303 MullenLowe have sent Sarge, Jacs and Chief out on another Insurance Solved adventure, this time having fun withon a familiar sight in most urban areas – the e-bike and e-scooter. The campaign’s signature humour and hyperbole this time creates an avenging “battalion” of e-bikes and e-scooters and a dramatic car chase when they hunt down the car that has knocked them to the ground.
It’s a credit to 303 MullenLowe that the agency has created two long-running quirky campaigns for Budget Direct that have embedded themselves in popular culture. Captain Risky ran for nearly four years. Sarge, Jacs and Chief’s fun stories have been running for five.
303 MullenLowe Sydney chief creative officer, Bart Pawlak, stated, “Despite being Australia’s fastest growing insurer, Budget Direct refuses to relinquish its challenger mindset. And it’s this quality that makes the brand particularly enjoyable to work on.
“There’s an understanding that the hyperbole needs to be particularly hyperbolic and the cultural observations, like the increasingly ubiquitous nature of e-bikes in our cities, particularly on-point. The data keeps confirming that the Australian consumer is enjoying the work too. And as obvious as it sounds, the Australian consumer is the only audience we ever produce this work for.”
The new campaign is running nationally in Australia across TV, cinema, OOH, digital and radio. The installment highlights how Budget Direct has once again outnumbered the competition to win Money Magazine’s 2023 Insurer of the Year award, taking its record run of awards to a ‘Magnificent Seven’ in a row.
Budget Direct chief growth officer Jonathan Kerr, added, “We set out to create advertising that you can’t ignore. It’s designed to really make you feel something, so you bother to pay attention and then via that ‘earned engagement’, our message has a chance to sink in. Our creative platform allows us to consistently deliver our core narrative but keep the public’s interest by changing gears via ads that sometime leverage humour and other times turn up the drama.
“Budget Direct’s marketing campaign has led to unmatched success with the Australian public, which when combined with our multi-award winning insurance products, continues to make Budget Direct’s marketing campaign the most successful insurance marketing campaign in Australia since its launch.”
Credits:
Client: Budget Direct
Chief Growth Officer, Growth Ops: Jonathan Kerr
General Manager, Marketing and Communications, Growth Ops: Warren Marsh
Senior Marketing Manager, Marketing, Media & Acquisition, Growth Ops: Katie Lansdale
Marketing Manager, Alliance Products: Cathie Harty
Director of Sales and Service: Tom Johns
Agency: 303 MullenLowe
Chief Creative Officer: Bart Pawlak
Creative Director: Adam Whitehead
Managing Director: Joanna Gray
Group Business Director: Ben Glasson
Chief Strategic Officer: Jody Elston
Executive Broadcast Producer: Rachel Devine
Production Company: Good Oil Films
Director: Hamish Rothwell
DOP: Crighton Bone
Executive Producer: Sam Long
Producer: Catherine Warner
Editor: Lucas Baynes
Post Production: Blockhead VFX
VFX Supervisor: Nigel Mortimer
VFX Producer: Charlotte Plowman
Music and Sound Company: Sonar Music
Original Composition: Matteo Zingales
Producer: Haylee Poppi
Sound Designer: Timothy Bridge
Stills Photographer: Matt Baker @ LOUIS & CO
