Happy Hour Productions

Overview

We launched Animal Friends Insurance (AFI) on TV back in 2011 when they were eighth in the Mintel list of pet insurers. In just 18 months, their business had trebled. Their campaigns from 2011 to 2017 showed off the amazing skill of our stop-frame animators and – most importantly - took the brand to no 2 in the market, challenging Petplan for the no 1 spot. We brought to life loveable characters such as Girlie the cat and Cracker the dog which gave a series of ads familiarity and instant brand recognition.

The main USP of AFI is its charitable giving and therefore this underpinned the positioning of AFI as the ‘feel good insurer’. Having loveable stop-frame animation characters really reflected that friendly feeling.

Happy Hour are a pleasure to work with and have a collaborative, professional approach. They’ve helped us to evolve our brand across our TV advertising channels by creating unique and memorable commercials. They’ve used their creativity and knowledge to help us to engage with pet owners and bring our brand to life.

Janfranco Caro – Head of Brand and Creative, Animal Friends Insurance

The team at Happy Hour have been great. Their approach to understanding the brief, inputting their own experience and advice and then delivering high quality creative animation is exceptionally professional. Each time we've commissioned Happy Hour to produce a new TV advert, even at the last minute, they've gone that one step further to deliver some truly stunning creative. As our brand has evolved, so has the identity through their animation and design.

Chris Newnham, Marketing Manager, Animal Friends Insurance

In 2014 “Treadmill” focussed on one of the main essences of pet insurance – health – but still maintained the feel-good messages within. “Stable” in 2016 launched equine insurance – and introduced a brand new horse character – with two versions of the ad created, one specifically focussed on the charitable giving of AFI.

In 2018 we reimagined Girlie and Cracker with brand new animation which moved away from the ‘claymation’ style to keep the feel fresh. These ads still associated with the core emotional values of AFI – empathy, trustworthiness and efficacy – but with an updated feel. This combined with the strong, consistent message of ‘feel-good insurance’ resulted in effective DRTV.

Most recently AFI have partnered with Secret Life of Pets 2 which included a competition with a prize to win a trip to New York as a drive for people to buy affordable pet insurance that supports animal welfare worldwide. These ads continue to drive response and excellent customer acquisition.

As a result, since advertising on TV we've seen over a 155% increase in new business. Since launching our latest advert we've additionally seen an even greater response from the previous year of around 80% which is largely due to a combination of improved TV slots and the visual creative. We have no hesitation in recommending Tom and his team for any TV production and we look forward to working with them again soon.”

Chris Newnham, Marketing Manager, Animal Friends Insurance

Animal Friends have been our client for nearly 10 years and we love the relationship of trust and collaboration we have built… the perfect friendship!

Media is bought by The Specialist Works.