iSelect introduces Aussies to Bobby Holland Hanton in new campaign via Fenton Stephens
iSelect’s all about helping people try to find better deals. So when looking for the face of its new brand campaign, Fenton Stephens encouraged iSelect to do exactly that.
Introducing Bobby Holland Hanton.
Not only is Bobby an actor and personal trainer, he does all his own cool stunts and he’s way better value.
Says Paul Coco, executive – marketing, iSelect: “We wanted to show people in a humorous way that iSelect compares more than just health insurance. So when they try to find a better deal on all the other essential stuff, like energy, internet and car insurance, they know iSelect has them covered.”
Due to Bobby’s stunt double commitments, the ad had to be shot in a medieval castle in Prague. Bummer.
So a small entourage from Fenton Stephens and Good Oil jumped on a plane – crazy concept – and headed overseas.
Except for Good Oil director, Adam Gunser, who wasn’t allowed out of New Zealand. Sorry Adam.
With Gunser directing remotely from New Zealand, Good Oil’s Melbourne-based director Tom Campbell on the ground in Prague, Stillking managing local production, cinematographer Antonio Paladino flying in from Berlin, visual effects from Blockhead and editing from The Editors in Sydney, an original composition from Nir Tsfaty and sound by Production Alley in Melbourne, this ad truly was an international effort.
Says Alex Fenton, chief creative officer, Fenton Stephens: “The idea to use Bobby Holland Hanton was based on a better-value insight – what we didn’t know was that Bobby’s a cool, great value individual. Lots of fun to work with and meticulously professional.”
This is only the beginning for iSelect and their stunt double. Stay tuned to find out what they do next.
Client: iSelect
Executive – Marketing: Paul Coco
Public Relations Manager: Jessie Petterd
Agency: Fenton Stephens
Chief Creative Officer: Alex Fenton
Chief Executive Officer: Simon Antonis
Senior Planner: Clint Mellsop
Copywriter: Isabel Evans
Art Director: Amanda Chen
Director of Client Services: Amy Stephens
Account Manager: Charissa Martin
Agency Producer: Lisa Ramsey
Production Company: Good Oil
Director: Adam Gunser
Stunt Double Director: Tom Campbell
Producer: Tracey-Lee Permall
Executive Producer: Juliet Bishop & Simon Thomas
Facilitation Prague: Stillking
Facilitation Producer: Adam Lux
Line Producer: Alexandra Vondráčková
D.O.P: Antonio Paladino
Editor: Mark Burnett @ The Editors
Post Production: Blockhead VFX
Colourist: Billy Wychgel
VFX Sup: Hitesh Patel
Production Design: Radek Hanák
Sound: Production Alley
Sound Engineer: Rodney Lowe
Sound Producer: Les Molnar
Composer: Nir Tsfaty
27 Comments
A complicated idea made even more difficult to understand via poor audio. It’s taken me many viewings on my TV (with studio quality Genelec sound system) just to hear the talent’s lines, without which there simply isn’t a story.
a proper ad. it’s been so long. i laughed
not what i expected from iselect in a good way
well done to all involved. i’d love this in my book
Why? Why? Why?
Meh
Great stuff for the category. Refreshing to see unexpected creative driven by a great insight. Way to go Fenton Stephens!
He’s no Doug Pitt.
Hats off Is & Amanda! What an epic, epic accomplishment. Well done.
Well done Iz & Amanda. What a beast to wrangle.
This is just the Virgin Doug Pitt idea but not funny.
Looks really, really nice. A welcomed bigger budget for AUS advertising.
Hats off to Good Oil for salvaging. No doubt it would have been a super tough and lengthy production process.
The actual creative is an absolute swing and a miss.
for a long winded, confusing drink. Keep it simple.
Great stuff team, love the action!!
This is terrible and close to a complete waste of money.
Iselect has never got its marketing communications right but never was it ever this bad.
This is completely nonsensical and really poorly branded. It won’t cut down well either. It does nothing at all for iselect.
I agree 100%. In trying to find something positive to say, at least iSelect believe in advertising: they’ve tried a dozen different campaign ideas. Hopefully the 13th will work.
Was ok. But miles better than this. This is confusing and complicated, and not very orange (or optimistic feeling), and not very relatable.
Normally I like lateral takes on propositions.. but unfortunately this comes across as a bad ill considered investment.
What was that?
Where it’s due. Nice spot and Bobby Holland Hanton is a top bloke.
Shame he didn’t get a credit.
He is a legend in the stunt community and a lovely, funny bloke indeed. I had a blast chatting to him on the B-side.
Nice one team.
For real people don’t get this? More orange?
It makes perfect sense and it’s entertaining. Like I wanted to watch it all the way through. Tick.
Punters will love this.
I smell politics at play. Such a shame when comments don’t reflect the work.
No. Advertising that requires 100% attention and is still so hard to follow, let alone hear properly is not good advertising. Good advertising isn’t just different, or surprising, though those qualities are essential, it’s got to be easy to grasp. This requires mental gymnastics that are far beyond the great unwashed.
As the agencies now line up again to accept the I select hot potato
Advice – please give it to an agency who understands how advertising works BMF and Yhe monkeys have a pretty good idea but there are loads of others too
iSelect must be a very strong business if it can throw so much money at so many different ad campaigns over the years in the hope of finding something that works.
This is copping way too much negativity for what it is. It’s big, fun to watch, funny. The guy has good comedic timing. The idea is nice. Who cares about that Doug Pitt thing from 187 years ago. No one remembers it outside of advertising, and to be honest, it was boring. Good on iSelect for taking a risk and good on Fentons for getting it made overseas during a pandemic of all things.
So they use Bobby because he’s better value, but then decide to shoot the whole thing at great expense in Prague? Kind of flies in the face of the strategy.
Have you ever worked with what’s called a ‘budget’? No? Ok so what happens is, the client gives the agency a production budget to make an ad, and the agency comes back to the client with ideas that can be made within said budget. Now, because Bobby is better value than Chris Hemsworth, it meant that the production could literally afford fly to Prague where Bobby was already working to shoot said ad on said budget. If they’d tried to use Chris Hemsworth no doubt the budget wouldn’t have even afforded his fee. That’s a very good real-world demonstration of the idea if you ask me.
Ever heard of semiotics? No? Ok, so the visual and symbolic cues of your ad actually carry meaning beyond the functional production logistics tripe you just outlined. For example – AHM Insurance is a budget insurance option, which uses a simple black and white animation style. It cues ‘low cost’, ‘simple’ and ‘no fuss’. The underlying message is – “we spend less on our ads, and pass on the savings to you”.
In contrast, this big budget Hollywood style iSelect ad, (which is clearly shot in an overseas location) does the complete opposite. For a brand whose strategy is around saving money and finding better value, it seems like a strange move and detracts from the overall message. I’m not saying they should have shot it in Australia. I think the entire idea is flawed.
Oi dont drag me into it