A Helping Hand for Winn Solicitors

Creative vision

Our creative team really wanted to capture the idea of ‘picking you back up again’ after an accident. The aftermath of an experience, such as a road traffic collision, is a confusing time for most. When you’re not sure where to turn to for advice and support, it’s at that point you may need some help. That’s how we came up with the concept of ‘Helping Hands’. Winns are here, from the initial phone call, until resolution. ‘Helping’ denotes the legal process and the ‘hands’ are symbolic of the care and nurturing you could expect to receive throughout. It felt like the perfect combination of providing a comprehensive service, enhanced with a human touch.

Planning

We wanted the audience to see a full miniature scenario of what can typically happen during an accident. The audience would see the accident happen across an office desk, creating a synergy between the victim and Winns. Our plan was to create a tv ad using motion design. It’s a great way to tell a story and add depth to the message, in a simplistic effective way. It also provided a good opportunity to incorporate any necessary branding, such as the Winns logo.

We were facing a time constraint of how best to include all aspects of the customer journey, bearing in mind a typical ad lasts around 30 seconds at most. That’s a lot to pack into half a minute! 

Production

Around the time production was due to start, we hit lucky, with the opening of PROTO, a high tech production facility, adjoining our premises. They offer a multitude of services including a motion capture suite, TV studio and an immersive lab all on-site. Booking a session at PROTO would allow us to play around with our creative ideas and see how they would translate into making up our real-world animation

The next step was for us to gather together the 3D characters needed for the ad, a driver, a pedestrian and so on. We had the option of 3D scanning real-life actors, however, that was not without issue. It’s a time consuming and costly way to do things. There would need to be a casting or audition process to find the right people. We needed to discover a better way, to keep costs minimal for our client. Step in Render People! Render People is an online library of already scanned 3D people. Take your pick. Choose the character you need and pop them in your basket! Now, armed with our team, it was time to make them move.

Faced with an option to animate each character individually, again with a time and cost implication, we decided to head to the newly opened PROTO suite and plump for Motion Capture instead. Using Motion Capture allowed us to see the characters come to life and move in a natural way. Our initial testing was successful, apart from a set of missing hands. Not insurmountable and correctable at a later stage – phew!

Characters sorted, we now had to work on the focal point of the ad – the ‘helping hands’.

Flexibility was key when we designed the hands. In case of any required variation later down the line, our team had to ensure they were easily adaptable to become male or female. Considerations such as being able to change them to have shorter or longer nails and appear thicker or thinner came into play. There was also a background environment to create, in order to ‘set the scene’ for our scenario. Our chosen set was an office desk, filled with everyday desk-top items, not forgetting the all-important cuppa!’ Incorporating these items provided us with a chance to include some of the Winns branding, purple and black colouring, logo printed mugs. A little nod to the corporate side of things never goes a miss.

Outcome

Despite production being in full swing, we were working behind the scenes to ensure the necessary admin details weren’t overlooked. Script approval, sourcing a voice-over and Clearcast clearance to name a few. When our ad was finally made, we then had the template and tools in place to develop 3 further spin-off ads, each showing a different scenario. It’s certainly worth mentioning that without doubt, the benefit of an advert made in this way is the versatility it provides. Once the bare bones are in place, it’s just a little tweaking here and there without much to-do. Compared to live capture ads, they’re easily adjusted and have greater longevity. Best of all, being more cost-effective keeps the finance people happy. 

Concept to completion took around 3 months in total.  The team here at TVA satisfied all the requirements of the brief, brought in on time and within budget. We really were thrilled with the results and, most importantly, so too was our client. So much so, that Winns now use the ‘Helping Hands’ concept across all of their creative. It has become aligned with their branding, in that, when you see or hear Winns, you make the connection they are the ‘Helping Hands’.

Furthermore, the ‘Helping Hands’ campaign has since been extended to radio and is also now used on poster sites and for display advertising, placed at the Utilita Arena and Newcastle Airport.