Property group Ray White has rolled out its first national television campaign (TVC) featuring Australian actor Rhys Muldoon who also stars in its iconic Great Australian Dream brand drive.
Australia's biggest property group, with almost 800 offices, has traditionally been a newspaper marketer.
The TVC, created with creative agency Do, was shot in country Victoria around the Great Ocean Road with an advertising spend of more than $1 million across all mediums.
The ad takes a "lighthearted view" of Australia’s inability to give its landmarks creative names, instead always falling back on the word "great".
It aims to make the Ray White brand synonymous with the property dreams of all Australians.
Lisa Pennell, Ray White's head of marketing, says the company’s history and future ambition is a great story to tell.
“Ray White is a family owned and led Australian business that's grown from humble beginnings 117 years ago, to now selling more than one in every 10 properties sold across the country," she says.
"Many people don’t realise the immense size and reach of our members and brand, and yet we dominate market share across the country."
She says consumers still place an immense amount of trust in TV advertising, particularly when the message tells a "compelling story" rather than pushing an agenda.
“We're excited to be bringing our television commercial The Great to audiences across Victoria, NSW and South Australia, having already had great feedback even in the early stages of the campaign,” she says.
“As the largest real estate group in the country, our scale allows us to market across mass mediums that are simply out of the reach of smaller groups. While we've long dominated print media through vendor paid advertising, this is our first major brand campaign and it has effectively broken us out of the real estate category and positioned us alongside large, credible businesses from other industries."
The campaign will run across the Channel Seven Network in metro Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia and includes a sponsorship of Selling Houses Australia.
It will also air in regional Victoria and New South Wales on Channel Nine and Network Ten, as well as Foxtel nationally.
The TV campaign follows on from the Welcome to the Great Australian Dream brand campaign, also created by Do, which Ray White launched late last year and also featured Muldoon.
Ray White group managing director Dan White says his family always had a difficult relationship with the concept of Ray White as a brand.
“As a teenager, I can recall my father Brian White bristling at the thought of the business being described as a brand. He thought we had far more important qualities that differentiated us from our competitors than any particular image or design,” White says.
“But now Ray White is not only a business defined by its people and family values, it’s also a brand. And the brand is somehow independent of the business. It stands on its own and the more integrity it has, the more value it delivers to all of our members.
“We realise that a strong and consistent brand alone will not guarantee our future. It will be determined by our ability to create an environment in which every member can thrive and reach their potential so they can consistently exceed customer expectations.
“We know that ensuring we effectively market the brand for the benefit of our members, and in mediums that resonate strongly with our customers, is also critical to our future success.”
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