Manitoba's Debt Rescue

LCTaylor is a family-owned, licensed insolvency trustee and debt consulting company with a 30-year history in the Canadian province of Manitoba.
In 2020, Argyle produced an animated video for LCTaylor—part of a multimedia Manitoba’s Debt Rescue campaign. Our creative solution aligned with their brand and audience during a time of COVID-19 fear and economic stress.
Major themes in the video are calmness, trust and transformation. Financial hardship is frightening. People feel alone, scared, ashamed and stigmatized. It can be hard for them to see any light in the tunnel and take steps to get help. We wanted to capture these feelings while showing that life-changing help is available and easy to access. The video begins with a cold colour palette and music that loops back to a lower scale. When LCTaylor enters the storyline halfway through, a transformation happens—the music shifts and bright colours radiate outward from the man who has easily found LCTaylor on his smartphone. It signifies a shift from shame to relief, from stress to happiness.
To create a sense of familiarity and trust we used the owner—Leigh Taylor—to narrate the video with his calm, appealing voice and we created visual scenes and elements that are recognizable and familiar to locals. Using Adobe Illustrator and After Effects, our animator carefully planned camera movement to have the feeling of one smooth, uncut transition between connected scenes. The window arches are typical of the historic railway buildings converted into a lively market area in the downtown area of Manitoba’s capital city, Winnipeg. This riverfront area, known as The Forks, is a place where people gather for celebratory events and to relax along the trees and river walkways—often shared by ducks. The skyline profiles show iconic downtown Winnipeg architecture close to The Forks, including the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and the Esplanade Riel pedestrian bridge.
We felt it was important to localize the animation and draw attention to the local nature of our client in response to a COVID-19 effect on our audience—heightened concern about local businesses and desire to support local.