A new octane-action drama has launched in Australia, with all the irresistible elements of a classic heist movie – high-stakes target, specialised crew, a meticulous plan, unforeseen complications, and a clever twist. Except it’s irrepressibly funny, and it’s an ad – a total reimagining of how financial advertising can appeal. The Heist, created by creative company, Princess, for MLC, has Exit director, Mark Molloy’s fingerprints all over it – sharp, precisely detailed and full of wonderful characters.

The cinematic comedy follows a loveable crew of everyday Australians as they devise an increasingly elaborate scheme so that they can retire happy. There are guards to overcome, cameras to disable, a code hidden in a dog’s collar and a safe full of gold. The absurdity makes a simple point – Australians shouldn’t have to pull off the impossible to retire happy. Instead, they can make a plan with MLC.

The strategy takes aim at a category that has conditioned Australians to think of super as only a big number – something to sit on, forget and deal with later. It continues MLC’s position to focus on the now, helping people plan on how to use and invest their money best as they accumulate their super and then throughout their retirement.

Renee Howie, chief customer officer at MLC, stated, “Super funds have spent decades talking to Australians about the number they might end up with. We want to start a more meaningful conversation about the life that number needs to support. A great retirement doesn’t begin on the day you stop working. It is shaped over a lifetime.”

For Princess, just one year old, the campaign is its biggest production to date. The Princess founders stated, “You know you’re onto something when you’re tripping over yourself in excitement to tell the client. MLC only ever want to see big, brave ideas and they embraced the work from the get-go. In our minds, there was only one person who could get on board and make our idea a reality and that was Mark Molloy. He believed in the idea from the moment we first shared it with him, and things only got better from there…”

It’s the first major work from two-time Emmy nominated filmmaker, Molloy, since the globally applauded Adidas Backyard Legends lit up the World Cup. The original score was composed by Elliott Wheeler, award-winning composer and long-time collaborator of Baz Luhrmann. Visual effects were entrusted to FIN Design, one of Australia’s leading VFX studios, whose recent feature film credits include Alien: Romulus and Ant-Man. Sound design and mix come from 750mph, one of the UK’s leading sound studios, whose work includes Nike’s Nothing Beats a Londoner, collaborating with Sonar Music to bring it all together.

Mark Molloy commented, “I’ve worked with the creatives from Princess before, so I knew what kind of ambition I was signing up for. The Heist let us make something fun and cinematic out of a category that rarely gets to be – plus I’ve always wanted to make a classic caper film.”

The hero film spearheads a huge campaign, with 171+ AV assets to be spread across TV, cinema, BVOD/SVOD, OOH, social, online, radio and owned channels over 24 months. This multidimensional approach was intentional from the outset, ensuring that the campaign idea touches every phase of the customer journey, from awareness to acquisition, driving maximum value from the complex production.

The Princess founders concluded,“It takes a lot of trust, partnership and courage to make this kind of work. We could never have done it without the team at MLC, Exit, Mark, The Editors, Fin, Sonar, and Elliot our composer, 750mph, Louis & Co and Cream.”

Credits
Client: MLC Australia
Chief Customer Officer: Renee Howie
GM of Brand and Content: Wylie Fowler
Senior Manager Brand, Advertising and Media: Dennis Poropat
Head of Client and Brand Insights: Tracy Lane
Head of Customer Marketing, MasterTrust: Ana Weaver
Senior Manager Creative Operations: Angela Lemon
Senior Media Activation Manager: Justyna Zawadzka
Senior Content Manager: Caitlin Shennan
Brand Performance Manager: Megan McAuliffe

Agency: Princess A Creative Company
Founders: Beth O’Brien, Cameron Bell, Sam Dickson, Jonny Berger
Chief Strategy Officer: Lilian Sor
Executive Producer: Renata Barbosa
Client Lead: Cece Chieng
Operations Lead: Mez Truong
Design Director: Josh Hart
Head of Studio: Grant Graham

Production Company: EXIT
Director Mark Molloy
Managing Director: Declan Cahill
Managing Partner: Wilf Sweetland
Executive Producer: Leah Churchill-Brown
Producer:  Alex Taussig
Line Producer & Hea of Productiom: Jacquie Riley
Production Manager: Elaine Roy
Production Co-ordinator: Millie Lombardo
Casting: Natalie Harvie
DOP: Sam Chiplin
1st AD: Jeremy Fitzgerald
Production Designer: Steven Jones Evans
Costume Designer: Joanna Mae Park Key Hair & Make-Up: Yvonne Savage
Stunts: Harry Dakanalis

Editing: The Editors
Editors: Alexandre de Franceschi & Jack Hutchings
Editor Assistant: Rosie Byrne
Producer: Nicoletta Rousianos

VFX: FIN Design & Effects 
VFX Supervisor: Mikey Brown
Flame Artist: Jacob Street
Executive Producer: Emily Newbould 
Colourist: Fergus Rotherham

Photographer: Ian Butterworth 

Stills Production Company: Louis & Co 
Producer: Luke Della Santa 
Post-Production & Retouching: Cream

Executive Music Director: Elliott Wheeler
Executive Music Producer: Emma Hoy
Composition & Arrangement: Scott Langley
Sound Post-Production: Sonar Music
Score Mixer: Evan McHugh
Sound Design and Mix: 750mph
Sound Designer: Sam Ashwell & Jake Ashwell 
Executive Producer: Olivia Ray
Head of Production: Rachel Saxon

Media: Kaimera
Chief Client Officer: Anna Magliano
Chief Strategy Officer: Max Broer
Client Director: Rachel Evans
Client Manager: Caitlin Walsh