Matthew Miller
Jan 5, 2015

Captain Risky versus Neil and Gaz: A tale of two insurance campaigns

AUSTRALIA - Auto-insurers Budget Direct and AAMI square off with new campaigns that use humour to target Australian drivers. While one company showcases risky, jet-powered behaviours, the other focuses on a race where speeds don't even exceed 40 kilometres per hour.

Captain Risky versus Neil and Gaz: A tale of two insurance campaigns

Clients: Budget Direct and AAMI

Agency: 303Lowe for Budget Direct; Ogilvy Melbourne for AAMI

Market: Australia

Campaign scope:

Budget Direct: Cinema, TV, digital, social, print and outdoor advertising featuring 'Captain Risky', a "loveable daredevil character who designs his life around risk and can’t work out why Budget Direct won’t insure him."

 

AAMI: TV, digital, outdoor, online, social media and radio campaign in which the brand's recurring characters, Neil and Gaz, showcase the company's Safe Driver App and "Australia's Best Driver" contest (top prize A$100,000).   

 

Press release quote:

Budget Direct: Richard Morgan, ECD, 303Lowe: “Captain Risky is a larger than life, adrenaline-loving, front man for Budget Direct. Risk is his passion and his reason for being. He embodies all the high-risk activities that Budget Direct will not insure." 

AAMI: Brendon Guthrie, ECD, Ogilvy Melbourne: “People are naturally competitive and there’s an inherent self-satisfaction in beating others and earning bragging rights. Driving is no exception, but we needed to ensure it was demonstrated within the limits of safe driving. Enter Neil and Gaz, who tap into this competitive insight in a humorous way.”

Campaign Asia-Pacific comments:

Both campaigns have strong points: Cinematic scope and fairly impressive visual effects in the Brand Direct ad (303Lowe's first work for the account, which it won in August), lovably silly characters in the AAMI campaign. If forced to choose, we'd give the edge to AAMI because its campaign entices potential customers to take a specific action (downloading the app) with an attractive carrot (the prize money). That said, Budget Direct's argument—that it is already doing the work to keep rates low—is also compelling, and it would be interesting to assess the success of the divergent approaches later on.

CREDITS

Ogilvy Melbourne for AAMI

ECD: Brendon Guthrie
Senior Copywriter: Lenna Boland
Art Director: Jesse McCormack
Agency Producer: Lauren Free
Director: Matt Kamen
Production Company: Good Oil
Producer: Llew Griffiths
Group Account Director: Matt Rose
Account Director: Toby Gill
Account Manager: Rebecca Lawler

303Lowe for Budget Direct

ECD: Richard Morgan
Copywriter: Sean Larkin
Art Director: Adam Whitehead
Head of Business Management: Tony Dunseath
Business Director: Sophie O’Sullivan
Head of Strategy: Jon McKie
Agency Producer: Amanda Cain & Sean Ascroft
Director of Marketing & Digital: Jonathan Kerr
General Manager New Customer Acquisition: Paul Duggan
Campaign Manager: Jenni Osborne
Director: Hamish Rothwell
Production Company: GoodOil
Producer: Sam Long
D.O.P:  Crighton Bone
Editor: Mark Burnett
Effects: Alt VFX
Music/ Sound: Song Zu
Photographer: Mat Baker,
Stills Production: Louis & Co.

 

Source:
Campaign Asia

Related Articles

Just Published

9 hours ago

The anti-trend trend: How Starbucks aspires to use ...

THE CMO'S MO: Inspired by Apple, Starbucks Asia's marketing head, Samuel Fung, is blending tradition and innovation with a back-to-basics approach to build loyalty in a competitive market.

9 hours ago

STB partners with NBA to attract fans from the region

The Singapore Tourism Board seeks to make the city state an attractive destination for sport fans, as it looks further afield to boost its ambitious goals for inbound visitors.

9 hours ago

X partners with Magnite to boost programmatic ad sales

Magnite joins Google and PubMatic as official third-party sellers of X’s ad inventory which can help fill unsold inventory and attract more advertisers.

10 hours ago

Love looks different in Asia now, and so should ...

More people in Asia are choosing singlehood; it’s time brands moved beyond dated romantic tropes to catch up with times for V-Day marketing, argues this writer.