- Product/Brand - GoCompare
- Spot - He's Back!
- Music Title - Come Back
- Artist - Wynne Evans
- Composer - Cohan
- Publisher - Warner Chappell
- Master Rights - Yellow Boat Music
- Music Supervisor - Yellow Boat Music
- Ad Agency - GoCompare
- Creatives - Chris Wilkins, Sian Wilkins
- Film Company - PI Film Network
- Film Director - Graham Rose
- Post Production - MPC
- Air Date - 23/7/15
He was once voted the most irritating character on British TV – but now it seems everybody is queuing up to welcome Gio Compario back onto our screens!
A lot has happened at GoCompare in the 18 months since its opera-singing mascot was first demoted to a tour bus driver and then dumped altogether in favour of a gang of X Men-styled superheroes and a Northern Soul backing track.
A takeover by Esure in April followed by the departure of advertising agency Fold7 may have suggested that the Welsh-based insurance price comparison site was in some disarray.
But Gio’s triumphant return, singing his signature parody of WW1 classic Over There in front of a full orchestra and a packed concert hall in Prague, proves that GoCompare still means business!
The commercial also re-unites the award-winning creative partnership of Chris and Sian Wilkins (responsible for memorable TV campaigns like Sheila’s Wheels and the Cadbury’s Smash Martians) with production music specialists Yellow Boat Music – and gives Welsh tenor Wynne Evans the chance to show off his true vocal talents rather than being treated simply as a figure of fun.
“Since 2009 we’ve created at least a dozen different TV versions of Over There, ranging from North African folk dance to Silent Movie type piano,” says Yellow Boat director Philip Jewson.
“Musically some have been very challenging indeed. But this was the biggest yet. It took over three days to film Wynne with the City Of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra playing along to our pre-recorded track to make the performance look as authentic as possible!”
According to the husband and wife Wilkins team, it was hearing a version of Over There by the great Caruso which first gave them the idea for the Gio Compario character.
“It steered us in the direction of a classic operatic tenor belting out a vaguely military march-time piece," says Chris Wilkins.
“It was only later when we began working with Philip Jewson at Yellow Boat Music that the theme really took off. We could never have dreamed up all the subsequent arrangements and variations that would ferment in his astonishing musical brain.”
