What it had to solve
Write-off customers can take money back, a direct replacement, or pay the difference to upgrade — and research showed upgrading was the most popular choice, yet it is the least visual option to advertise. The agency's brief, in WCRS managing partner Emma Marsland's words: be bold and challenging.
The idea
A chasm opens in the road; the driver leaps from her written-off car straight into an upgraded model of the same car — upgrading your claim as one jump
How it works
Stuntwoman Jess Hooker (film credits include Dr Strange, Transformers and Tomb Raider) made the leap for real with no safety harness, wires or rigs. Directed by Max Fisher through Outsider with DOP Luke Jacobs, VFX by Creative Outpost, the film launched on Facebook and YouTube in September 2017 — a first stunt for Churchill Insurance.
What it did
Churchill's first stunt film put the upgrade option — the product's differentiator — at the centre of the drama. No view figures are reported.
Background
For the launch of its Write Off Replacement proposition, Churchill and agency WCRS made a film built around one real stunt: a yawning chasm opens in the road ahead of a driver, and she courageously leaps from her moving car into an upgraded, newer model of the same car, driving off safely as she waves thanks to the Churchill mascot.
The leap was performed for real by stuntwoman Jess Hooker, whose film credits include Dr Strange, Transformers and Tomb Raider, with no safety harness, wires or rigs. Ed Harland-Lang, Churchill's Head of Marketing Communications, called it a tough brief to crack and said the creative 'absolutely nails our product message'.
Directed by Max Fisher through Outsider films with DOP Luke Jacobs, the film went live on Facebook and YouTube. Its job was to make 'pay the difference to upgrade' — the option research showed customers most often choose — feel as easy and seamless as one jump.
Why it lands
It dramatizes a claims feature instead of price or mascot warmth, rare in insurance advertising.
Doing the stunt for real, with no harness, gives the 'seamless experience' promise a credibility a CGI leap wouldn't carry.
The product's least photogenic option — paying the difference to upgrade — becomes the climax rather than a footnote.
What you can take
Turn the policy fine print into a physical dare: one visible action ('jump to the new car') explains an option that brochures struggle to make vivid.
Since then
The film ran on Facebook and YouTube from September 2017; the material records no follow-up results.
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