B&TB&TB&T
  • Advertising
  • Campaigns
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Technology
  • Regulars
    • Agency Scorecards
    • Best of the Best
    • Campaigns of the Month
    • CMO Power List
    • CMOs to Watch
    • Culture Bites
    • Fast 10
    • New Business Winners
    • Spotlight on Sponsors
  • Jobs
  • Awards
    • 30 Under 30
    • B&T Awards
    • Cairns Crocodiles
    • Women In Media
    • Women Leading Tech
Search
Trending topics:
  • Cairns Crocodiles
  • Nine
  • Seven
  • Federal Election
  • Pinterest
  • AFL
  • AI
  • News Corp
  • Married At First Sight
  • NRL
  • Cairns Hatchlings
  • Channel 10
  • Anthony Albanese
  • oOh!Media
  • WPP
  • Thinkerbell
  • Special
  • TV Ratings
  • Radio Ratings
  • Sports Marketing

  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise
© 2025 B&T. The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.
Reading: Rhonda, Ketut, and the need for foreplay
Share
B&TB&T
Subscribe
Search
  • Advertising
  • Campaigns
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Technology
  • Regulars
    • Agency Scorecards
    • Best of the Best
    • Campaigns of the Month
    • CMO Power List
    • CMOs to Watch
    • Culture Bites
    • Fast 10
    • New Business Winners
    • Spotlight on Sponsors
  • Jobs
  • Awards
    • 30 Under 30
    • B&T Awards
    • Cairns Crocodiles
    • Women In Media
    • Women Leading Tech
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise
© 2025 B&T. The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.
B&T > Media > Rhonda, Ketut, and the need for foreplay
Media

Rhonda, Ketut, and the need for foreplay

Staff Writers
Published on: 11th October 2013 at 2:54 PM
Staff Writers
Share
6 Min Read
SHARE

I’m not entirely sure anyone really saw Rhonda’s Balinese romance entrenching itself so heavily into Australian popular culture, or for that matter becoming one of the crown jewels of Australian advertising last year. It lured us into a false sense of security, and perhaps that was the point.

Rhonda’s romance has since entered its steamy second chapter and it’s within this next layer that there is a valuable lesson to be learned on the cultivation of stakeholder relationships, the use of engagement cycles and when exactly the former is appropriate within the latter.

Let me ask this: how much can we realistically ask of a friend we’ve just made?

Many agencies take an incredibly shallow minded ‘if we build it, they will come’ approach to social media, and indeed much of advertising. The harsh truth is that unless you’re willing to be exceptional, nobody is going to eat what you bake.

When it comes to developing valuable stakeholder relationships however, it’s not enough anymore to just be remarkable. You need to be prepared to go the distance.

The initial Rhonda goes to Bali commercials for AAMI were far from exceptional. In fact they were well rooted in advertising narrative normality. The characters were sufficiently shallow and, whilst there was your standard dose of advertising ‘quirk’, there was nothing particularly remarkable about the content.

The exceptional ingredient came as these characters were actually explored. This was the component that nobody was really expecting. It got people’s attention. Romance is frequently insinuated within advertising, but rarely, if ever, developed. The glazed eyes that are automatically employed during ad breaks began to become little more attentive.

Content quality was only the first component. The second was consistency. In short episodic segments, we learnt more about these characters. Interest began to grow, as did stakeholders’ levels of attachment to the characters and the narrative that was the campaign.

Of course, these are television commercials and I work in social media. So what am I doing talking about them?

My point is this: regardless of the medium, it takes both time and intelligence to build a consumer’s relationship with a brand. You can throw your money into an amazing piece of branded content but you need to be aware, when you set out to develop a stakeholder relationship, or even a community around your brand, you’re settling in for a marathon and not a rapid, cash-guzzling sprint to the finish line.

The initial videos of Rhonda and Ketut may have made you chuckle, but would you have engaged with the brand if they’d snuck a call to action into the subject matter? I’d wager not.

So why do so many social media campaigns assume the exact opposite?

Only now, a full year down the track and sandwiched into the second chapter of the Rhonda and Ketut story is AAMI actually seeking to capture some of that audience engagement.

On the back of the relationships’ new conflict, they’ve launched a ‘Who’s right for Rhonda?’ microsite with a view of getting people to vote on which of the two relationships they want to see blossom and presumably by extension, determine the direction of the narrative. If you vote, you are invited to enter a prize-fuelled competition that requires the input of valuable details such as name, email and postcode.

All this is a year on from the very first commercials when the seeds were planted. And whether or not they were planted with the intention of growing into an audience engagement campaign, such engagement is now a viable option.

Had the campaign been social from the get-go, naturally, there would have been differences. But the principles remain the same:

1. Find a way to break through the noise
2. Work to establish a relationship with the stakeholders
3. Only when the relationship has been established can you ask for favours.

Regardless of the medium, establishing a consumer relationship takes time. Don’t just roll with the punches, take a leaf out of AAMI’s book and play your cards accordingly. If you bank on your audience taking time to warm to you, you’ll be able to produce content that better suits the context of your relationship’s status at any given stage.

Better contextual understanding means better tailored content. Better tailored content means better engagement.

Finally, just because the initial campaign existed outside of social media, don’t think for a second that AAMI wasn’t aware of the conversations occurring therein. Listening to its audience would have been a vital ingredient in determining what stage of the consumer relationship it was at and where and how to move in relation to it.

In short: slow down, be attentive and don’t underestimate the importance of quality foreplay.

Matthew Cox is the lead strategic consultant at Dialogue Consulting. 

Join more than 30,000 advertising industry experts
Get all the latest advertising and media news direct to your inbox from B&T.

No related posts.

Share
Staff Writers
By Staff Writers
Follow:
Staff Writers represent B&T's team of award-winning reporters. Here, you'll find articles crafted with industry experience spanning over 50 years. Our team of specialists brings together a wealth of knowledge and a commitment to delivering insightful, topical, and breaking news. With a deep understanding of advertising and media, our Staff Writers are dedicated to providing industry-leading analysis and reporting, both shaping the conversation and setting the benchmark for excellence.

Latest News

Emboldened, Emotional & Inspired – Cairns Crocodiles Masterclass, Presented By News Australia, Tug The Heartstrings
16/05/2025
TV Ratings (15/05/2025): Women’s State Of Origin Game 2 Pulls Nearly Twice The Viewers Of AFL Clash
16/05/2025
Nine Hails “A Great Day For Investigative Journalism” As Ben Roberts-Smith Loses Defamation Appeal
16/05/2025
Keep Left Updates Earned Media Impact Score Platform
16/05/2025
//

B&T is Australia’s leading news publication magazine for the advertising, marketing, media and PR industries.

 

B&T is owned by parent company The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.

About B&T

  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise

Top Categories

  • Advertising
  • Campaigns
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Opinion
  • Technology
  • TV Ratings

Sign Up for Our Newsletter



B&TB&T
Follow US
© 2025 B&T. The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Register Lost your password?