Hamilton steps it up a gear for Abbey's TV campaign

“Great things happen when all the right pieces come together" – that’s the message in Abbey’s summer 2008 advertising campaign featuring F1™ ace Lewis Hamilton; which builds on the success of last year’s campaign with a media spend of Â£4m. The campaign focuses on Abbey and Santander’s joint commitment to their customers as one of the world’s largest banks, and their new range of bank accounts that are tailored to individual needs, including one that pays 8% interest. The TV advert, created by WCRS, starts with a close-up of an Airfix™ model kit- box for a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One car, model MP4-23.

We are taken on a journey of the car being meticulously assembled piece by piece by hand, along with its driver. It climaxes with the driver, Hamilton, coming to life and driving off in his real full-size Vodafone McLaren Mercedes car into the Abbey red cube. The action draws on parallels with the care Abbey and Santander have taken in building their range of bank accounts for customers, as well as the strength Abbey and Santander gain from working together.

A complicated and exciting production process included shooting with Lewis Hamilton and the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One car, with certain aspects against green-screen so as to be able to combine it in post-production with the model kit aspects that were shot separately. Intriguingly for Lewis, 3D scans of his body and head were taken to provide the precise digital information needed in order for the model makers to achieve an exact scale model replica of our star.

Jeremy Davies, Brand and Communication Director at Abbey, commented: “It’s been fantastic to have the opportunity to work with Lewis Hamilton again, marrying the excitement and dynamism behind him and the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team with Abbey’s exciting range of bank accounts." The TV advertising campaign kicks off on 16 June and runs until 10 August. It’ll feature in the ad breaks of some of the most popular TV programs, and in support of Lewis Hamilton in the 2008 Santander British Grand Prix. Press Release