Working alongside Arnold ad agency in Boston, we were excited to be involved in the legendary Progressive Insurance ads in which character ‘Flo’ takes centre stage. The slogan for this edition of the campaign was: ‘Insurance Savings that stand out’. The concept was to hide Flo within playful situations, using the white brand color of Progressive. We worked closely with the agency to ensure we represented the heart of the tag line: ‘STAND OUT’.

Working with a modern day budget, we needed a clever solution to maximise every aspect of this production. Flo was made available to us for 3hours from a separate product shoot happening in LA. Funnily enough, we had already done a recent shoot of white bunnies for the Frontier Airlines TVC (we had our animal wrangler ready to go in NYC). Working with our partner photographer Joshua Dalsimer, Glen Taylor creatively led this production. Breaking down the shoot requirements to individual plates needed for compositing. Working with a body double for both rabbits and marshmallows, we were able to avoid Flo being bitten, pee’d on or beaten by sugary candy.

We managed the shoot productions on both campaigns. The first shoot took place over two days in Los Angeles, where the Progressive star ‘Flo’ is based. Glen Taylor, NY founder and Creative Director, flew over to be on set and lead the production. Working with photographer Michael Elins, we made sure we captured all the main elements and the specific details that allowed us to create faultless final images.

To get the absolute best result we made sure we captured ‘Flo’ bathing in milk – well okay, a warm water mixture that looked like milk – and it was essential to capture her clothes and hair wet to add to the realism. ‘Flo’ is such a good sport she jumped at the chance! Being partial to a few doughnuts, she was equally as happy to tuck into those.

As is often the case, we wanted to capture as much in camera as possible, however sometimes CGI is the only approach. Creating the paper planes in CGI we had more control over the image dynamics and were able to come up with endless compositions options.

Following our production pipeline, the agency and client were kept informed at key stages, and guided through the decision-making processes. By re-utilising assets for consistency, establishing fixed camera positions and using proven shaders, the creative leads could optimise the quality of the material and answer all client, creative and production issues.

Our complete image production service allowed us to produce the campaign entirely in-house, through our photography, CGI and retouch teams. We understand that time, budget and flexibility are all important in the production process. The benefits, therefore, of having TJ run complete productions are numerous. It enables us to streamline all areas of production with a focus on giving our clients the very highest quality visuals.