By Martin Vedris
SYDNEY: In a show of confidence and support for the consumer electrical industry, Sunbeam is set to spend $6 million on a national TV advertising campaign, as part of a completely new brand strategy.
The series of TV commercials will go to air nationally from Sunday 8 March and the campaign is underpinned by a completely new brand strategy for Sunbeam.
Themed ‘Sunbeam Designed to Help’, the campaign aims to promote product performance, reliability and the brand’s reputation.
“We are making a huge investment in the brand which is particularly important during these challenging times,” said Sunbeam CEO David Jackson.
“As part of that, we are injecting the brand with relevance, humour and a sense of pride in its role as Australia’s most popular small appliance brand.
“Our research suggests that most Australians are ‘helped’ by a Sunbeam appliance every day — whether it’s through food preparation and cooking, heating their homes or ironing clothes.
“As the market leader, we saw an opportunity to highlight key products in the context of being helpful.”
The four 30-second commercials revolve around appliances which have been ‘personified’. Each appliance — an iron, kettle, espresso maker and Mixmaster — ‘speaks’ to the audience about how hard it is working. Each wants to impress its owner and is obsessive about delivering perfect results.
“Sunbeam remains an iconic brand and Australians enjoy humour,” said Jackson. “It was important to embrace our heritage, but at the same time, appeal to a younger demographic.
“This campaign will attract a younger generation so we have created an emotive appeal — ‘it works for me’ — and made the commercials memorable through a cheeky sense of humour.”
Sunbeam advised that the first series of advertisements will run through to July, with the first burst of the campaign being screened nationally for four weeks from its launch during the Seven’s network’s ‘Packed to the Rafters’ program.
“We are excited to have secured a launch during ‘Packed to the Rafters,” said Jackson. “It’s a terrific start to our campaign. That programme alone reaches more than 1.7 million viewers each episode.”
The schedule includes spots during high-rating quality programmes as well as sponsored cooking segments on Better Homes and Gardens and Sunrise. Other programmes include Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters and Grey’s Anatomy.
“Additionally, as well as pay TV, the campaign will run in most areas of rural Australia. We wanted to ensure everyone was exposed to our message. We are buying the best possible programmes on the Seven Network that reach our target audience. This is a huge investment in our brand and confidence in our future to lead the industry,” explained Jackson.
Sunbeam announced that the brand campaign will also supported at retail store level by a number of sales promotions.