In the ongoing battle for relevance in the luxury technology market, HP has launched a new offensive via Edelman in the form of five videos aimed at prospective buyers’ funny bones.

Aussies everywhere feel trapped in their relationship with Mac, so HP is showing them how to escape. Watch Dave – a long time Mac lover – break up with his first love, with a little help from the real voice of Siri.

The campaign shows Dave in couple’s counselling with his Macbook (voiced by Susan Bennett, the original voice of Siri). After years of slowly dwindling happiness, he’s decided to let her down gently in a safe setting.

The inspiration for the campaign came from Aussies’ own experiences – they felt trapped in the Mac ecosystem, ignored by Mac’s product designers, and forced to buy expensive dongles to simply connect.

The campaign will go live across YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, VOD and native, with bespoke short executions in social.

Check out the work below:

The campaign is interesting for a number of reasons, not least of which is the fact Edelman produced the content in-house.

Commenting on the work, Edelman Australia’s ECD Jamil Bhatti said he was incredibly proud to have produced the work in-house.

“It’s an exciting world we live in now where stories that travel are king. HP has had a long standing relationship with Edelman here and globally and we have been delivering integrated work for them for a number of years. This campaign is no different and has allowed us to use the full skill set available at Edelman, delivering content creation, media partnerships, internal comms and ultimately a fun and sharable story. This is the type of work we’re doing for a number of clients and you’ll be seeing lots more of it in the coming months,” Bhatti said.

“We got a great brief from HP and if their bravery was going to get matched by us, we had to be hugely in each other’s pockets. Dan, myself and the team are on a WhatsApp group to make sure we could be as collaborative as possible, because the work gets so much better when agency client are one team, pushing for the same outcome.

Also interesting is the fact this campaign has been filmed and produced as social content first, not a TVC.

Dan Henry, CMO, HP South Pacific, says HP has had a strong brand for a long time, but Apple has outshone all other comers when it comes to positioning its products as luxury items.

“When it comes to the quality and reliability, the brand signals that we have say that HP is still super strong. It’s just the premiumisation of the brand that Apple has done so emotionally connecting . . . what carrying that product means to customers who are purchasing Apple. It’s not just about the features and benefits. It’s about what that says about them. I feel like that’s the differentiation that they’ve done a really good job at and that we have to work harder at and giving people a brand and an emotional reason why to choose HP,” Henry explains.

Credits:

Managing Director (Edelman): Fern Canning-Brook

CMO HP South Pacific: Dan Henry

Director –  Jason Perini

Executive Creative Director (Edelman) – Jamil Bhatti

Senior Producer (Edelman) – Jasmin Malam

Copywriter (Edelman) – Joshua Campbell

Art Directors (Edelman) – Jackson Ainsworth & Marcel Bingham

DOP / Editor (Edelman) – Jilvan Mohammadi

Public Relations Lead (Edelman): Thom Landers

Audio House – Song Zu

Dave Character – Mansoor Noor

Therapist Character – Cheree Cassidy

Siri – Susan Bennett

Media Planners – PHD

Digital Strategy (Edelman) – Chris Richardson

Strategy Director (Edelman) – Ian Foulds

Social Media (Edelman) – Meg Syme, Edwina Jones, Manal Abdulaleem and Laura Currie