Budget Direct introduces viewers to Detective Sarge in major campaign via 303 MullenLowe
Budget Direct has launched its new campaign via 303 MullenLowe, Sydney with a 2min 30sec TVC, which airs tonight on primetime television, including Sunday Night on 7, 60 Minutes on 9 and The Project on 10. The 2min 30sec spot will also run on cinema and YouTube. A 60sec version of the TVC also starts its run on Sunday.
The campaign blends together a new take on the classic crime thriller mystery with a unique series of otherworldly events. The campaign introduces a new character, a detective named Sarge, who investigates a series of truly remarkable incidents. Despite the inexplicable happenings, Sarge uncovers the real mystery–why the people involved in these incidents paid more than they had to for their insurance. The spot concludes with the message, “It’s a mystery why anyone would pay more for insurance. Get award-winning cover for less with Budget Direct” and the new campaign line, “Budget Direct – Insurance Solved.”
The campaign was shot by legendary British director Daniel Kleinman, through production company Goodoil. Kleinman is well-known for his award-winning commercial work as well as the James Bond film title sequences.
The project was led by ECD Richard Morgan, creative director Adam Whitehead and copywriter Mike Burdick.
Regarding his final project for the agency Morgan said: “It’s been a privilege working with such a talented team and courageous brand on a new campaign of this scale. Over four years Captain Risky became a household name and helped Budget Direct to become Australia’s fastest growing car and home insurer. Not one to rest on their laurels, Budget Direct challenged us with another unique brief, and it’s been a pleasure to create the new campaign that truly reflects Budget Direct’s ambitions to lift the bar once again.”
Says Jonathan Kerr, chief marketing officer, Budget Direct: “We set out to make Budget Direct’s new marketing campaign just as innovative, engaging and unique as our ability to offer award-winning insurance for less. Now that we’ve got Sarge on the case, we hope Australians enjoy the ads and in turn consider our message even more.”
The campaign was filmed in and around Sydney.
Says Kleinman: “It was a marvellous opportunity for a director to work on the new Budget Direct campaign, bringing new characters to life and working with not only great actors but also a wonderful team of people in Australia, including the crew, agency and client. I feel that ‘Sarge and Jac’ are characters that we’ll enjoy watching and following now and in the future as the sensible question they have for Australia is posed in a such an entertaining way.”
The commercials were cut at The Editors, Alt.VFX were tasked with the VFX, and Sonar contributed the original music score. All campaign photography was shot by Mat Baker.
Says Nick Cleaver, CEO, 303MullenLowe: “This is a campaign that will lead the category in terms of being highly entertaining and effective. It’s not only compelling viewing it vividly highlights the benefit of taking out a policy with Budget Direct.”
In the run up to the launch, 6sec teasers were seeded on YouTube and Facebook, with teaser large format digital billboards across major cities and online display. The campaign will encompass the full array of integrated channels, created and managed in-house by Budget Direct’s in-house marketing & digital team.
Client – Budget Direct
Chief Marketing Officer – Jonathan Kerr
General Manager – Brand & Media Marketing: Warren Marsh
Marketing Manager – New Customer Acquisition: Catherine Harty
Budget Direct’s Remarkable In-House Marketing & Digital Team
Agency – 303 MullenLowe
Executive Creative Director – Richard Morgan
Creative Director – Adam Whitehead
Senior Copywriters – Mike Burdick / Sean Larkin
Agency Producer – Sean Ascroft
Client Services Director – Tony Dunseath / Joanna Gray
Senior Business Director – Meredith Raskopf
Business Director – Olivia Maguire
Head of Strategy – Jon McKie
Production Company – Goodoil Films / Rattling Stick
Director – Daniel Kleinman
Executive Producers – Sam Long / Johnnie Frankel
Producer – Andrew McLean
DOP – Ginny Loane
Editors – Mark Burnett @The Editors
Editorial Assistant – Lily Davis
Post Production – alt.vfx
VFX Supervisor – Jay Hawkins
VFX Producer – Celeste Fairlie
Music and Sound Company: Sonar Music
Music Composer – Matteo Zingales
Executive Producer – Sophie Haydon
Sound Designer – Timothy Bridge
Audio Director – Wes Chew
Foley – Longstocking Studios
Stills Photographer – LOUIS & CO, The Mighty Mat Baker
Stills Digi Op – The Incredible Carl Baker
85 Comments
You walked away from one of the simplest, most iconic, flexible formulas in insurance advertising to create this????? Every other insurer CMO is celebrating today.
That is a steamer.
These ads are much better than your ‘iconic, flexible formula’.
Hilarious. Well done.
That was one of the most convoluted ideas i’ve seen in recent times. What a waste of money.
Epic, bastards.
Amazingly crafted. Stand out work. Get ready for the jealous haters…
Nice to see something not instantly about flogging product. These guys know the formula from Risky. Great creative work
I hope more clients do big epic ads. It’ll keep everyone employed.
Am I missing something here? Why did all the shit in the first 2 min occur?
Because people are paying too much for insurance? Or if these things occurred then the people insured are stupid if they paid too much?
I watched to the end only because I was hoping I would understand what the hell was going on.
Nicely crafted but so far down a rabbit hole that craft is pointless.
Epic. Ad of the year! Well done guys.
Tragically bad. What an F Up by all concerned
Amazing follow up to Risky, who was one of my favourites.
B.I.G.
Good stuff
I thought people only coughed up buckets for 2+ min TVCs whem they were good.
This is a joke. Talk about duping your client. This ad is not only badly acted and b-grade at best for VFX, it makes little narrative sense.
Probably a good thing it’s not an (overlong) social video where the negative comments could *really* stack up, because boy would they. If there were a Razzles for adland, this would get Grand Prix.
Agree.
Can’t get past the little detective in his too long pants 🙄
This beats the crap out of anything in the category. Great work for brave clients always wins out.
… You can’t polish a turd this big.
The sad thing is the idea in itself is good. But it’s a confusing labrynth of useless narrative that makes no sense whatsoever. On first watch I was kinda excited to see where it went but the payoff was beyond shit house. Could have executed for a quarter of the budget and a quarter of the media spend and in an ad-world full to the brim of shit budgets and shit media spends, I can’t believe I’m actually saying that. What a waste of money. I reckon everyone was so invested in this, no one stepped back to look at it objectively and say, honestly, what the fuck is this shit that we’re making??
C’mon AstroTurfers, enlighten us…
Watch the last 7 seconds, if you still don’t get the idea, seek professional help.
Yes I’m sick of negativity in our tiny industry. But don’t go pumping up your own work when it’s this convelouded, long, pointless. This is such a waste of good client money and such a wasted opportunity. Risky was always going to be hard to follow up, but this is just ridiculously bad.
Thank you – you’ve just highlighted the problem.
The last 7 seconds says it all – 99% of the 2mins and 23 secs that precedes it are all but useless.
Sorry buddy. The last 7 seconds delivers the line but the line doesn’t make sense of what has happened before. And don’t argue. You’ll be wrong.
Sorry boys, I fricken loved it. The post is amazing, Alt at the top of the game.
Can’t wait to see the product extensions
When’s the last time you made an ad with a pterodactyl/dugong? This would have been fxxking fun to make and this morning everyone’s talking about Budget Direct.
Should be fired!
Caught it last night and was confused, studied it again this morning and was even more confused.
Lacking an idea and simplicity. Probably the fail of the year.
Risky was such a great idea, built on a great insight and company truth. This new tripe is just a convoluted mess. Just terrible. The line / takeout makes no sense to the 2.20 that preceded it. Shame, when a client takes a risk and then this rubbish is delivered.
I feel like I’m watching a weightlifter blowing out his intestines backwards from straining so hard.
Trying way to hard to make people who don’t care care.
Who’s the head of marketing, Captain Risky?
F&#ck thats good looking vfx. Well done
Are you seriously suggesting, in all your hack wisdom, that the idea is ‘it’s a mystery why people pay high premiums’.
If you think that’s an idea, you must work at 303.
Go back to ad school or get a job in a real agency that knows the difference between an idea, an execution and a tagline.
That is a tagline.
The stuff before it is executional drivel with no idea.
An idea might have been, for example, ‘the high premiums some people pay would only make sense in a world where dragons, aliens and ghosts wrought havoc’…
But sadly, that’s not the idea. Because:
1 – you can’t articulate it, either here or in your release
2 – someone else had to suggest an idea to you so you knew the difference between an idea and a tagline
3 – this ad is a total mess
Good luck getting a Bronze in Zimbabwe for this.
OH MY GOSH
THIS IS GENIUS, UTTER AND TOTAL GENIUS
To Mr Kerr, Warren, Catherine and the Budget Direct Marketing team, I am going to name my future children after your pure and ferocious talented selves.
I can’t believe this.
I have NEVER seen anything like this. Poetry in motion.
The only thing this beautiful is when MJ dunked from the free throw line in 88.
Mr Ker you and your team are the insurance MVP’s
…better than the ‘ad’.
Spot the irony.
A company / ad that’s about not paying too much for something produces an epic b-grade communications fail that runs to 2min30sec on prime time tv.
You can’t write worse brand hypocrisy.
^ LOL at all the comments….
I think budget, my bottom his the nail on the head. I hope they can get a refund.
This is promoting every other insurance broker in the industry. *face palm.
That’s some real good shit, right there.
….to think that as an industry we are producing something as bad as this. When clients spend so little money, only for an opportunity to arise, and this is what is produced is just unbelievable. It shows that crafting and producing a succinct story needs storytellers – people who know and have shown how to create a story arc.
This is just a complete waste of time and money.
Saw this on TV last night. While I agree that this is a major WTF and fail… was the only redeeming part of the semblance of a strategy to get everyone confused to the point that they have to hold out for the brand reveal? And once you’re there, you can’t unsee what you have just seen? Brand recall high. For all the wrong reasons?
Even if that were the ‘idea’ of it, brand recall does not equate to sales. You can remember something ’cause it’s as irritating as fresh cat poo – that doesn’t meant you’ll spend money on it. It’d probably make you call the competitor.
Budget Direct….oh the irony.
Very ambitious. I can’t say it works completely, but better to see interesting ambitious ads than boring same old characters and ideas. Interesting to see what they do next.
Amazing where they’ve taken this since ‘Budgé Budgé…. Budget love’.
Anyone who disagrees with that is a cnut.
I hope it works its socks off, certainly has put Sydney agencies on notice.
@ Steve Bannon. All the comments praising this ad are FAKE NEWS! I mean why would a company who calls themselves Budget Direct make a commercial that costs a fortune. It doesn’t make sense. Am I right? Of course I am. It’s terrible folks what’s going on. Budget Direct hasn’t given reason why we should choose them. They’ve got nothing to say just like the Democrats.
Yes, they’re on notice.
On strict notice not to hire anyone on the credits of this ginormous clanger!
And we wonder why clients don’t give us proper budgets. This is a disgraceful, self indulgent mess.
This is a genuine stinker. What a waste of time and momey. If the creatives spent half as much time searching for insights as the did commenting on this press release, they maybe and
Sorry if I sound a tad dated but the whole principle of making short (ish) TVC’s is to come up with a simple, great idea that can be made into entertaining viewing that can successfully produced in 60 sec. Adam, Sean, Mike, you’re smart boys…if you want to make epic long form movies then leave the industry. Stick to the tried and tested. Attention grabbing 30/60 sec TVC’s. This is so fucking bad that I feel bad shitting on my mate’s work, but unfortunately as has been said before in previous posts, you can’t polish a turd. It’s crap. Move on…stop trying to protect work that sucks.
I love this ad but what’s driving me crazy is Who is the actor playing the detective
Who knows, but unlike the agency staff named here, he’d be grateful for the anonymity.
The whiff off this thing.
*homer simpson voice* well I liked it
You hysterical idiots. The only thing this short film needs to do is to introduce a character. It doesn’t have to sell anything. That will come in the campaign.
Have you met Sarge? He solves mysteries, right? Job done.
The campaign. I hope, will show Sarge trying to figure out why people spend more on insurance. What the hell is wrong with that as a campaign idea?!
The comments above are from people so brainwashed by a formula of selling the message every 30 seconds they can’t think beyond that, even for a launch ad.
Having said that, I hope the dialogue becomes less like the Simpsons “He gets results you stupid chief” and more witty.
Me lose brain? Uh-oh!
What dis?
We’re not all stupid Pete.
What you say is correct but the execution is so excruciatingly long and poorly acted that the pay-off just takes too long to get to.
The only people that will watch it all the way through are ad people because it’s doubtful if it’s good enough to maintain viewers nation.
The sooner the much shorter version go to air the better.
Then maybe we will get to know and understand Sarge just as you assert.
To those people hating on this, you are either (a) kidding yourself (b) have an axe to grind or (c) both.
By any standard this ad is GREAT. The casting, dialogue, cinematography, effects, pacing, music are all spot on. Even if it’s not your cup of tea at least they are dreaming big and giving it a go. Which is far more than can be said for most work currently emerging from this industry.
The opportunity to do work like this is what got me into this industry and – for now at least – keeps me here. If creatives can’t give a begrudging thumbs up to ALL the best work coming out of it, we’ll be replaced by robots pumping out social posts, research companies directing our ideas into obscurity and influencers creating an ‘authentic product narrative.’ We are not 5 years away from this fact if our industry doesn’t get its S&^% together.
Marketing budgets aren’t created in a vacuum. If CEO’s and CMO’s can cut costs and not have to bother doing big iconic work, they will do so in a heartbeat.
Maybe you can do better. I hope so. I’d suggest that the best way to give yourself that opportunity is help create an environment that enables it. This is not someone else’s problem or responsibility – it’s yours. Ignore it at your own and our industry’s peril.
Passionate defence. Can you now tell me what the spot is about?
This wins nothing. And drives business down.
3 small problems with your allegedly more intelligent assessment:
1: “it doesn’t have to sell anything” … sorry pal, it’s an ad; ads’ purpose is to sell
products; even content’s is, it’s just soft-sell; but it’s sell
2: “that will come in the campaign”… this isn’t part of the campaign? and what if this is the only piece of comms a potential customer sees? quite possible. quite stupid.
3: if this is meant to be a teaser or cliffhanger, it’s pretty well-disguised; and probably missing the words “To be continued” at the end; ergo, it’s probably not intended as that.
Trax: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0163994/?ref_=tt_cl_t3
Hamish Clark played Duncan on Monarch of the Glen. Drove me nuts too.
Loved Monarch of the Glen and Duncan thought it was him first time I saw the ad
OMG, thank you Monica! I was going crazy trying to work out who it was.
Thanks Monica
I loved this ad! Stoked to see Hamish Clark, brilliant move ☺
One thing is for sure, it was expensive!! do I like it? nope, do I think it will make a difference? I hope so, can I critic it? yes, boring, cheesy, weak call to action, weak branding and too long….
As a member of the public, I and most of my family members loved it. It may have been confusing but was both interesting and amusing. We almost wished it was a real series. 😀😀 Some ads do not make sense, some are stupid and plain boring. Some you instantly tune out, but this one makes me laugh every time. Well done.After all isn’t the point of advertising to grab the public’s attention?
This ad achieves that. Thank you. My only question is who are the actors?
SoozyB. You have hit the nail right on the head. Unlike some of the pretensous posers writing above. They probably think Rob Lowe and his “hold the buns” witisisms are good ads. Probably cost the same. Also Noom may be a useful diet scheme but their ads are truly worthy of slagging off at.
Budget Direct ads are different, weird, memorable and entertaining. Lots of people on this thread need to get a life.
Hamish would have done it better
Dialogue and accents unintelligible in cinema
I remember that the ad is for Budget Direct which is the point. It’s one of the few ads that I watch to the very end. Every time. It’s great.
Who are the main actors?
Fantastic ads, better than most programmes on TV, keep em coming – make a movie! Actors are brilliant
Please let me know the names of the main actors in this wonderful ad for Budget Direct? and will they be doing any more in the near future??
Job well done, we all love it here in Australia. Cheers Norm Bakker.
Isn’t this a take off on the Colombo Detective series from the 80’s?
I have hated this ad since the first time I saw it on TV and couldn’t work out what the heck it was about. What does insurance have to do with aliens? The ad itself is very messy, the actors are cheesy and terrible and I have come to the conclusion that it must have been a brain-dead moron who came up with the idea. Hopefully, it won’t be on our screens for much longer.
Totally
I simply love these ads and have a smile every time they come onto the screen. It wins big time because of the two main characters and the relationship between them – the zany situations in which they find themselves are kind of irrelevant. I’ve switched to Budget Direct…
Love the ads. Never took any notice of Budget Direct ever before but they perfectly promote the brand in a catchy way that is not too arrogant or complicated. Whole family laughs when they come on. Nailed it!
I absolutely love this series of ads. Totally brilliant concepts! In fact I would love to see an entire TV series based on these crazy plots. Keep them coming.
I love the adds to see the red haired girl
Worst ads out there… the chick has less emotion and personality than Scully (thus the inferior attempt) and the fool she appears beside is annoyingly inept at being entertaining. At least Wallet Wizard don’t waste money being annoying and low budget… and are slightly more memorable for it (not a good thing)
Considering that this campaign is STILL going in 2023, I think the commenters who thought the client had done their dosh on this ad have been proven wrong and the supporters have been vindicated!
Sitting here in mid 2024 I’d have sworn blind this campaign was running much longer than late 2018