The Power of Animation: “Hell or Habito” Campaign

We live by a certain credo you may recognize if you’ve spent any amount of time with us: animate, animate, animate!  It’s a credo we take very seriously here at TBM and we encourage absolutely every client we work with to bring some animation to anything they possibly can in their banner ads.

Animation not only creates interest in your assets, but it also draws visual attention to your placements. Of course, it goes without saying that the interest and attention paid to your assets grows exponentially when those placements are out-of-the-ordinary or otherwise exceptional in our ultra-saturated world.

Habito is a free online mortgage broker service based in the UK. They are founded in direct response to the frustrating and stressful ways that mortgages are bought, sold, and generally dealt with. Their ‘Hell or Habito’ campaign with Uncommon London began in 2018 with Part 1 of their now six-part series depicting hellish mortgage scenarios and the conversely, much more pleasant outcome of obtaining a mortgage using their service. Their first part even took home a win in the Drum Advertising Awards in the category of Campaign of the Year (under 1 million views).

‘Hell or Habito’ spanned the months of 2019 with equally impressive parts to the series added onto the campaign and as of January 10^th, has officially made it into 2020 as well.

Aside from the clever—and completely relatable—subject matter that Habito has built their ads and company on, their placements and supporting materials are all animated! Frankly, we feel seen by this campaign and all of its 2D gory glory. Typically, advertisements for nearly anything in the financial sector are simple, to the point, and without embellishments. But then along comes Habito with a whole miniseries worth of brilliantly animated ads (thanks to Hornet‘s Andy Baker) that each tell a smaller part of a large—and funny—story. In 100% Dante-esque stunning animation. Complete with blood, guts, gore, and humanity.

Habito has solidified themselves as a brand that takes chances, understands their customer’s struggles so well they can take those struggles, and extrapolate on them. This level of animation would take months of planning and concepting before even getting to the execution stage, so it may not be a viable option for many brands. But what is a viable option for any brand is the bravery, creativity, and willingness to meet your clients where they already are.