The AA’s Smallest Hero Is Making It’s Breakdown Stories More Human

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes. For drivers, seeing the amber flashing lights coming to the rescue to get them back on the road brings a feeling of happiness, security, and relief. For the patrol drivers, it’s just another day on the road. That's the underlying message The AA wants to relay through its brand positioning.

With over 14 million members, the organisation has no shortage of everyday breakdown disasters and stories to tell. These are often emotional experiences, but its marketing aims to bring light and humour to such misadventures.

It's latest campaign featuring the tale of Pinky the hamster, created with The Gate, features a heartfelt approach to its storytelling, where one tiny critter's moment of need shines a light on the patrols who go above and beyond to be there for their members. It's more than a car breakdown. It is literally life or death.

This campaign aims to connect with audiences more deeply than before with its story arc, yet still continuing to create the feel-good resolution that the brand is known for conveying. Using inspiration from real life stories and experiences from more than 2,000 patrols on the road, Pinky brings a relatability to the everyday driver and highlights The AA’s mission, to always be ahead.

The campaign, which is part of the Its Ok, I’m With The AA platform, moves towards a more meaningful territory in its established creative partnership with The Gate. They are working together to create work that aims to leaves more of a lasting impression explains Sarah Fuller, group marketing director at The AA and Lucas Peon, chief creative officer while retaining the core idea that ‘It’s Ok’.

From Humour To Heart

Knowing that the majority of the UK can complete that line, Fuller knew there was something there to build on in a way that really connects with customers. Going out on ride-alongs with patrol drivers continuously and experiencing seven different moments in people's lives created a want to bring that feeling to life, whilst keeping the same confidence, warmth and humour in the story.

“The patrols are experts, but they also have the mantra: ;Fix the person, then fix the car.' That human care is what our people are out there doing on the road, day in, day out," she says.

From that perspective, it became clear to Peon the main challenge was to move the campaign in that direction, from humour to heartfelt, without losing the the well-loved tone of previous campaign work. “We knew it was going to make the stories more meaningful, more relatable and more memorable," he explains.

That was a major new step the brand was looking for.

Making Stories More Human

Moving away from the recent use of fantastical stories featuring vampires, dinosaurs, and meteorites, gaining the power of insight, and knowing the power of using those was exactly what Peon was looking for. He says there’s still space to feature purposeful humour within those moments, it’s just been placed within a more real and human territory. The story arc, he says, is more complex and strategically created and crafted.

Fuller adds “Humour is part of the AA’s DNA”, while emphasising how good the patrols are at making light of the breakdowns they attend. She says “The way they interact is real, and that’s what we want to project: that warm, situational humour.”

Anchoring back on the Its Ok ideology, this new direction beginning with Pinky brings that confidence in a slightly different way.

Bringing Pinky To Life

As with all campaigns, various scenarios were devised, including one where a pilot breaks down and the patrol gets permission to drive him right up to the plane, but Fuller says that Pinky's story felt the most relatable.

Peon says that what made the chosen story most interesting was the amount of depth it could carry around one little animal. And with that, using extreme wide angles to showcase the car in the middle of nowhere, the purpose was to create that vast contrast with the hamster and his owner's own story. “Every single shot was designed to find those different tones and make the best possible use of every second we had on screen," he says.

Bringing Pinky to life involved a mix of real hamsters, including John-Claude Van Ham and Jason State-Ham, as well as puppets to create his more elaborate moments. Fuller says that their tendency to briefly become very still before reviving again helped shape the storytelling, creating playful drama without making it feel genuinely alarming.

An Idea Built To Last

Peon talked about how great it is to still see people recognising the ‘Its Ok’ platform and how important it is to have ideas that you can execute for a long time. This leaned into The Gates elastic ideas, learning that with a deeper story like Pinky, can really be stretched and held more than initially wanted. He says “ Every brand wants a line like this, and I think we’re lucky to be able to build it stronger with every iteration of the campaign.”

Having an idea being strong at its core and so attributable to the brand that you can execute it in a way that is true to each channel, is what Peon believes Pinky has proven. He says the elastic idea gives the flexibility to create the stories that they need to create, and gives the brand more depth and warmth. It enables the idea to keep being interesting for audiences and to continue to build on the idea that summarises exactly what the brand promise and benefit are.

Continuing the legacy

Receiving a letter from a customer expressing their love for Pinky is a moment, Fuller says, that doesn't happen very often. So far, she is pleased with the response and the behaviours of audiences, consumers, and the patrols, all celebrating their love and joy for the campaign.

Having a widely recognisable platform allows the brand, as Fuller explains, to continue building and showcasing the brand's whole range of products and services. She says that The AA’s care and expertise are what really drive of confidence for members.

Peon says that for the future, expect The AA to keep on surprising with more already set to come on this platform. And Fuller adds that when there is a strong creative idea that is about the emotional benefit of a brand, it frees the idea up. That focus, she says, gives them the freedom to keep reinventing it. “So, in a nutshell: expect the unexpected.”