Xero - The Mechanic

British businesses have a critical year ahead, littered with fresh challenges from Brexit, rate rises and HMRC's new digital rules. Making Tax Digital is one of the biggest changes to the UK tax system in 30 years, signalling the end of paper-based accounting for 1.1m SMEs. <br> <br>In light of this, our brief was to target small & medium business owners aged 45 plus, raising awareness for Xero and opening the funnel to consideration and conversion. Throughout the creative development process we were mindful of building on the 'unexpected moments' framework, used in Xero's previous global OOH, digital and print executions.<br> <br>Our mission was to deliver a piece of content that was both bold and brave, stood out from the crowd, and clearly defined Xero from its competitors, all the time keeping the core campaign proposition front of mind:<br> <br>"Xero takes care of the mundane tasks of business, so you have more time to spend on what you love"<br> <br>The creative centred on a business owner and his two colleagues, changing a tyre on a car as it travels down a road on two wheels. A metaphor for how difficult it is to run a business, as well as a celebration of the challenges business owners overcome every day.<br> <br>Heading to Johannesburg and enlisting the expertise of a professional stunt team, the shot was captured in one take using a Freedom Arm, the only rig of its kind in South Africa.<br>The shoot was followed by extensive VFX work, navigated intricately to remove all remnants of the rig, tow vehicle, support vehicle, and all road & power lines u2013 a mammoth task in itself.<br>Finishing touches came in the form of the brilliant Peter Capaldi as our voice over artist and music used was Jungle's 'Time'.