At the heart of the campaign is The Heist, a cinematic comedy that follows a loveable crew of everyday Australians as they devise an increasingly elaborate scheme so that they can retire happy. There are guards to overcome, cameras to disable, a code hidden in a dog’s collar and a safe full of gold.
The absurdity makes a simple point: Australians shouldn’t have to pull off the impossible to retire happy. Instead, they can make a plan with MLC.
The strategy takes aim at a category that has conditioned Australians to think of super as only a big number – something to sit on, forget and deal with later. But a great super company shouldn’t just help consumers get to a big number, it needs to help consumers plan on how to best use and invest their money as they accumulate their super and then throughout their retirement. The goal is to strategically reframe MLC’s superannuation offering from a static, lump sum of money to a business that also offers an active plan for all of their members.
Renee Howie, Chief Customer Officer at MLC, said:
“Super funds have spent decades talking to Australians about the number they might end up with. We want to start a more meaningful conversation about the life that number needs to support.”
“A great retirement doesn’t begin on the day you stop working. It is shaped over a lifetime. Our role at MLC is to help Australians connect what they are doing today with the retirement they want and to give them the plan, partnership and confidence to get there. And that’s what The Heist is really about: showing there’s a much better way to a glorious retirement.”
For Princess, which marks its first anniversary this year, the campaign is its biggest
production to date.
The Princess Founders, said:
“You know you’re onto something when you’re tripping over yourself in excitement to tell the client. MLC only ever want to see big, brave ideas and they embraced the work from the get go. In our minds, there was only one person who could get on board and make our idea a reality and that was Mark Molloy. He believed in the idea from the moment we first shared it with him, and things only got better from there…”
This marks the first major work from two-time Emmy nominated filmmaker Molloy since globally recognised Adidas Backyard Legends. Alongside Mark, the campaign brings together an exceptional line-up of creative talent from Australia and around the world. The original score was composed by Elliott Wheeler, award-winning composer and long-time collaborator of Baz Luhrmann. Visual effects were entrusted to FIN Design, one of Australia’s leading VFX studios, whose recent feature film credits include Alien: Romulus and Ant-Man. Sound design and mix come from 750mph, one of the UK’s leading sound studios whose work includes Nike’s Nothing Beats a Londoner, who collaborated with Sonar Music to bring it all together.
Of the campaign, Mark Molloy said:
“I’ve worked with the creatives from Princess before, so I knew what kind of ambition I was signing up for. The Heist let us make something fun and cinematic out of a category that rarely gets to be – plus I’ve always wanted to make a classic caper film.”
The hero film spearheads a huge 360 campaign, with 171+ AV assets set to be deployed across the full marketing funnel for MLC over 24 months. This multidimensional approach was intentional from the outset, ensuring that the campaign idea touches every phase of the customer journey, from awareness to acquisition, driving maximum value from the complex production.
Wylie Fowler, GM of Brand and Content at MLC, said:
“Everyone at MLC is deeply proud of this work. It brings our promise to help Australians retire happy to life in a way that is bold, entertaining and unmistakably MLC. Creating a campaign of this scale took enormous care and collaboration across everyone in our combined teams and, of course, a really good plan. Huge thanks to all the world-class and wildly talented people who played their role in bringing it to life.”
Princess Founders, said:
“It takes a lot of trust, partnership and courage to make this kind of work. We could never have done it without the team at MLC, Exit, Mark, The Editors, Fin, Sonar, and Elliot our composer, 750mph, Louis & Co and Cream.”
The campaign rolls out across TV, cinema, BVOD/SVOD, OOH, social, online, radio and owned channels.
