Seek Australia has introduced what it hopes will be a new distinctive brand asset — the AI-powered search bar — in Droga5 ANZ’s first piece of work for the brand since winning its creative pitch.
The new brand campaign — which was Droga5’s pitch-winning presentation — builds on Seek’s long-standing ‘Seek And You Shall Find’ platform, which was brought back in 2023 after a decade of retirement.
But this iteration of the platform has some new life breathed into it, which one of the agency’s executive creative directors, Hugh Gurney, said was very deliberate.
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“Rather than trying to create something new, we just wanted to find a way to give more meaning to that existing platform that the brand is so known for,” he told Mumbrella.
“We did that by creating this seek bar, which is very similar to the way the website will allow you to search for things. It demonstrates really how we want people to interact with the platform, but it also works really well as a full stop piece of punctuation on our commercials.”
Joe Sibley, fellow executive creative director, said the search bar has become “really helpful” as an asset outside of film, too: “You’ll be seeing that a lot in the world.”
The hero films feature some familiar favourites before they became who we know and love: Dorothy, before she made it to Oz; Tarzan before he became the king of the jungle; and the Tooth Fairy before she started her very important job. Two more characters will be introduced in due course.
“We probably went through 25 scripts to find characters that were the right amount of entertainment, but also had to be really recognisable straight away as someone that had a role, and that was why people knew them,” Sibley told Mumbrella.
Gurney compared it to a Marvel character’s origin story: “These are a little bit like that, it’s how these people became who they are.”
The campaign nods to Australia’s unique sense of humour — which Gurney joked he and Sibley “built our career upon” — which the pair hope will increase relatability and engagement.
“The comedy is a huge part of it. When you get it right, people really enjoy it and it resonates with them,” Sibley said.
And the strength of the platform, according to the creative duo, is the scope to keep telling stories like this as a long-running platform.
“The work is beyond film, it works great in out of home, radio, responsive social content. So we’re extremely excited to see how we can progress the campaign moving forward,” Gurney said.
He said it has the potential to be reactive to cultural trends, using characters that are popular in moments of time.
“We can very easily adapt that seek bar iconography to comment on zeitgeisty things, essentially.”
Sibley also gave a shout out to the film director, Revolver’s Taso Alexander, as this was his first Australian-based shoot.
“He brought so much to the project too,” he said. “Obviously this campaign goes beyond film, but the spots are the flagship of it, and he did such a great job. Given that he’s Canadian, he shares really similar sensibilities of comedy and he really gelled with both the client, and us as an agency.”
Seek APAC’s chief marketing officer, Maryanne Tsiatsias, said she’s “really proud” of the collaboration.
“We can’t wait to see how audiences respond, and we hope they enjoy all the surprises along the way,” she said in a media release.
The campaign is running across Australia and New Zealand on various channels, including TV, outdoor, online video, radio, search, email, display, social and Seek’s owned channels. It will also run in Australian cinemas.
Credits:
Client: SEEK
Chief Marketing Officer, APAC: Maryanne Tsiatsias
Head of Marketing, ANZ: Philippa Jamieson
Head of Digital and Media, APAC, Mark Thiele
Senior Marketing Manager, Media and Planning, Kevin Alphonso
Senior Marketing Manager – Integrated Campaigns: Jasmine Taulla
Marketing Manager – Campaigns: Carly Robinson
Marketing Manager – Social & PR: Simone Gioia
Marketing Manager – ANZ Digital Marketing: Allison Downes
Senior Marketing Associate – Social & PR: Dylan Tucker
Senior Marketing Associate – Media & Planning: Belle Healy
Senior Marketing Associate – Programmatic: Christina Chow
Marketing Associate – Programmatic: Luke Pritchard
Creative Agency: Droga5 ANZ, part of Accenture Song
Chief Executive Officer ANZ: Matt Michael
Executive Creative Director: Joe Sibley
Executive Creative Director: Hugh Gurney
Head of Strategy: Dave Collins
Nat Head of Production/Producer: Romanca Mundrea
Senior Producer: Katie Wellbelove
Senior Art Director: Ben Horewood
Senior Copywriter: Michelle Canning
Design Director: Raphael Tamkalis
Designer: Noel Yeung
Chief Client Officer: Jayne Brady
Senior Business Director: Kim Thompson
Business Manager: Ingrid Zhang
Production Company: Revolver
Director: Taso Alexander
Managing Director/Co-Owner: Michael Ritchie
Executive Producer/ Partner: Pip Smart
Producer: Lib Kelly
DOP: Ari Wegner
Production Designer: Alex Holmes
Wardrobe: Sophie Fletcher
Post Production: The Editors
Producer: Isabella Key
Editor: Mark Burnett
Colourist: Edel Rafferty
Sound: Squeak E. Clean Studios
Executive Producer: Ceri Davies
Head of Sound: Paul Le Couteur