Nimble has partnered with Cyclone Creative for a light-hearted campaign about tough financial times.

The Australian digital lender launched a TV campaign featuring the character William ‘Bill’ Shock. Having just moved out of home and into the rental crisis, with a skyrocketing cost of living, Bill is not having the good time he imagined. The recurring financial shocks of the last few years have left his jaw permanently dropped.

He is appropriately played with star power by meme sensation Josh ‘Magikarp Guy’ Saunders, who originally went viral after he was spotted in the audience of Australia’s Got Talent looking like Munch’s painting of ‘The Scream’.

“While he’s a farcical character, he expresses a very real emotion that everyday Australians are feeling: panic accompanied by a strange numbness at the escalating cost of living,” say the campaign’s creators.

Love or hate Nimble’s quirky, adorkable campaigns, the Bill Shock TVC stands out for addressing a problem while making it palatable.

Addresses a crisis in marketing: the Nimble approach

Our current cost of living crisis is tricky territory in marketing. The topic is rather distressing, and acknowledges that people have less of a budget to spend on what is being sold to them. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that some Christmas campaigns are avoiding the topic altogether. Instead, they’re focussing on the magic of Christmas and ‘letting the season be the reason’ (ignoring the plethora of reasons not to spend). 

Nimble is in a privileged position to address cost of living as a small loans company, and it has sprinkled the serious issue with its signature wit.

“With this TVC, we’re touching on the reality of 2022 – the rental crisis and alarming grocery and petrol costs,” says Nimble’s general manager Brigid Davey.

“We have delivered it in a non-threatening and humorous way. We see enough bad news every day on TV, we don’t need another negative reminder. Hence why we wanted to produce a campaign that’s amusing and eye-catching. So, let your inner Bill Shock out, and just Nimble it and move on.”