The power of surprise and delight – Renovating the Classics

The Client: Renovation Underwriting

The Challenge: How do you take an industry often (unfairly!) regarded as dull, and show that it’s actually full of creativity?

The tough thing about challenging preconceptions is that you nearly always start off on the back foot. You want to turn the story around, but how do you get your audience interested? They’re not listening. They think they’ve heard it all before. They are metaphorically plugging their ears with their fingers while singing “blah, blah, blah”.

If you want to create a sit-up and listen moment, you need to do something bold and unexpected. But in the age of ever-growing cynicism and ever-shortening attention spans, how easy is it to deliver that moment of surprise? Of course, it’s never easy! There are no quick fixes here – it always involves a huge amount of work! But join us as we pull back the curtain and share a little bit about how we helped our client deliver a moment, described in their own words as:

“Something that the market hasn’t seen for a while and it created the stir that we wanted it to for sure. That stuff you can’t buy with PPC, or any sort of PR campaign because it’s a completely organic thing, which meant that you had to be there.” – Client feedback

The Solution: Engage the power of surprise and delight!

If we were to follow a classic storytelling timeline, we’d start by telling you what our client set out to achieve. Here comes the first plot twist… We didn’t start with a campaign goal. Instead, it began when our client fell in love with a curveball idea that was presented during a concept presentation for another piece of work. So we took that curveball idea and built a campaign around it.

Remember we said you had to be bold? Well that’s where this campaign began. It was brave to take on an idea, loved instinctively but unplanned, and run with it.

During the campaign development phase, there was always a bit of risk, hanging around the edges. The idea was different. The industry wouldn’t be expecting it. What if it fell flat? We needed to be brave, but we also needed to hold our cards close to our chest.

Before we go into the juicy details and share some of the “how”, here’s a quick overview of the big idea.

• The client: Renovation Underwriting – a national Managing General Agent, providing specialist insurance cover for high net worth renovation and contract works projects
• The campaign goal: Challenge the preconception that the insurance industry isn’t creative
• The audience: Those currently working in the sector or considering insurance as a career
• The delivery: A face-to-face launch event, followed by the release of a campaign video and additional online content.

 The big idea: Renovating the Classics

Named with a playful nod to our client’s business name and the sector in which they operate in, the Renovating the Classics campaign takes instantly recognisable artwork and reimagines it with a twist.

The card players in Paul Cezanne’s famous work have relocated to a site office, complete with architectural plans, hi-vis jackets and hard hats. Take a closer look and you might spot the Renovation Underwriting branded mug on the table.

The world-famous Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream now depicts Notre Dame de Paris in the background, engulfed in flames just as it was in 2019 when a fire broke out during extensive renovation work.

We worked alongside Bravo Creative to deliver this campaign. Here’s Creative Director, Baz Richardson’s take on how the campaign came about:

“I originally created Renovating the Classics as an art series that takes some of the world’s most recognisable art and includes a renovation twist… some in a Terry Gilliam, Monty Python-esque way. But rather than see a smile-in-the-mind art series, the client recognised that this series had greater merit. He realised that this series could both celebrate and highlight the importance of continued creativity in the profession.” – Baz Richardson

How did people react to Renovating the Classics?
Reactions to the paintings generally included a series of emotions played out in in quick succession – with surprise followed by delight, then curiosity.

“I think it’s fantastic, very contemporary. It’s a nice twist on the insurance and art world.” – Launch event guest

No one invited to the mysteriously named “RTC” event that night expected to see artwork. Most guests had predicted a rebrand or a product launch.

The most delightful thing about presenting something so unexpected and surprising was that we had managed to get the audience to sit up and listen.

Surprise is a great emotion for capturing attention – it offers a momentary reset, during which you can swoop in with your big idea and capture your audience’s undistracted attention.

“I love the card players! The people that had been used, the guy in the yellow vest. That was my favourite. I think the idea is wonderful, it makes people think.” – Launch event guest

Our top tips for creating moments of surprise and delight

The secret of this campaign’s success lay, as ever, not in one, but a multitude of different decisions and marketing tactics. Here are some of the points that we felt really impacted its success.

Building intrigue
Top tip: Give people enough information to draw them in, without making them feel uncomfortable.

Guests were invited to a drinks reception and told that creativity would be discussed and celebrated.

Venue impact
Top tip: Pick a killer venue that enhances your campaign

The opulent setting of the Victorian Bath House had red velvet curtains behind which we could hide the artwork until the moment of reveal.

Networking opportunities
Top tip: Give people the opportunity to network, regardless of the occasion.

Who can resist a drinks reception, with some of the industry’s most influential players, even if you have no idea of the event’s purpose!

Attention to detail
Top tip: If you’re going to go big, embrace it across your whole campaign.

The artwork was printed at the same scale as the original pieces and framed authentically. An email invitation was followed up by a high quality printed “golden” ticket. Guests left the event with their own boxed own set of Renovating the Classics postcards. Professional photography and videography captured the whole evening.

Embrace risk
Top tip: Be brave!

Everything about this campaign felt slightly risky – ironic for a traditionally risk-adverse industry! But our client was comfortable in the role of playing the maverick to inspire change. It’s a fine line to tread, but with lots of sense-checking along the way, it felt like it hit just the right note.

The future of Renovating the Classics

Renovating the Classics is far from over. Since the launch event the four current artwork pieces have gone out on tour, to broker offices across the country, bringing surprise and delight to even more people working in the profession. A video was released, offering more insight into the purpose of the campaign, and including footage and guest reactions filmed at the launch event.

If you would like to see the artwork, visit our client’s website or sign-up to the Renovating the Classics Collective and be the first to hear about the next artwork drop. 2025 and 2026 will see more artwork releases and ultimately, a charity auction of all 10 pieces.

It’s a campaign that will need to evolve – we’ve set ourselves a high bar – how can you continue to deliver surprise and intrigue when you’ve already done the Big Reveal? But having overcome that first hurdle – getting the audience to listen – it’s exciting to see where things will go next!

“I don’t regard myself as creative in any way, but it’s got me thinking – how can we look at insurance in a new way? I’ll go away and have a think about it on the train home and think about what I can do, in a small way.” Launch event guest