
IAG’s CGU Insurance released a new campaign via independent agency Thinkerbell, debuting it with a five-minute spot during last night’s 60 Minutes on Nine.
The media approach for the spot, which is unusually long for a typical television advertisement, was developed by Initiative.
The ‘Tall Poppy’ film sees puppets tell the story of an ‘extraordinary little girl’, found on a doorstep. The vivacious child, named Poppy and who is tall, then begins to bring colour into the washed-out world by dancing on a table and drawing. She is then bullied, before her parent figure revives her. The film ends with a dedication to the ‘tall poppies’ behind every small business, then CGU’s line ‘Insuring Ambition’.
Shorter versions of the film will exist in other media.
It is not the first time an ambitious media strategy has been employed by both Thinkerbell and Initiative, the two having worked on Repco’s Repco Bathurst 1000 campaign where the voiceover for the spot continued over the top of other advertisements. One of the spots that was part of the spot takeover was Bear Meets Eagle On Fire’s ‘Rollin’ campaign, which is also owned by IAG.
The film, produced in California, was directed by Brian Henson, of The Muppets fame. The Jim Henson Company was involved in the production.
IAG chief marketing officer Brent Smart commented: “Who says B2B work targeting insurance brokers needs to be boring and rational? We created Tall Poppy to get Aussies to think differently about tall poppy syndrome and how it holds us back. CGU’s brand platform “Insuring Ambition” demands ambitious ideas, like wanting to work with The Jim Henson Company, one of the best storytellers in the world. The level of craft and care they brought to this, in addition to that of our brilliant partners at Thinkerbell, really shows in the work.”
Initiative’s chief strategy officer Chris Colter said: “With such an ambitious film as the lead, the rest of our media plan needed to match. With several market-first executions and bold media activations, kicking off by running the five-minute film uninterrupted in 60 Minutes, we’re ensuring CGU Insurance is not just promoting the power of ambition but living it.”
Thinkerbell national chief creative tinker Jim Ingram added: “More than a third of Australians believe that ambition is often regarded as a dirty word – we set out to change their mind with this campaign. Poppy is a heroine for the positive power of ambition, which can lead to creativity and innovation.”
The campaign will roll out across multiple media from 20 February.
Credits:
Client: CGU Insurance
IAG Chief Marketing Officer: Brent Smart
IAG Executive Manager, Intermediated Brands: George Exikanas
Integrated Communications Manager: Cath Bosson
Integrated Communications Specialist: Catherine Verge
Media Specialist: Lisa Jarvis
Media Lead: Tom Dodd
Corporate Communications Manager: Alexandra Peard
Creative and Earned: Thinkerbell
Head Brand Thinker: Gerry Cyron
National Chief Creative Tinker: Jim Ingram
Head Creative Tinker: Sesh Moodley
Lead Tinker: Simon Dall
Design Tinker: Morgan Brown
Head Group Thinker: Ruth Hatch
Lead Thinker: Imagene Callinan
Thinker: Sally Irving
National Head Production Tinker: Grant Anderson
Production Tinker: Ruby Abrahim
National Head Earned and Owned Thinker: Anjana Khallouf
Lead Earned Thinker: Lauren Myers
Chief Thinker: Adam Ferrier
General Manager (North): Katie Dally
Chief Executive Officer: Margie Reid
Production: The Jim Henson Company
Directing: Brian Henson
Producer: Vince Raisa
Producer: Brian Henson
Producer: Rita Peruggi
Co-Producer: Melissa Creighton
Associate Producer: Gigi Bebawi
Media: Initiative
Managing Director: Sam Geer
Chief Strategy Officer: Chris Colter
Group Business Director: Elyse Foley
Communications Design Director: Emma Greenhalgh
Client Director: Alison Bongailas
Partnerships Director: Jessica Scott
Partnerships Manager: Nathan Vega
This was the most self-indulged, confusing piece of media execution I have ever seen in all my born days.
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100% out-sourced to American production company and director… stay loyal Thinkerbell.
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This was the most horrific piece of quasi-branded nonsense I’ve ever seen in my life.
FFS.
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Did all you keyboard puppets even watch it?
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Hats off to a client willing to think this big, but the execution, copywriting and branding are awful. My wife and I were laughing at how dull it was and could never have told you it was for CGU.
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Why would somebody not turn the channel? Can someone please provide minute by minute ratings for a view on audience decline?
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I saw it, was glued for the whole duration (that’s more about the surprising un-tvc pace though), was then waiting for some beautiful payoff, (maybe even a shed tear…!) but it never came. Not even remotely close.
Instead I was very briefly surprised by the brand, and then the thought of ‘wow, what a waste of time that was’ and quickly forgot about the whole thing until I saw this post. The real shame here is that it won’t convert to spend, and then future pitches will fail because “it didn’t work for whatever brand this was when they did it.” Love the 5 minute duration though!
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