Arnold Schwarzenegger confuses Australia for Austria in new Realestate.com.au campaign
Realestate.com.au has created a new brand campaign using Hollywood star and former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, who confuses Australia and his homeland Austria, using the site to search for a new house to move home.
The new campaign called ‘Australia Lives Here’, created by BWM Melbourne, was roadblocked across across all free-to-air TV as well as the major digital advertising networks at 6.20pm to in what it is calling a “high impact” launch for the multi-million dollar push the company claims is an Australian first.
The first ad of seven starring Arnie shows the actor talking to his assistant saying he wants to move back to Austria, then telling him about Realestate.com.au thinking that ‘.au’ is an Austrian site, and how much has homeland seemed to have changed since he lived there.
Group manager marketing strategy, Natalie Feehan, said in a statement: “Australia lives here is the culmination of six months of work refining and re-articulating the brand strategy to support realestate.com.au’s future growth.
“The brand has been known and widely accepted as Australia’s number one property site. The fact is, we know our audience engages with our site throughout the property cycle, not just when they are buying and selling, so we wanted to expand perception of the site by creating an engaging campaign that tells a story.
“Through Arnie’s discovery of realestate.com.au, we get to see other parts of the site that are helpful for consumers like suburb profiles, sold price information, investment data and editorial content.”
Whilst Schwarzenegger stars in the new ads, there are also a series of video diaries from his Australian assistant Dylan, who runs through the features of the site.
In the statement Schwarzenegger said he had enjoyed the filming, adding: “I had such a fantastic experience making the commercials for realestate.com.au with acclaimed American comedy director John Hamburg.
“I learnt a lot about Australia in the process, like how to say Wagga Wagga. I also found it’s hard to find a home with a cheese cave or professionally equipped gym.”
BWM’s managing director Mark Watkin said the choice of Schwarzenegger was deliberately left-field, adding: “When we conceived the creative idea of Arnold as the lead character, it was because we wanted cut through and to make people think differently about the realestate.com.au brand.
“The campaign ultimately is about discovery; so that people are curious to find out more.”
On the decision to roadblock gthe campaign across other channels Mediacom CEO Mark Pejic said: “The media schedule was planned to amplify the high impact of creative at launch in a way that would get Australia’s attention.
“Beyond launch, it’s really interesting to see a story like this play out over time across television, online, social media, print and outdoor media.”
The campaign will also be utilising Twitter with the hashtag #ausliveshere and with a handle created for the assistant @dylanblocke.
Credits:
Natalie Feehan – Group Manager Marketing Strategy, realestate.com.au
Sarah Coghlan – Head of Brand Strategy, realestate.com.au
Ben Lemon – Brand Marketing Manager, realestate.com.au
Mark Watkin – Group Managing Director, BWM
Murray White – Executive Creative Director, BWM
Mark Pejic – Managing Director, Mediacom
Karl Treacher – CEO, Brand Institute of Australia
Dylan! Jooo… sunnuvabitch
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Wow! How did they get Arnie?
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These are awesome. Using a star and actually tapping in to the culture surrounding him to peddle a brand doesn’t often work but it seems to here. Love it. Maybe it’s just because I watched Commando/Predator/Terminator about 32495 times as a kid but yeah – just waiting for the “i’ll be back” line now.
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News owns realestate.com.au and you’d have to think it used its considerable weight (20th Century Fox) to secure Arnie.
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Did anyone not work on this? 38 credits has to be some sort of record.
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That’s right up there with the Greater Building Society scoring Jerry Seinfeld for their ads a few years ago.
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Love it
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love these – strategically strong
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great.
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WIN for the website…it was defiantly a surprise seeing him on the TV the other night.
Not sure if it will link across or cross promote at a later stage due to his coming to Australia early next year for the Arnold Classic Australia fitness & bodybuilding event – http://www.arnoldclassic.com.au/
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Great work. Good and rare example of using an OS director.
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Why didnt the ” I’ll be back” make an appearance?
It seemed as though the ad was written for it as the end line (“instead of use the double”)… is it clever or couldnt they get the rights?
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It’s a good get but… My wife saw it last night and straight away said “I won’t use it. Why would they want him associated with their brand” I don’t think he does well with the female demo anymore…
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Works for me.
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Great use of talent and great campaign. Cant wait to see how it unfolds.
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Brilliant! Credit where credit is due… and they have certainly credited everyone. This looks like it will be a great campaign.
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Nice spots Jake and Cammy!
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@offalspokesperson
“I’ll be back” probably didn’t make an appearance because it would be the most unimaginative & painfully obvious gag possible.
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Great spot BWM
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@JB
Maybe the agency just worked it’s nuts off to secure him…. I’d say Arnold has no connection to Fox whatsoever.
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I almost Died when I saw it – am a Huge Fan so I thought it was Awesome,.
Arnie loves taking the mickey out of himself so it really works!
The I’ll be back line would be so cheesy and cringe-worthy; I feel the decision not to use it probably enhanced the ad overall.
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@spokesperson
I like the spot and i imagine there is much more to come, and i expect that the “ill be back ” WILL make an appearance.
lol… and this is advertising…since when is obvious bad?
I mean, theyve used Arnie, theyve used aut/aus confusion its all pretty straightforward and obvious so far.
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@ In the know. Arnie was paid $3million for a recent Superbowl ad. So I’m guessing News’ $$$$ had far more to do with procuring his services than the agency “working its nuts off”. This shit don’t come free! That said, the News-owned realestate.com.au made an estimated $150million in revenues in the last financial year, so there’s no doubting they’ve got the budgets to attract the star calibre of Arnie.
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Hi guys, when not here at Mumbrella, I spend time lurking at Real Estate Business and similar investor sites…… you guys have no idea about the sh***t fight that has erupted over the new pricing model introduced by realestate.com.au. Will watch developments in my parallel universes with much interest…..
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I love these, what a joy it was to play them through.
This has to rank as one of Arnie’s greatest performances. What a nice idea too. These are my kind of ads.
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I was really surprised to see this company use Arnold. I thought most people new that Arnold suffers from Narcissistic personality disorder…oh well http://www.domain.com.au
Ill be back!!
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Hilarious to see that Business Insider thinks the assistant’s tweets are for real…
http://www.businessinsider.com.....ets-2014-7
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Great idea, brilliantly integrated throughout the website too, well done!
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