Direct Line established high levels of recall among consumers. In September 2014, the brand worked with Saatchi and Saatchi to relaunch its advertising, using Hollywood actor Harvey Keitel as Winston Wolfe, a Mafia style 'fixer'. The company had one million customers after eight years. The company expanded with a series of new offshoots in the 1990s. In 1995, a Spanish offshoot, Linea Direct, started offering motor insurance in Spain. They expanded into travel insurance in 1996, pet insurance in 1997, and Direct Line Breakdown started offering breakdown insurance in 1998. Their non general insurance products umbrella Direct Line Financial services launched their
Direct Line computers and sell insurance directly by telephone, thus removing the need for a broker and reducing costs. The company was also the first insurer in the United Kingdom to open its office in the evenings and weekends, and the first to offer a twenty four hour help line. In 1988, it started to sell home insurance. Direct Line is renowned for having transformed financial services in the United Kingdom. The company grew by advertising in the national press, television and marketing to RBS customers. It launched a long standing mascot of a red telephone on wheels in 1990, which rapidly