While Harvey Keitel stars in the brand’s ads as a roving fixer, Direct Line’s real-life Mr Fix-It is Mark Evans, who joined the insurer during its IPO process in 2012. At the time, insurance was suffering from an image problem, with customers perceiving it as a slow, frustrating and ultimately unfulfilling purchase. He took charge of internal and external communications to convince staff that insurance had to be a responsive, customer-centric product. Evans says the best advice was that you can be happy, fulfilled and successful, just not every day. “It’s the ups an downs that give you energy and perspective and a more interesting story,” he says.