I’m MORE TH>N Freeman. Thank you for listening
Issue 18 | March 2011
Agency
SFW London
Creative Team
Writer: Fred Rodwell; Art Director: Andrew Parsons
Production Team
Agency Producer: Larissa Miola; Production Company: Academy Films ; Directors: Si&Ad; Producer: Lucy Gossage; Director of Photography: Alex Barber; Editor: Sam Rice-Edwards at the Assembly Rooms; Vfx and Post Production: Jason Watts and Paul Wilmot at Finish; Post Production Producer: Fi Kilroe; Sound Engineer: Ben Leeves
Other Credits
Account Director: Karinna Jaya-Ratnam ; Client Services Director: Matt Conner; Creative Director: Neil Francis; Senior Account Manager: Julie Stars; Marketing Director: Peter Markey
Date
January 2011
Background
MORE TH>N provide general insurance (motor, home, pet) to the UK market. It’s a busy and crowded sector with both direct insurers and aggregators jostling for market share in an increasingly commodotised market in which price is the dominant message and in which consumers have every incentive to be promiscuous.
MORE TH>N wanted to shift its marketing strategy away from price in an effort to become the most ‘trusted brand’ in the direct insurance sector.
Idea
Hence this series of cinematic-style TV ads starring US impressionist Josh Robert-Thompson as "MORETHAN Freeman".
The thinking here was that the recognisable delivery of the message, the voice slow and thoughtful, would create a sense of trustworthiness.
The impression the advertising wished to create was of calm and well-being. And through a series of executions to both build a brand and drive sales.
Although the company wished to show intelligent humour they didn’t want to be silly – a lot of thought has gone into providing insurance products that are worth sticking with for the long haul.
MORETHAN Freeman was just the man to deliver these messages.
Thankyou for listening.
Results
Not yet available
Our Thoughts
Controversial, this campaign. A lot of advertising folk hate it because the entire premise is an awful pun, Morethan Freeman for Morgan Freeman. It’s also a bit of a rip-off from Hal Riney’s Bartles & Jaymes ads. But once you get past that, the idea does have potential. Two ‘buts’ though. The first is that the agency need to know what their idea is, and it has nothing to do with Morgan Freeman but everything to do with Josh Robert-Thompson and building a new and identifiable character for the brand around him. The second is, MORE>THAN need to learn to stick with an idea. They have had three agencies in five years. They had Lucky the dog and killed him off. Then they had incomprehensible advertising from Fallon, and killed that off. So, stick with it, I say, and let Morethan Freeman emerge as a personality in his own right.