The thing that most gambling brands don’t tell you is that you don’t always win. Losing is not in their picture. But it is in challenger online betting brand, MrQ’s. Its campaign by agency, Fall Off The Wall (FOTW), and production company, Armoury,blends tongue-in-cheek humour into a refreshingly simple and straightforward message around gambling: you win some, you lose some – but ultimately, it’s all about the thrill of playing.
FOTW’s campaign introduces MrQ as a no-nonsense gaming brand that doesn’t take itself too seriously – and is a surprisingly honest player within an industry not known for transparency and truthfulness.
The campaign, directed by Armoury’s Simon Levene, is built with a series of six 30-second spots. The quick-fire win-or-lose vignettes introduce audiences to The Player, a cool-as-a-cucumber character who plays things straight to the point of silliness, along with his portly sidekick and perfect comic foil.
Whether sculpting a clay pot Ghost-style, appearing on a retro game show, playing chess, or attempting the classic magic trick of whipping a tablecloth from under a dinner service, the Player comes out on top or fails spectacularly in different versions of the same scenario. But he always remains sanguine about the outcome – epitomising the brand’s You Win Some, You Lose Some line in a colourful way.
Marlon Griffin, creative director, Fall Off the Wall, commented,“MrQ’s ‘The Player’ is a realist. He’s no faff and says it how it is. His character is lovable – and no matter how suave he tries to be, we see the human reality that not everything always goes his way. But he’s OK with that. He accepts that’s how life is as you ‘Win some, you Lose some’. I can’t wait to see the reaction to this campaign, I hope people like the spots as much as we do. We’ve created enough ads for a year’s campaign, but our brains are already whirling for The Player’s next outing.”
Savvas Fellas, founder of MrQ, added,“As a business and as a brand, we like to tell it as it is. We’re realists and we want to appeal to realists. The realist who knows there will be losses and there might be wins.”
“We love how honest this ad is – and that’s what appealed to us the most. We think it’s quite cool for a casino brand to dedicate 50% of their commercial to losing,” stated Matt Hichens, managing director & executive producer at Armoury. “A great opportunity for Armoury to combine comedic timing with some really stylised set design and art direction to get brutally honest about life – ‘You win some, you lose some’.”
Director Simon Levene added,“We were able to mine deep into a very British, left of centre, fun, exaggerated-for-comic-effect style – and this gave us scope to take risks with a sense of heightened reality and dramatic colours that will be very memorable.”
The campaign will run on TV from Wednesday March 1 2023 with a 30-scond and 10-second advert across ITV, Channel 4 and Sky channels.
Credits:
Client: MrQ
Founder: Savvas Fellas
Head of Acquisition: James Booth
Head of Design: Noel Zahra
Agency: Fall Off The Wall
Creative Director: Marlon Griffin
Producer: Charlotte Morgan
Senior Creative: Kieran Clark
Creative Production: Armoury
Director: Simon Levene
DOP: Ian Murray
Executive Producer: Matt Hichens
Producer: James Mclaughlin
Bulgarian Service Production Company: Four Elementz
Executive Producer: Rosen Savkov
Offline Edit: Work Editorial
Editor: Mark Edinoff
Grade: Electric Theatre Company
Colourist: Luke Morrison
Post Production: Fall Off The Wall
VFX Lead: Mark Wingell
VFX Designer: Hieran Chauhan
Audio: Sounds Good Studio
Sound Engineer: Martin Leitner
