Barclays evokes prestige. Its direct investing arm advertising invites everyone. That’s a huge achievement for both the bank with a 330-year history and creative agency, VCCP. The campaign is a madcap and un-banky metaphor. Good Move aims to attract more people to invest and close the UK’s investment gap.

The idea for the UK campaign’s hero commercial, Bumpers, came from VCCP, creatives Ben Evans and Adam Sears. It opens on a man in a bowling alley looking at an almost impossible split – two pins left on either side of the lane. He studies it for a moment as George Baker’s jaunty hit, Little Green Bag, begins to play. He looks down at his phone, and logs into his account with Barclays Direct Investing, with titles and voiceover revealing that investing with Barclays Direct Investing is a Good Move. Suddenly, the bumper rails fly up before he sends the bowling ball down the lane. It expertly ricochets against one bumper. Then the other. Then back again. Every rebound exactly where he intended, carrying the ball towards the pins. The ball clips the first pin at exactly the right angle. The pin then spins across the back of the lane towards the other pin. The man sends a kiss down the lane with a confidence that he knows exactly what is coming. The spinning pin catches the second pin, sending both tumbling to the floor.

The 60-second spot and its & 30-second cutdown were directed by Andreas Nilsson through production company Biscuit, in collaboration with VCCP’s content creation studio Girl&Bear. In addition to TV, the campaign spans social, print, OOH, radio and digital. VCCP creatives, Ted Price and Adam Jackson, created the idea for the OOH, while Robbie Field and Ludo Thomas led on brand social and radio. VCCP’s content creation studio, Girl&Bear, produced radio and OOH. VCCP’s digital experience agency, Bernadette, created digital banners and social assets. 

A new vodcast from Barclays, also created for the campaign, explains the links between everyday analogies, behavioural psychology and investing, helping people to make more good investing moves, more often. VCCP Social Club created the vodcast which will live on Barclays website and be supported by paid social cutdowns. 

Media is delivered by OMD, with Oliver producing the performance social and digital assets. 

The campaign launches at a time when investing is increasingly entering the national conversation.The industry-led Invest for the Future campaign, chaired by Sasha Wiggins, chief executive of Barclays Private Bank and Wealth Management, launched earlier this year to change how investing is understood, discussed and adopted in the UK, so that more people understand how it could benefit their financial wellbeing. The Barclays campaign builds on this momentum, helping address some of the barriers that prevent people from investing.

Simon Groves, group MD of brand, creative and media at Barclays, state, “We know that confidence remains one of the biggest barriers preventing people from investing. ‘Good Move’ is designed to challenge that by helping people feel more informed to consider whether investing could play a role in helping them achieve their long-term financial goals. As Barclays works to help more people invest and close the UK’s investment gap, this campaign is an important part of bringing that ambition to life.”

Yan Elliott, creative director at VCCP, added,“The investing world can feel confusing and exclusive. We worked with Barclays to create a campaign that aims to simplify the endless choices and make you feel like you’ve made a Good Move – by investing in an award-winning platform with no monthly fee. So you can know that everything is all in hand. Including a bowling ball.”

Credits:

Client: Barclays

Advertising Agency: VCCP
Chief Creative Officers: Chris Birch and Jonny Parker
Creative Director:  Yan Elliott
Business Director  Kate Fitzgerald
Senior Account Director Luke Chaplin 
Account Manager Takbir Rahman
Associate Creative Directors:  Ben Evans & Adam Sears
Creatives: Adam Jackson & Ted Price, Robbie Field & Ludo Thomas
Deputy Chief Strategy Officer: Stefan Siedentopf
Planning Director: Andy Nicholls
Planner: Isy Purslow
Resource lead: Rachael Hinge
Design Lead: Tegan Barnes
Senior Designer: Steve Tinkler
3D Senior designer: Olivier Beaugrand 
Deputy Head of ArtLab:  Scott Mitchell
Assistant ArtLab Managers: Lee Forster & Layla Elsekaifi
Midweight Post Producer: Noah Thompson
Producer  Film and Content:  Frankie Burwell
Broadcast affairs: Alexia Collins 
Integrated Production Director: Hannah Wood 
Integrated Creative Producer:  Charlotte McCluksey
Project Director:  Bobby Parmar
Senior Project Manager: Sue Awotar
Senior Designer Digital  Simon Bostock

Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks 
Director: Andreas Nillson
DOP: Lasse Frank
MD: Rupert Reynolds-Maclean
Executive Producer: Daisy Mellors
Producer: Lucy Gossage
Production Manager: Alice Hopgood

Photography: Stanleys Post: Pete Stedman, Katie Vlasova & Paul  Stokoe

Post-Production: Selected Works
Creative Director: Wes
VFX Supervisor: Pete Hodsman
Compositors: Al Hamer, Ed Poulson, James Pratt, Max Marshall, Rocio Herrero
CG Lead: Dave Hempstead
CG Artist: Sarah Hiley
Executive Producer: Alex Fitzgerald
Producer: Beatriz de Carvalho
Colourist: Hannibal Lang

Edit: The Quarry
Editor: Ben Campbell
Edit Assistant: Lawrence Lakshmanan
Producer: Dilia Knobel-Winterstein

Sound: King Lear
Sound Engineer: Jack Sedgwick

Music: Little Green Bag by George Baker Selection
Music Supervision: Twelve Decibels
Music Supervisors: Ellie Donohue & Matt Le