The lead advertisement shows the Hippo.co.za mascot defeating a collection of monsters through a series of over-the-top action sequences. It builds on the consumers' love for the popular Hippo character.

"The Hippo mascot is our most powerful brand asset and [is] the hero in the new campaign. We reintroduced the character to the market in 2018 and its grunt has been a reminder for consumers to compare quotes on Hippo.co.za before committing to any product," says Vera Nagtegaal, Hippo.co.za's head of marketing and culture.

"After almost three years, it was time to expand the Hippo character's universe. We looked at the psychology of decision-making and the idea that our regrets follow us around like little monsters. To us, there is no better hero than Hippo to help consumers fight their '#RegretMonster," adds Nagtegaal.

"Creating the puppets was a collaborative process as we worked to find the right balance between scary (but not too scary) and loveable, but not too loveable," says Darren Kilfoil, FoxP2's senior copywriter. "We already had one great character in the Hippo, but now our challenge was to bring its nemeses to life in the form of monsters whose asses it could kick. The biggest question we had going forward was: How can we make puppet-on-puppet combat look awesome?"

"We all identify with being plagued by our regrets," says advertisement director Donovan Marsh. "The challenge for the ad was to take this idea and create a magical universe where regrets give rise to monsters in a fun and humorous way."

The combination of digital effects and real-world puppets provided a unique challenge, says puppet fabricator Rob Carlisle and his team. "The director wanted to honour the medium of puppetry as much as possible. In many ways, his treatment was a homage to classical puppetry," says Carlisle.

Through the campaign, the brand aims to engage with audiences through brand storytelling. The 'Regret Monsters' featured in the campaign don't reference any specific regrets, but rather speak to the universality of regrets in general. 

"At a time when household budgets are tightened, South Africans are especially conscious of their spending and saving. Our trusted partners also rely on us to add value to both their business and their consumers," says Hippo.co.za's CEO Bradley Du Chenne.

"The Regret Monsters are representations of all our bad financial and life decisions. Our Hippo character plays its role in enabling consumers to make better, more informed choices every day of their lives," concludes Du Chenne.

The brand's free online platform enables South Africans to compare deals so that consumers can make better decisions when it comes to their money. With these characters, the aim is to land Hippo.co.za's core brand message of enabling consumers to make better, more informed choices around their expenses.

The campaign is flighting on all major platforms and will feature innovative audience engagement moments throughout its rollout.



For more information, visit www.hippo.co.za. You can also follow Hippo.co.za on Facebook or on Twitter.