senckađ
Group745
Group745
Group745
Group745
Group745
Group745
Behind the Work in association withThe Immortal Awards
Group745

How Bear Meets Eagle on Fire and Revolver Sold Insurance by Creating a World Where it Wouldn’t be Needed

16/11/2022
Advertising Agency
Sydney, Australia
261
Share
LBB’s Delmar Terblanche speaks to the creators about their new campaign for NRMA, which shows a world that fixes itself


Insurance, as we all know, is there to fill the gaps. It’s a barrier against the worst-case scenario, against the never-hoped-for day. In a perfect world, we sometimes muse, it wouldn’t even be needed.

It seems that insurance companies sometimes have the same thought - or at least NRMA does. 

The latest campaign from Bear Meets Eagle on Fire (with production by Revolver) is a whimsical, delightful, escapist fantasy. It brings to life that perfect world where insurance isn't needed, because everything simply fixes itself.

The idea builds on NRMA’s famous “HELP” positioning; a famous long-time promise to be there when needed. 

As Micah Walker, founder and CCO of Bear Meets Eagle on Fire puts it, “We believed HELP could be bigger than just an ‘insurance promise’ - to fix something that had been damaged.”

To speak about just how they brought this world to life, we spoke to Micah and Steve Rogers, director for Revolver, and dug into the realities of this whimsical world.

LBB> What was the initial client brief from NRMA Insurance? 

Micah> The brief was to breathe fresh meaning into their positioning of HELP and to create a more distinctive world for the brand. NRMA felt that while the work they’d done had been successful, the stories were feeling a bit too heavily anchored in the category.

LBB> How did you start with NRMA Insurance’s famous "HELP" positioning and come up with this "until the problems fix themselves" premise?

Micah> That it was more of a human promise to be there for people whenever you were needed. That promise is an enduring one because until the world no longer has mishaps or accidents, there will always be people who need help. 

The idea just came from that line of thinking. 

LBB> The spots themselves are classically funny - almost like scenes from silent comedy. How do you come up with those ideas?

Micah> That’s an interesting characterisation. I can’t say that we meant them to be ‘funny’.

There’s a kind of whimsical nature to the stories I guess, but I think that comes from playing out an unexpected and magical story more than anything else. 

We did have lots of conversations about the character of the tyre and in ‘Duel’ about the fire and water’s somewhat cheeky interplay, so maybe that’s what you’re picking up on. 

Steve> Irrespective of the fact that the hero characters were inanimate, they still required personality. It felt important to how we went about staging things that we had some idea about how they would behave, how fast they would move, whether they were capable of breaking realism and how far they went. We designed a set of loose rules that enabled us to have a little more idea about how the story should progress. I guess, when you look at the elements as characters, there’s a particular oddness to them. 

NRMA - Runaway from Bear Meets Eagle On Fire on Vimeo.

LBB> Turning just to the "Runaway" spot for the moment: What was the visual inspiration behind it?

Micah> Once we had the idea and premise of a ‘magical world that takes care of itself’, we just started writing stories around insurable moments. Car and home are obviously the most common things for people to insure, so in this case, it was just about finding a way to show a car accident preventing itself. 

Building most of the story around the tyre’s journey was a storytelling and engagement decision.

Steve> I guess, from my point of view I was looking at road movies like Paris Texas. Also, the Polaroids of Robby Muller and the photography of Harry Gruyaert. 

LBB> How do you create such a seemingly simple story of a tyre's travels and keep it visually interesting? How do you select the locations/backgrounds; how do you put it together in editing?

Micah> We knew it had to be a cinematic story, so finding locations and interest throughout the tyre’s journey was obviously critical. Some of that is just about finding great locations, but Steve’s also a brilliant filmmaker who knows how to make that feel like a story rather than just a series of pictures. Elise, our editor, and the music also help meld that all together, so it’s just about having a vision for what you want to make and then getting a great team around you.

Steve> I think we all knew that one of the main challenges was going to be making the journey as interesting as we could and that meant finding locations that felt intriguing and were hard to place. We travelled to a mining town in western NSW, where there had been a lot of filming of the desert landscape over the years, but no one had really focused on the town itself. We ended up shooting the majority of the story out there. 

LBB> How was the tyre bursting done at the end? Is that stunt work or largely VFX - or a mix of both?

Micah> It’s a mix. We had a range of solutions from a tyre launcher thing the production team had built, to specific tyre rigs that we removed in post. In some shots where a practical technique wasn’t possible, we used a VFX tyre. Part of making it feel real was using a range of approaches from shot to shot, so it had the real properties of a rolling tyre which was critical to us. 

NRMA - Duel from Bear Meets Eagle On Fire on Vimeo.

LBB> On the "Duel" spot: What was the visual inspiration behind it?

Micah> There wasn’t really a single source of inspiration, but loads of references for certain elements.

We knew we wanted the fire to have an almost cheeky character and we researched everything from Bellagio like fountains to natural geysers for how the water would ultimately respond to that. 

Steve and the production team were really determined to make sure it didn’t feel man-made, so that’s part of the initial vision that really makes it feel original. 

Steve> Again, I think my main focus was trying to keep it as realistic as possible. We looked at bushfire reference and naturally occurring geysers as well as the stupid Las Vegas fountain shows. We attempted to do as much as possible in front of the camera with SFX and rigging, but we ultimately knew that VFX would have to enhance what we’d done or fill in the gaps. I was worried about the fire and water feeling digital, but I think what Time Based Arts achieved in the end is pretty convincing. 

LBB> How on earth was this one shot? Is it a physical rig or largely VFX done in post?

Micah> It was one of the most technical and logistically difficult productions I’ve ever been a part of. 

It was critical to all of us that it felt completely real, so that meant finding a location where massive plumbing could be built under the paddock a week before we shot. 

Setting things on fire is one thing, but what none of us realised (aside from the production team) was just the vast amount of water required to achieve the kinds of things we wanted to get on film. 

Getting that amount of water to set, in trucks that weighed as much as they did, was a whole other issue and just one of those things you don’t think about. It was a huge undertaking, trucks getting stuck in mud and so on.

We got as much in camera as we could, but there was also a massive area of the property, just to the side of our main paddock, where we shot geyser water plates, that we could retime and place in post. Otherwise, the main ‘stage’ or paddock area was just too flooded. 

So, while almost everything is ‘practical’, Sheldon and the VFX team at Time Based Arts in London, really had a lot of work to do, to bring it all together in a way that told the story. Not easy at all and they did an amazing job pulling it together. 

LBB> How do you design a piece that's visually choreographed like this, keeping the viewer's attention, that's almost entirely without actors? 

Micah> I hope that’s part of its charm, but I think people or not, you always need narrative for a story to work. 

In this case, a cheeky bit of fire is trying to burn the paddock in front of the house, and is always out gunned by the water, which is determined to shut it down. That Tom and Jerry like back and forth and how it escalates was really our storyline. I think with ideas that simple; it then comes just comes down to great production and filmmaking craft.

Steve> Bear had written a great script about a playful fight between impish fire and a more knowing, controlled water. All the ingredients were there to begin with. We just really took that dynamic and scaled it down for the opening and up for the ending. It always felt that it needed to continue to escalate, from something almost insignificant to something spectacular. It also felt that it needed a human element and we ended up shooting a character in the adjacent house who is seemingly nonplussed by the impending disaster unfolding outside. Whilst it was always secondary to the main story, it added a little extra tension to the drama because there was ostensibly more at stake. 

LBB> How are you reflecting/considering consumer engagement with the campaign? Are there any metrics or research available to indicate the popular response?

Micah> It’s early days, but NRMA Insurance is very thorough and thoughtful in how they measure all their communication.

LBB> What lessons (if any) are you taking from this campaign for future ones?

Micah> You learn something new every time you make something. At the same time, all ideas and productions have their own idiosyncrasies. If anything, I guess it just reaffirms that when you work with people who care, you make better things. 


Credits
Work from Bear Meets Eagle On Fire
Until Then 2
NRMA
03/12/2023
34
0
Hip-Hop Holla 2
ROLLIN'
28/09/2022
15
0
ROLLiN_Larry_60
ROLLiN'
07/09/2022
12
0
ALL THEIR WORK