We’re so starved of practical effects; even a spot promoting financial services can be magical in the right hands.
Ads for financial services are not something I go out of my way to watch. I tend to be almost entirely price-led, so if I’m seeking a loan, mortgage or whatever, I’ll spend my whole time on comparison sites working out the best deal. I’m not really swayed by branding in this sector, and if an ad comes out, I generally zone out.
So this, for me, is a pretty rare thing: an ad for exactly this type of company that had me entranced.
That’s partly because it features Keeley Hawes, whose mesmerising performance in Ashes to Ashes still haunts my dreams. (If you don’t know what that is, and you can access BBC iPlayer, watch it now.) But it’s also because of how it was filmed. In a nutshell, Keeley wanders a canyon of paper… and something magical happens.
Fresh perspective
Created by brand consultancy and creative agency Isobel, the campaign is called ‘See your wealth differently’, and it’s built on a simple idea: good financial advice isn’t about giving people more information, but helping them make sense of what they already know.
This is why the launch film, titled ‘Answers’, sees the actor wandering through a maze of towering walls made up of endless printed pages. As a metaphor, it’s simple, but it works. We don’t need a complex backstory: it’s obvious that Keeley is lost in a world of confusing detail, something anyone who’s applied for financial services will have experienced.
It’s a warm, dreamlike sequence, with loose sheets drifting through shafts of light and piling up underfoot. The key for me is that it all feels so visceral. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that there’s no CGI.
Instead of building the canyon digitally, the team created actual walls made with actual sheets of paper and shot them in an actual studio. They also did so on the hottest day of the year, which can’t have been fun under studio lights, but probably gave it an edge that somehow comes through as authentic: a much-abused term which I’m nonetheless happy to use here, because it feels deserved.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m a huge fan of CGI when done well. But it’s about what’s appropriate, and what works. And here, the practical approach they’ve taken has absolutely nailed it.
Campaign rollout
The film was directed by ManvsMachine through production company Friend, with cinematography by Olan Collardy, colour by Selected Works, sound by 750mph and music by Lost Boy. The behind-the-scenes video below gives a flavour of what it was like on set.
The paper and hourglass motifs from the film are now being carried through into St. James’s Place’s wider brand, and the campaign runs across TV, VOD, print, social and radio.
For Isobel, which previously turned our heads with its their campaign for Clipper, this is another example of finding a tactile and human way into a category that needed a bit of shaking up.
In the press release, Rob Sanders, chief client officer at St. James’s Place, says the campaign “brings to life the increasing complexity people face when making decisions about their finances, while demonstrating the value of having a trusted adviser to help navigate uncertainty and provide important support”.
All of which I’d agree with… but that’s a lot of words. The thing about this ad is, it doesn’t need them. Show, not tell, triumphs again.
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