Winston Wolf Returns for Direct Line to Stoke Up New Campaign For House Fire Victims

Today Direct Line launches a campaign in support of its latest home proposition, which finds customers a suitable hotel within one hour, if their home is left uninhabitable after a house fire. The Emergency Hotel TVC will blaze onto screens this evening during Coronation Street and then run within other mainstream programmes such as Gogglebox on Friday.

 

The 30” spot opens on firefighters tending to a home with a burnt front and smashed windows. The notorious Winston Wolf synonymous with Direct Line, instructs a taxi to go to the Hyacinth Hotel, taking the home’s family to safety, saying, “Tell them Winston Wolf sent you”. A concerned neighbour, Carol, rushes over to ask what’s happened to Sally, Johnny and the kids. Wolf informs her that there’s been a nasty electrical fire and he’s “taken care of them” and that “they’re in a better place now”. Wolf sits a confused Carol down on a charred sofa and explains that if you can’t stay in your home after a fire, Direct Line will get you sorted with accommodation in a hotel within an hour of notifying them. With that, he revs his engine and drives off into the distance.

 

Created by Saatchi & Saatchi London, the campaign will also run across radio, social and digital from next week. The digital will include a real-time digital fire display, alongside creative on Instagram and Facebook focusing on Direct Line as 'The Fixer'. This is the first time Direct Line has used 9x16 formats for video on social platforms, with the advert taking over the entire screen in portrait orientation.

 

The social media creative and PR activity will also be supported internally by Direct Line’s in-house team, who will use Facebook 360 and animated infographics to bring to life the threat posed by house fires across the UK.

 

Campaign effectiveness will be measured through brand uplift studies across display and social, econometrics reads via Ebiquity and brand tracking tools including a cross media study.

 

Lucy Brooksbank, Head of MarComms at Direct Line Group, comments: “At Direct Line we are constantly striving to fix and prevent the problems our customers face, and protect them should the worst happen. A fire really is the worst that can happen, causing unimaginable danger and distress. With the new campaign we wanted to reassure customers that when they are at their most vulnerable they have safe and secure hotel accommodation offered within one hour giving them some peace of mind at a very difficult time.” 

 

Direct Line is the only insurance provider that offers customers a suitable hotel if they are unable to stay in their home after a house fire within one hour of them reporting their claim,* giving them somewhere to rest, recuperate and recover from their ordeal.