• by Sarah Mahoney , Yesterday

Experian's BFF — the 12-foot Big Financial Friend guiding your personal finances — is moving from the mundane to the chaotic in a new series of TV ads.

The new spots, from in-house agency the Cooler, are the next stage in the company's first-ever brand campaign, launched last June. Actor Sam Richardson returns as the 12-foot Big Financial Friend — but with a significant upgrade. In the original campaign, Richardson played a silent BFF, following a young woman through predictable financial pitfalls: an enormous car repair bill, a new rental apartment.

This time, he's stuck in the middle of a demolition derby, dodging flying cars while continuing to offer a steadying presence. In this phase of the campaign, he's also allowed to speak, with lines conveying calm financial wisdom amid the mayhem.

The first phase of the campaign performed well, driving positive brand metrics, Steve Hartmann, head of integrated marketing, told Marketing Daily.  Experian wanted the added intensity of the action spots, he said, "for us to be a bit different and more disruptive and stand out among other big-production ads."

The demolition derby isn't meant to be relatable — but the financial anxiety of the woman at the center of the spot is. "What stays constant is her concern about her finances," Hartmann said. What she's doing isn't typical. What she's worrying about is.

The ads are launching into the frenzy of March Madness, as well as consumers' heightened awareness of personal finances during tax season. They are also set to be among the first ads on Apple TV+'s Formula 1 coverage.

It's made sense to launch and expand the company's first brand campaign this year, Hartmann said, as Experian has continued to build out its product portfolio. "We needed to get to a point where we offer something for everybody, not just people with poor credit looking to raise their scores."

Experian Consumer Services now serves nearly 80 million members, with features that help save money on car insurance, subscription cancellation and higher-yield savings.

In performance advertising, Hartmann said, "we're really good at finding customers that need us, getting those people to convert." The brand campaign, though, targets "people that maybe don't need us right away, creating some sort of impact of brand awareness, consideration or favorability, so that when they do need us — maybe in six months or a year — they think about us. That's why our brand and performance ads work so well together. One is immediate and one long-term, and they both help each other out."