As part of my internship with creative agency Six Black Pens, I was able to take part in a complex digital advertising brief they were working on for superannuation provider Hostplus. The brief challenged us to create a digital advertising campaign promoting Hostplus and how its use of index balancing makes it stand out amongst other super funds. 

As a deeply complex brief, the campaign was striving for a simple solution that is able to draw in new members through a catchy tagline and strong symbolic visuals that align with the current Hosplus branding. Although SBP ending up running with a different campaign, I was able to fully explore and flesh out the brief under the guidance of Creative Group Head Brad Stevens. 

Solution

On the surface, superannuation is a fairly dry industry, making advertising of integral importance in bringing new members in. Thus, simplifying the brief to a single core message was the best way to make the message stick. 

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I focused on the notion of searching for the best super out there – "the search is over" – and used the yellow square in the Hosplus brand as a primary motif to drive the idea. I split the Hostplus brand up into a number of key benefits which it provides its members; security, knowledge, management and performance and designed a set of icons using the yellow square that convey the benefit. These icons are then combined with the motif of binocular goggles, which I used to create a set of animated assets which convey the notion of "searching" for the best super out there. As the campaign is explored through a digital medium, I made motion design the key driver of the campaign – allowing the viewer to search for the yellow square as if they are looking through a set of binoculars themselves. 

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As part of the project, I also worked to refine the Hostplus brand identity to better support the campaign. I refined the logo to better exemplify the plus symbol and yellow square and also explored how the yellow square can be used as a driving symbol throughout the brand.