Left to Right – Steph Strings, Andrew Stockdale, Ella Hooper, Peter Murray.
No, this is not all hot air. It is in fact Air Guitar. Australian owned, leading packaging company SIGNET has achieved the impossible in their latest campaign by taking some of Australia’s most famed guitarists to the stage and stripping them of their real guitars. Andrew Stockdale (Wolfmother), Ella Hooper (Killing Heidi), singer-songwriters, Peter Murray, Steph Springs and The Jinja Assassin (#2 World Air Guitarist) unite for a meme-worthy campaign to celebrate what the brand does best – proudly packaging the things people love, however bizarre
The multi-tiered campaign centres around comical Air Guitar performances from our guitar legends. Stripped of their guitars, and as a result their music – we get to focus on the art of Air Guitar – the moves, the epic strums all in glorious slow motion.
The campaign features four iconic, charismatic, and talented artists in the Aussie music scene, strategically selected to give the campaign mass-appeal. Grammy-award winning lead singer of Wolfmother, Andrew Stockdale. Record-breaking front-woman of Killing Heidi, Ella Hooper, acclaimed singer-songwriter Pete Murray, plus, the ascending guitar and ukulele social sensation Steph Strings. Each commemorated by Signet with their very own custom Air Guitar in a custom box, as presented by Signet ambassador (and World #2 Air Guitarist) The Jinja Assassin in what’s sure to be his breakout comedic role.
Says Matt Henry, GM, marketing & strategy at Signet, “As Australia’s favourite packaging brand, we always challenge ourselves to shake-up our relatively boring product category. We want to breathe life into a beige industry with a fun brand personality that closely aligns to our customers - everyday Aussies who are authentic, hard-working and don’t take themselves too seriously…so neither do we! Aussie businesses responded so positively to our faux packaging sponsorships for Air Guitar Australia’s amateur champions, it was a no-brainer to partner with BRING to evolve the idea into working with some of Australia’s most celebrated professional guitarists! We can’t wait to continue rolling out awkwardly fun extensions of the campaign in the coming months.”
“This was one of the weirdest things I think I have ever been asked to do if I’m honest”, said half of Killing Heidi, Ella Hooper; “But the entire team were a dream to work with, they really created a safe set to have fun and really get into it. It’s been a blast putting this one out in the wild and seeing the positive reaction from my fans. Is it strange? Sure. But I dig it.”
Deeper storytelling formats bring our talent up close and personal (maybe a little too close) with the Jinja Assassin for Signet On Air – The Unboxings. In these longer-form pieces the artists are presented with their dream Air Guitars for the first time, with rather awkward outcomes.
Said Adam Ireland, general manager, BRING, Universal Music for Brands; “The challenge of achieving genuine cut-thru for a packaging brand, a category that can be perceived as bland, really is a marketer’s dream. The creative license we were afforded by Signet made this such a fun campaign to work on. With an idea like this, you really must hold a real conviction that it’ll land with fans. To have four legends of Aussie rock music dive right in the way they did, was all the validation we needed to really push the boat out creatively. To see fans genuinely loving the creative marketing of a packaging brand is a thrill – it means we’ve done our job.”
The content was produced by Milkmoney and was directed by Aimee-Lee Curran. Campaign photography was produced in collaboration with After Winter and shot by Tim Ashton.
For more on the campaign - check out all the performances and of course watch the off-beat Unboxings, on the official campaign site.