Capital One Campaign Combats Nasty Credit Surprises

Sometimes, when you don’t check before you commit, you don’t get what you were expecting.

Created by Fold7, Capital One UK’s new campaign No Nasty Surprises brings to life that when it comes to credit, you should always know what you’re getting upfront, effectively communicating the brand’s intention to change the world of credit for the better, one small good thing at a time.

An evolved and fresh take on the highly successful One Good Thing Capital One UK brand platform, first launched in August 2022, the new campaign offers another humorous play on a traditionally serious subject.

The flagship commercial follows the story of Stu, whose life is taken over, bit-by-bit, by his new ‘pet’. He thinks he’s getting a loveable puppy, but instead of a cute new companion he finds himself responsible for a mischievous - and rather messy - badger who brings chaos to his life.

Stu’s partner Alex, however, always checks before she commits: with Capital One UK she knows if she’s eligible for its credit card without affecting her credit score, and understands exactly what the APR will be before she applies.

The film was directed by Ninian Doff of RESET. Black Kite Studios were brought onboard to create the CG badger and VFX for the project. Photographing a European Badger skeleton at the Grant Museum of Zoology allowed them to accurately trace the animal’s proportions usually hidden by fur. The team and director collaborated closely to portray the realistic personality and appearance of the badger. An actor’s expressions were used as a base for the animation, and the CG team then created a set of facial movements that allowed the badger to emote. After crafting and rendering the badger into each shot, the 2D team used the interaction, shadows and lighting references of the onset badger pelt to achieve the photoreal creature featured in the film.

Katie King, head of marketing at Capital One UK, said, “Capital One UK is committed to helping our customers succeed with credit, empowering them to make good financial decisions by offering transparency upfront. Whether it’s being clear on the APR they’ll get before they apply, or providing an eligibility check for our credit cards in only 60 seconds, these small, thoughtful actions are at the heart of how we do business.

“Fold7 continues to find new, entertaining ways to bring our message alive. This latest campaign demonstrates our brand truth - with an extra dash of humour to make it memorable with our audience.”

Dave Billing, ECD at Fold7, said, “This is, at its heart, a simple parable - a story about what happens when you don’t look before you leap. We’ve all heard of hapless punters who buy what turn out to be far from miniature pigs; but we wanted to take a path less travelled. It’s been a joy revealing the less cuddly side of one of Britain’s favourite woodland creatures, and a pleasure to work on such a brilliant brief with our ambitious, energetic client team at Capital One UK.”

The always-on campaign will run for 12 months across BVOD, Cinema, OLV, Digital Display, Social and Radio. The AV spot will be shown in 60, 40, 30, 20 and 15 second versions, while social is 15 and 10 seconds cut downs and radio is 30 seconds. Media is handled by the7stars.