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When a brand entrusts its identity to a creative agency, it can be a terrifying undertaking.
To believe that the end result will be one that not only amplifies the original identity, but also brings something new, is asking a lot.
Bear Meets Eagle On Fire has received this trust from ROLLiN’ auto insurance and has been able to pay its dues by creating a number of outrageously creative and extremely strategically effective campaigns.
Andy Flemming, creative lead and self-proclaimed ‘Oberleutnant Wordy McWordSpurt’ of 72andSunny Australia, explains what makes campaigns a feat of creativity and why it ultimately made him a little jealous.
LBB> First of all, why do you like this work in particular?
Andy> When you watch ROLLiN’ Car Insurance at work, you’re witnessing the beginning of another great Australian brand. Set to Tina Turner’s majestic song, ‘Proud Mary’, we see a family stuck on a highway with four flat tyres. A nightmare. And then, as Tina belts out the phrase ‘Rollin, Rollin, Rollin to the river’, we see Australians of all ages coming out of their homes, out of the pub (and even out of the local bowlo!) to pass tyres from one person to another in a giant chain of camaraderie until the family is saved.
And then the huge crowd of skilled workers, Olympic swimmers, islanders, children, drag queens and footy players push the car together in a mighty Australian push until they roll down the hill and into the sunset.
Jack Thompson declares: “Keeping Australia Rollin” while the logo playfully rolls a few times with a “whoosh! whoosh!” sound that would obviously become a famous element of sonic branding.
It’s expensive. It’s epic. It’s Australian and it’s probably what everyone would have done.
Bear Meets Eagle went with a giant ball of fur that raps and rolls and gags fantastically every time its mouth reaches the bottom. I was sick with envy – how dare they be funny and memorable and awesome instead of human and upbeat and quintessentially Australian like the other brands? Just to rub salt in the wound, the sequel doesn’t even have the yellow thing IN IT. Come on. This is not playing by the rules guys. Stick that asshole on everything and you have a long-term brand property. Instead they went with a mind-blowing mash-up of 1978 and Rick and Morty when Jermaine Clement was on it. When I was in London, the
The true test of a good job was “I wish I had done it.” In ROLLiN’s case, a quiet, anguished but perceptibly audible cry of jealousy will suffice. THIS IS HOW YOU BUILD A BRAND – WITHOUT FEAR AND WITH GREAT ENJOYMENT.
Bastards.
LBB> What do you think makes a job great?
Andy> Sometimes I look at photos of guys with sweaters around their necks, raising their glasses of rosé to the camera, standing on the back of a yacht in the Mediterranean, and I just know that they were never in the business for the joy of creation – that moment when a line or a scribble on a notepad makes the brain heat up because that’s IT.
And that’s why ROLLiN, or work like it, is so important. It’s not about acting like advertising or meeting the expectations that the industry somehow feeds. And that’s why sometimes good work slips through the cracks while the rest is thrown out into the world by those with limited creative experience and spoon-fed to them by branding consultants who can sniff out the desperation and naivety that inevitably leads to a huge, restrictive brand bible.
LBB> When looking for inspiration, do you think it’s important to look outside your own agency?
Andy> No.
Yes, I was joking.
LBB> How do you hone your own creativity and how do you encourage the creativity of the team around you?
Andy> Stay the kid you once were. You never changed. Your sense of wonder never changed. You just stopped asking stupid questions and playing video games. Be eccentric. Be silly. Be hungry.
Absorb everything you can watch, read, or listen to—the weirder the better. Go to libraries and look at books about design, food, cars, movies, or album covers. Dig into the depths of the internet. Look at obscure stuff and wonder how or why it was created. When you travel the world, you fill your mind with endless ideas, and the best thing that can happen is when two of them meet on Synapse Tinder without you even knowing it.
That’s why I do this job and why I continue to play video games, read a book every few days, and watch every movie I can get my hands on. And when a few human sponges get together, there’s nothing like the great weirdness that can come out of it.
Enjoy every minute of the ride. As my dad used to say, you could dig a hole in the road.
LBB> Finally, what does creativity mean to you?
Andy> See above.