Love Our Work: Andy Flemming on the Rolling Nature of Creativity
When a brand hands over their identity to a creative agency, it can be a terrifying endeavour.
To trust that the end result will be one that not only amplifies the original identity, but also provides something new, is a lot to ask.
Bear Meets Eagle On Fire was given this trust by ROLLiN’ car insurance and were able to pay their dues by creating a number of campaigns that are outrageously creative and extremely strategically effective.
Andy Flemming, creative lead and self appointed ‘Oberleutnant Wordy McWordSpurt’ from 72andSunny Australia explains what makes the campaigns a feat of creativity and why it ultimately made him a little bit jealous.
LBB> Firstly, why do you like this particular piece of work?
Andy> When you watch the ROLLiN’ Car Insurance work, you witness the beginning of another great Australian brand. To the strains of Tina Turner’s majestic ‘Proud Mary’ we watch a family stuck on a highway with four flat tyres. Nightmare. And then, as Tina hits the line ‘Rollin, Rollin, Rollin to the river’ we see Australians of all ages emerge from their houses, the pub (even the local bowlo!) to pass tyres from one person to another in one gigantic chain of mate-ship until the family is saved.
And then, the huge crowd of tradies, Olympic swimmers, islanders, kids, drag queens and footy players push the car together in one almighty Australian shove until they roll off down the hill and into the sunset.
Jack Thompson says, “Keeping Australia Rollin”’as the logo rolls amusingly a couple of times with a ‘whoosh! whoosh!’ sound that will obviously become a famous piece of sonic branding.
It’s expensive. It’s epic. It’s Australian and it’s probably what everyone else would have done.
Bear Meets Eagle went with a huge rapping, rolling ball of fluff that fantastically muffles every time its mouth gets to the bottom. I was sick with envy - how dare they be funny, memorable and awesome instead of human, optimistic and quintessentially Australian like everyone else’s brand guidelines? Just to twist the knife, the follow-up doesn’t even have the yellow thing IN IT. Come on. That’s not playing by the rules guys. Stick that fucker on everything and you’ve got a long-term brand property. Instead, they went with a hallucinatory mix of 1978 and Rick and Morty when Jermaine Clement was on it. When I was in London, the
true test of great work was ‘I wish I’d done it.’ In the case of ROLLiN, a low, anguished but discernibly audible squeal of undisguised jealousy will suffice. THIS is how to build a brand - fearlessly and with enormous joy.
Fuckers.
LBB> In your opinion, what makes work great?
Andy> I sometimes look at the photos of dicks with sweaters around their necks raising their glass of Rose to the camera whilst standing on the back of a yacht in the Mediterranean and just KNOW that they’ve never been in the business for the joy of creation - that moment when a line or a scribble on a notepad starts the brain firing because this is fucking IT.
And that’s why ROLLiN, or work like it, is so important. It’s not behaving like advertising or the expectations the industry somehow holds dear. And that’s why occasionally great work slips out while the rest is tossed into the world by those whose limited experience of creativity, spoon fed to them by brand consultancies who can sniff the desperation and naivety that inevitably leads to an enormous and restrictive brand bible.
LBB> When looking for inspiration, do you believe it is important to look outside of your own agency?
Andy> No.
Yes. I was joking.
LBB> How do you hone your own creativity and how do you foster the creativity of the team around you?
Andy> Be the child you once were. You never changed. Your sense of wonder never changed. You just stopped asking silly questions and playing video games. Be eccentric. Be stupid. Be hungry.
Absorb anything and everything you can watch, read or listen to - the weirder the better. Go to libraries and look at books on design, food, cars, movies or album covers. Go down Internet rabbit holes. Watch obscure shit and wonder how or why they made it. When you sponge the world, you fill your limitless mind with ideas and the absolute greatest thing is when two of them get together on synapse Tinder without you even knowing.
That’s why I do this job and it’s why I still play video games, read a book every few days and watch every movie I can find. And when a few human sponges get together there’s nothing like the great weirdness that can emerge.
Enjoy every minute of the ride. As my Dad used to say, you could be digging a hole in the road.
LBB> Lastly, what does creativity mean to you?
Andy> See above.
