Yomoni cast Michel Polnareff as the spendthrift cicada to sell saving (interview)

Yomoni is an online savings-management platform positioning itself as more digital, more responsible and more available than bank savings — but, per the interview with its agency Brainsonic, its notoriety lagged in a hyper-competitive sector occupied by historic players with extremely ambitious budgets.

Agency strategy director Maria Sankalé told AdForum the team quickly fixed on Michel Polnareff: his legend preceded him, making him the perfect cicada, and his 'frondeur, punk and avant-gardiste' streak suited the brand. She said the film plays deadpan, very British comedy — awkward silences, and a fastidious set ridiculously covered in logos, like the artist himself — to make the point that what is absurd is not saving properly when perfect solutions exist. Polnareff brought great self-deprecation and involvement, she recalled.

The interview records no measurable results; the campaign was to run for several weeks on and offline, with further waves, activations and stunts planned during the year to grow awareness.

Speaking to AdForum in October 2023, Maria Sankalé, strategy director at French agency Brainsonic, recounted how online savings platform Yomoni asked the agency to make the brand emerge in a hyper-competitive savings sector occupied by historic players with very ambitious budgets. The answer: reenact the fable of the cicada and the ant, casting Michel Polnareff — the singer whose legend of wild living made him the perfect 'cigale' — as the spendthrift.

Sankalé said the casting idea came very quickly. Polnareff's rebellious, 'punk and avant-gardiste' personality fit, and his history of surprising the public — she cites the posters for his 1972 concerts that daringly presented his backside — promised a strike big enough to cut through. The film's register is 'pince-sans-rire', very British: comedy made of awkward silences and contrasts between the fastidious decor and its ridiculously logo-covered surfaces, echoing the artist himself. The point, she said, is that the truly absurd thing is not saving properly when perfect solutions exist.

She said the hardest part could have been directing Polnareff, but he turned out to have a strong sense of self-deprecation and was deeply involved. The campaign was to live for several weeks on and offline, with more waves, activations and 'new coups' planned through the year — 'this is only the beginning', the interview concludes. It records no awareness or account figures.

Sankalé said humour was 'vivement souhaité' — keenly desired — in a sector saturated with serious messages, making tonal contrast the differentiation.

The casting does double work: Polnareff's own legend dramatises the cicada without explanation.

A financial product became talkable through a celebrity mocking his own myth, as the strategist recounts.

In a category where everyone speaks seriously, a deadpan parody — and a celebrity willing to mock his own legend — buys the attention a challenger cannot afford to buy straight.

Per the interview, the campaign ran for several weeks on and offline with further waves, activations and new stunts planned through the year; no results figures were given.