Let’s Melbourne Again: Melbourne’s creative and business community comes together in new campaign via Clemenger BBDO, PHD and OMD
A consortium of Melbourne’s leading businesses have come together to launch ‘Let’s Melbourne Again’, an initiative designed for Melbourne, by Melburnians, to reinvigorate the city and support its economic and cultural recovery from the pandemic.
Developed by Clemenger BBDO Melbourne in partnership with leading media agencies PHD and OMD, the campaign was created as a restorative and reaffirming exercise. A group of Melbourne based filmmakers and photographers were asked to capture themselves preparing to emerge from lockdown to ‘Melbourne’ again, with the footage curated into a launch film by local director, Glendyn Ivin.
Narrated by Briggs, the launch film serves as an ode to all of the things Melburnians are looking forward to as restrictions ease across the city.
The campaign really hits its stride with the Founding businesses each unveiling a series of initiatives over the coming weeks designed to bring joy to Melburnians and encourage the community to get out of their homes, back into the city and to help Melbourne get back on its feet.
Like the logo framing device, the whole spirit of ‘Let’s Melbourne Again’ is to shine a light and quite literally frame all that we love about this city.
As Melburnians head out again, they’re encouraged to celebrate the city by using a Let’s Melbourne Again Instagram filter and follow and tag the @letsmelbourneagain handle.
Says Jim Gall, CEO, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne: “We’ve all seen firsthand the impacts of COVID-19 on our community and on the businesses and institutions that make Melbourne the incredible city it is. As a creative company that’s served the Melbourne community for 75 years, we knew we had to do something – Let’s Melbourne Again is a rallying cry for Melburnians as we work together to bring the city back to life and back to the Melbourne that we all know and love.
“Over the coming weeks and months, the businesses supporting Let’s Melbourne Again will be creating brilliant acts and experiences designed to spark joy and support the city’s economy – stay tuned for the announcements of those initiatives and for further information about how Melburnians can participate.”
Says Simon Lawson, general manager, PHD: “Victorians have been incredibly resilient in the face of this pandemic, and as we get closer to our new COVID-safe normal, we need to take a moment to celebrate Melburnians and the city we all love and use this opportunity to build the anticipation and excitement of getting back out there and supporting Melbourne’s return to the vibrant city that we know it to be.”
The campaign is supported by a wide range of founding, supporting and media partners, including:
Founders: 7-Eleven, AAMI; ANZ; AFL; Australia Post; BMW; Bupa; Carlton Draught; City of Melbourne; Coles; Committee for Melbourne; Crown Melbourne; La Trobe University; McDonald’s; Myer; NAB; Officeworks; Origin Energy; PwC Australia; Slack; Tennis Australia and Village Cinemas.
Supporters: Arts Centre Melbourne; Beyond Blue; Buxton Contemporary; MTC; and NGV.
Media partners: Herald Sun; Channel Seven; 3AW; Southern Cross Austereo (Fox FM and Triple M); JCDecaux; and Facebook.
In addition, the campaign will look to support the city’s small business community by providing free access to ‘Let’s Melbourne Again’ collateral and support to provide their own unique offers for customers returning to the city.
For members of the community who are experiencing nervousness or concerns about getting back out following the easing of lockdown restrictions, Beyond Blue is supporting Melburnians and small business owners with a range of free resources and services, available on its website at coronavirus.beyondblue.org.au and via phone at 1800 512 348.
The campaign is being conducted with full consideration of current Victorian COVID-19 restrictions, as the safety of Victorians and continuing to slow the spread of COVID-19 remains the number one priority.
Further information about ‘Let’s Melbourne Again’ can be found at www.letsmelbourneagain.com.
Creative agency: Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Media agency: PHD Melbourne
PR: Clemenger PR
Production:
Director: Glendyn Ivin
Producer: Alice Grant
Producer: Elizabeth Rocka
Executive Producer: Leah Churchhill-Brown
Production company: Exit Films
Filmmakers / Photographers:
Sherwin Akbarsadeh
Tom Campbell
Sky Davies
Amanda Fordyce
Tiffany Garvie
Tyeli Hannah
Nigel Karikari
Richard Kickbush
Alexandrena Parker
Grantley Smith
Christopher Tovo
Abigail Vamye
Lilli Waters
Cory White
Abdul Yusuf
Editor: Graeme Pereira
Post Producer: Freya Maddock
Post House: ARC EDIT
Grade: Trish Cahill
Voice over: Briggs
Sound engineer: Paul Le Couter
Executive Producer: Ceri Davies
Sound Studio: SqueakEClean
Music: “Animal (e) Short Orchestra” – Hayden Calnin
Publisher: Gaga Music
Gaga Founder & CEO: Grant Gillies
Music Supervision: Level Two Music
Level Two Music Founder & CEO: Karl Richter
51 Comments
In eight years I’ve never been swooped by a magpie in Melbourne.
Eight seconds after crossing the border into Queensland there was an avian assault on my bald patch that put The Dieppe Raid to shame.
When I first saw this, I thought it was a pisstake that some punter had made. All the references make Melbourne sound like an absolute shit hole.
what a depressing, uninspiring piece film. love the intent, but this falls waaaaay flat.
When I saw this yesterday after Dictator Dan released us from lockdown, I got the feels. Timing is everything
and urch some parked cars adlays
An ode to being stuck in traffic.
Finally, someone has spent some money on reminding us of the negatives of Melbourne life we’ve not had to deal with during lockdown. A very good ad on promoting permanent work from home solutions.
Best new business initiative ever.
let’s stop turning names into verbs.
The film is the tip of the iceberg.
If you like it, great. If not, no biggie.
It’s hard to knock 20+ big Melbourne brands all delivering brand acts and promotions to make Melbourne better.
Let’s keep the line and re-do everything else. I get that it’s supposed to be ironic, but it’s everything that’s bad about Melbourne when it should be the opposite.
man, there are some jerks on campaignbrief.
i like it, pointing out the truths that make melbourne melbourne. whether they’re nice or not.
better than some lame inauthentic manifesto of smiling happy people.
Black clothes, bad traffic and coffee snobbery aren’t exactly brilliant truths though are they? Each one feels like a stock insight someone in Sydney wrote.
Well said, @ComeOn. Well done, Clems. Trolls – go smell the coffee, it’s pretty good.
I highly doubt that BMW, 7 Eleven and McDonalds love Melbourne. If the entire city collapsed they’d relocate their offices to Sydney. This upstart initiative could’ve been run with twice as many locally-owned independent brands who actually need the foot traffic and sales. While I understand it’s a top-down approach, the small business incentives seem like an afterthought that’s been tacked on to this campaign, rather than being at the heart of it. You could’ve done this the other way around and boosted small businesses first, then reached out to bigger brands, retaining some sense of authenticity.
Nice one guys
Could have chosen a few more positive cultural idiosyncrasies to make it connect more with me.
But yeah, as someone else points out, too much the other side and it could quite easily made us all vomit
Nice idea in principle, but many businesses don’t have much cash right now do they? So who’s going to pay for a mass-media campaign to kick things off. Yup, the top end of town. And in doing that they help local businesses and small businesses use the initiative to get back on their feet.
Actually according to most media forecasting, a lot of ad spend that was pulled by clients during Covid remains empty. Not sure if you’ve seen the Look Up spots around town, but that’s an internal JCD campaign that looks like an ambiguous high-end ad because it’s better than an empty bus side. Either way, it’s an empty spot and JCD’s bottom line makes a loss on printing every one of those. There’s so much empty media space that could have been donated to help small business if this campaign actually cared about Melbourne. As it stands, it’s the top end of town helping the top end of town.
I am guessing this is the result of 20 something clients and a billion stakeholders all needing sign off. A very bland, manifesto ad. Doesn’t feel like Clems at all… but I think I can imagine how hard it was to get a proper idea signed off.
No love for Melbourne here. A rant for a VO. Joyless. Hopeless. Nick Cave might write a song about it.
This reminds me why I should watch the work on this blog, but stop before I start reading the comments. This actually gave me goosebumps and I felt proud of the good and bad that is my adopted city. I think you guys need to get out more.
Wow, could this get anymore uninspiring? There is not one shot or sentence that is motivating in this whole clip. Where are the inspiring shots of the Yarra, cityscapes, laneways, sporting venus and st.kilda beach? Where is the motivation to make people get out and enjoy the things they loved before lockdown.
You must be a suit, right? Or a junior creative?
The line is good fun. Know what you mean about verbification of nouns in taglines, but this one feels right.
We’ve been in lockdown you dickhead. This was shot in Melbourne, during lockdown.
Guess they could have used some stock footage of St Kilda beach and other Melbourne icons, but then what would you have said?
Thought TVC production was not permitted during lockdown.
Can’t wait for the parodies: Let’s not Hellbourne again.
Sucked in.
Lacks heart. Is / was a new business driver and it feels like it.
Suit suit suit suit suit suit suit…
Bloody hell, where do I start with this?
Is it the blokey VO that sounds more suited to Sportsbet rather than a city recovering from trauma?
Is it the role call of name drops that doesn’t really resonate outside of Zone 1?
Or is it the fact that these agencies and these clients kept advertising in the Herald Sun while they ran Melbourne down over the past 6 months?
All of the above. What bollocks.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
Creatives in Sydney haven’t had time to write this drivel -they’ve been out having fun at their usual bars,beaches and restaurants for months.
Lol, Brisbane is the best kept secret in Australia.
They literally launched a massive multi media campaign on the day restrictions were lifted. Credit where it’s due.
Some people on this blog need to get a life.
This is a positive message delivered at exactly the right time.
let’s get our homes invaded again, lets jack up legally next to primary schools again, let’s get PSO’s on every train station again, let’s spend another billion on a freeway that doesn’t get built again……
It took 15 filmmakers to shoot some earrings and shoes.
Goes to show the biggest problem in TVC is agency’s ineptness in choosing Directors. You had 15 clear shots here and missed em all. Call me crazy but the closed off process you all use when choosing who treats on an ad may just be the reason ad after ad fails in flames. Or, keep choosing your mates and people who owe you favors to make your ads for you and enjoy basking in the dimly lit glow of weakness.
Clems used to be tbe benchmark of Ads inAus.
This just shows the decline and how low the bar has fallen.
Let’s illchay on the amtray and ashbay some untcays.
What’s going on with the Melbourne back clothing thing?
Sorry I just don’t get it.
Love the thought but the execution lets it down. Feels like it was written by an out-of-towner or worse, a Sydney-sider.
Look outside folks, it’s pumping!
We have been locked up for 15 weeks
People don’t need an ad to tell them to get back into Melbourne life
So what is the actual point of this?
Is there a higher purpose I am missing?
Don’t be a dick. Did you not get asked?
The commentary on this article is very unpleasant and disappointing.
This campaign is much needed, it has been put together by people and businesses that love this city and it should be applauded.
Importantly, it is also designed for the long term. The acts and support it creates will last well beyond a launch day or a launch advert.
If only there was a Director or 16 that could have instructed his performance…
Please, it’s not an idea.
Let’s all hate on Clemenger
This ad is worse than the second wave of covid Melbourne copped…it’s almost like a parody.
I don’t think this as does Melbourne justice. It is woeful. It needs brightening up show us Melbourne in its glory, don’t just name streets that only Melbournions would know. Start appealing to visitors overseas and local. Melbourne can do better.