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Like a sunrise, Rhonda and Ketut, the love story continues

Rhonda and Ketut in the AAMI ads

Rhonda and Ketut the love story continues

Rhonda and Ketut’s romance will continue, AAMI marketing executive manager, Richard Riboni confirmed at the Mumbrella360 conference today.

AAMI safe driver’s love story that inspired the imagination of a nation last year took even the producers by surprise with Ogilvy general manager Michael McEwan describing the campaign as “like One Direction has dropped in and took on a life of its own”.

“I can reveal that there is going to be one more Rhonda,” said Riboni. “We actually spent two days shooting last week.”

“There’s always that concern from all of us is how do we do another Rhonda, making it at least as good as but hopefully better than the last campaign.”

AAMI gave the Mumbrella360 audience a sneak preview of what is to come.

Showing a screenshot of Rhonda in crowded ballroom wearing a floral dress, possibly ruining the hope of those who want to see a Rhonda and Ketut wedding.

The media circus surrounding the Rhonda and Ketut campaign was in part because of the willingness of the public to participate.

The production team ‘rolled with the punches’ and accepted user generated content, especially from Facebook group ‘The Sexual Tension Between Rhonda and Ketut” said McEwan, which topped 115,000 likes.

“One of the key things, I think, drove this campaign is social media in particular Facebook”, he said. “We actually got out of the way of it. We didn’t try to control it, we didn’t try and restrict it”.

“We take no credit. That’s exactly what you want. You want people in the real world to become fans of this, people having fun with these characters”.
The creative team is developing the characters further, with the actors appearing at social events to further promote the campaign while also taking into account real-time social media feedback.

The defining factor for the character’s warm reception is that they are “not actors” and are “really appearing as themselves, and not playing a character,” said McEwan.

Ogilvy copywriter, Lenna Boland agrees and describes Rhonda as being “your mom, could be your best friend, she could be the lady on the bus.”
Asked if the public might experience ‘Rhonda fatigue’, Riboni responded, “yes, there is a concern about the fatigue of Rhonda, we’ve purposely given Rhonda a really good break. We haven’t had Rhonda on all year.”

Steven Sun 

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