Metropolitan is back with a TVC campaign that breaks ground

Can you take us through the brief that you were given by Metropolitan?

Metropolitan has been making strides, both internally as a company and in their offering, towards being more client-centric. Among other things, this involves a shift away from being product driven to really understanding their clients’ needs. The focus is now on giving guidance and providing financial solutions. We were asked to create a campaign that would launch this new brand direction.

How was the brief different to previous ones?

Most of the briefs we received up to that point were aimed at sustaining communication in line with Metropolitan’s direction at the time. The approach to this brief was very different. It was a partnership from the start. We would literally get into a room and interrogate everything. The strategic direction, the brief, and right down to the individual executions we agreed to pursue.

Can you take us through the concept and creative rationale of the campaign?

The idea was to portray Metropolitan as a non-judgmental, empathetic and supportive partner to consumers as they deal with life’s financial ups and downs. A sort of financial mentor if you will. To do this, we needed to acknowledge that people don’t live in LSMs and neat categories. They live in the real world and face real, complex challenges.

So the campaign looks at people at a life intersection that will have financial implications either way. There’s no clear-cut “right” path so the ads don’t try and resolve this. Instead, Metropolitan offers to partner and guide the individuals towards a solution.

This campaign breaks ground in several ways, including being shot in isiXhosa and colloquial Afrikaans. Can you tell us more?

From the start, we wanted the communication for Metropolitan to feel and sound nothing like the financial services category. To do this, we consciously avoided anything that would make the work come across as typical advertising. It had to feel authentic and connected to the people we were trying to start a conversation with.

That meant close to a year of talking to real people to learn about the aspirations they had and issues they faced. Once we were happy with the stories, we partnered with a film director rather than a commercials director. Our choice of Oliver Hermanus as director really helped give the work the everyday, yet poignant, feel we were after.

Were there any highlights in shooting the TVCs?

It was really great to work with someone from outside the commercial’s industry. The approach to casting, locations, performance and even music was refreshing.

Click here to view the advert.

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