Top Ten Ad Campaigns

B&T's review of the top ten ad campaigns of 2012

Tourism Australia: There’s nothing like Australia

Agency: DDB Group Sydney

Two years since the campaign’s launch, the second phase of Tourism Australia’s ‘There’s Nothing Like Australia’ campaign kicked off with TV commercials designed to embed Australia in the minds of Chinese travelers. The launch spot had a multimillion dollar budget and featured locations like Uluru, The Kimberley, the Great Barrier Reef and Sydney Harbour. The highly polished TV spots are works of art in themselves.

Virgin Mobile: Fair Go Bro

Agency: Euro RSCG (now Havas Worldwide Sydney) and One Green Bean

The ‘Fair Go Bro’ campaign was a celebrity endorsement with a twist. Virgin Mobile secured Doug Pitt, the unknown younger brother of Brad Pitt, to give him a ‘fair go’. The campaign kicked off on YouTube and was followed by TVCs and a visit by Doug to Australia, when consumers could win a place in his entourage. Original, witty and perfectly executed.

Coca-Cola: Share a Coke

Agency: Naked Communications, Ogilvy Sydney

The campaign that launched at the end of 2011 rolled well into 2012, as consumers reveled in buying Coca-Cola bottles and cans with their names on. This was followed up with ‘Share a Coke and a Song’, teaming up with Universal Music and Spotify to enable Aussies to share their favourite songs, from 1938 through to today. It’s a clever way of allowing the consumer to feel personally connected to Coke.

Carlton Draught: Beer Chase

Agency: Clemenger BBDO Melbourne

Viral marketing launched this Hollywood car chase parody ad. Within a week of its upload to YouTube, the ad had received more than 2 million views – and that was before it had even screened on TV. The spot’s action movie clich√©s and a classic cops and robbers car chase, demonstrating that you can’t separate a man from his beer, was a huge success for Carlton Draught.

AAMI: Rhonda

Agency: Ogilvy Melbourne

We’ve got to know Rhonda quite well over the past year. Since she first hit our screens in October 2011, the victim of a prang, she has been on holiday to Bali and returned with a holiday romance to remember – with the now-famous Ketut. The spots by Ogilvy Melbourne this year have told the story beautifully. We hope there is more to come.

The Athlete’s Foot: Find Your Fit

Agency: BMF

This was BMF’s first brand campaign for The Athlete’s Foot, and its messaging was right on target. Featuring people with weird and wonderful hobbies – such as wife carrying and full time protest marching – the campaign put a new angle on the idea of finding the right fit in a shoe. The ads were like mini documentaries that exposed people’s oddities. It was a great quirky take on everyday shoe shopping.

Qantas: You’re the Reason we Fly

Agency: Publicis Mojo

Qantas embarked on a new direction with its first ad to feature the tagline ‘You’re the reason we fly’. The airline commissioned an original song – the lyric-free Atlas song by Daniel Johns and featuring the Australian Chamber Orchestra – for the campaign. It featured every day shots of Australian life from a bird’s eye view, in an attempt to re-engage emotionally with consumers.

Commonwealth Bank: Can

Agency: M&C Saatchi

After a week-long teaser campaign with the word ‘Can’t’ randomly appearing in outdoor and print media across the country, the culprit was revealed – it was Commonwealth Bank’s mysterious launch of its new campaign that turned the ‘Can’t’ into ‘Can’. The advertising blitz kicked off with a TV spot starring actress Toni Collette, and rolled out over the coming months with messages to communicate that banking can be a positive force. It’s a message that has stuck – CommBank and ‘Can’ seem to be partners now.

Art Series Hotels: Steal Banksy

Agency: Naked Communications

This stunt for Art Series Hotels wins big points for originality and fun. Guests at Melbourne’s Art Series Hotels were encouraged to steal works by street artist Banksy from the hotel walls. If they weren’t caught, they could keep it. The campaign generated plenty of social chatter and news coverage, not to mention lying hotel guests, cranks calls to reception and sly scope-outs. Just four days in, Maura Tuohy, then of rival agency Reprise Media, lied and schemed her way to stealing the first Banksy work, ‘No Ball Games’. A second work, ‘Pulp Fiction’ evaded theft and was donated to Crime Stoppers.

Meat and Livestock Australia: Chop Star

Agency: BMF

This was a real ‘love it or hate it’ ad. Seeing AFL legend and ‘lambassador’ Sam Kekovich singing to ‘90s pop hit Barbie Girl was almost cringe-worthy, but it was almost so bad that it was good. To coincide with Australia Day and the traditional Aussie barbie, Kekovich addressed the nation with a message that popular culture has led “unAustralianism to go viral”. His debut music video, a rendition of Barbie Girl, followed.