Behind the Work: Comedy Horror Campaign Explores the Hocus Pocus of House Hunting
A glamorous psychic gazes into a crystal ball. A bearded brujo in his underground lair reaches out to the spirits. An anxious family consults an eldritch tarot reader, bedecked in dark jewels. A new campaign from Mexican online real estate platform, Inmuebles24, is a joyfully silly and lovingly crafted homage to ‘80s camp, comedy horror. A trio of TV spots imagine the lengths house hunters might go to in order to find their dream home without a handy tool like Inmuebles24 to use. The ads were created by agency Together w/ and were directed by Pucho Mentasti, who brought a level of detail and world building that makes the spots feel like 30-second excerpts from a show like Tales from the Crypt.
LBB’s Laura Swinton spoke to Together w/ chief creative officer and partner, Lulo Calió to find out more about a campaign that captures the horror and comedy of house hunting.
LBB> What were the insights that inspired this creative?
Lulo> The brand doesn't have a competitor because it leads the category, so we needed to create one with a magical twist. That was the original problem we had to address, and we managed to figure it out.
LBB> Can you tell us a bit about the context for this campaign - what's the property market like in Mexico, and what are the issues that house buyers are coming up against?
Lulo> The real estate market is getting out of a pandemic context. The quarantine and home-office have led people to search for bigger and better houses to live in. Given this context, Inmuebles24, the leading online real estate searcher in Mexico, has taken advantage of this situation and launched this campaign to meet house buyers' needs.
LBB> How did you get to the idea of fortune-tellers and witches?
Lulo> The trigger has been a question: if house buyers needed to find answers about their dreamed houses, and Inmuebles24 didn't exist, where else would they search? Only a fortune-teller can help you answer this question.
LBB> Each character is so distinctive and individual - how did you develop the three characters? What inspired them? And why was it important to give them such extreme looks and personalities?
Lulo> We got inspired by movies, such as Poltergeist or Tales from the Crypt. Then, we tried to find characters having a universal insight. That's why we came up with the idea of fortune tellers, witches, etc. Regarding the extreme looks and personalities, our challenge was to create in-your-face characters with exaggerated traits to make a sudden, huge impact on the audience.
LBB> Might we see the same characters pop up again?
Lulo> We really don't know. We will need a fortune-teller to answer this question.
LBB> What did director Pucho Mentasti bring to the scripts?
Lulo> Pucho has contributed significantly to the creation and development this campaign in a superb way. We decided to hire him because he has the ability to create huge universes out of the blue.
LBB> Can you tell me about the production design and the production values in the films - what look and feel were you going for and how did you use this design to tell the story?
Lulo> The central design pillar has been the idea of taking everything to the extreme and grotesque with the aim to create a powerful sense of humour.
LBB> What were the most interesting creative challenges in this campaign?
Lulo> The most interesting creative challenge has been to mingle two different worlds: the real estate market and horror movies and thrillers. The goal has been to create a humorous campaign.
LBB> I don't think we see much comedy at the moment - why do brands and creatives need to embrace comedy?
Lulo> Given this pandemic context, people strongly need to change their moods. No doubt, humour is the most powerful tool we have!
