Choice launches ‘Buy smart this silly season’ Christmas campaign via new agency Workshop
The Australian people’s consumer watchdog Choice has launched a new Christmas campaign via newly appointed agency Workshop Australia, Sydney.
Workshop’s new campaign carries the tagline “Buy smart this silly season” and is led by two 30-second TV commercials. The TVCs are supported by online and print advertising and are designed to remind people that Choice is a rich source of information about the performance and reliability of products across a broad range of categories.
“We reviewed several agencies and chose Workshop to partner with us because of their full understanding of our marketing challenges, the clarity of their strategic approach and the strength of their creative,” said Kate Lalak, Director of Marketing & Members Services, “We want to remind people about the benefits of Choice and drive subscriptions at this key retail period in the lead up to Christmas and the New Year.”
Says Jamie Kwong, principal of Workshop Australia: “Choice is an iconic Australian brand that needs to maintain relevance in a time where the internet has the answers to most people’s questions. Building relevance across broader consumer groups is a long term task, in the short term our job is very specific: drive subscriptions during the Christmas and New Year sales period amongst those already aware of what Choice offers. Our TV campaign highlights the down side of making the wrong purchase and reminds people that Choice can help them “Buy smart this silly season”.
The campaign runs until 26 December.
Choice is an independent publisher of consumer information and the public face of the Australia Consumers’ Association (ACA). The organisation conducts rigorous product tests and provides independent reviews across a range of goods and services. Choice also provides proactive consumer advocacy and has a member base comprising 180,000 subscriptions.
Client: Choice
Kate Lalak – Director of Marketing & Member Services
Kim Anderson – Head of Marketing
Creative Agency: Workshop Australia, Sydney
Creative Principal: Jamie Kwong
Creative Director: Matt Cramp
Art Director: Tony Vigna
Senior Business Director: Sarah Nott
Production Company: Orange Whip Films
Director: Simon Macrae
Producer: Alex Mooney

8 Comments
I am speechless…you can’t blame the production company, but it’s got to a point where bad work is good work and shit work is ok.
Shouldn’t they have done a grade on these before posting them?
The brief converted directly into a script.
Subsequently directed, filmed, lit and acted by people who either weren’t trying very hard or weren’t capable of very much.
Camera – 5D with a zoom
Sound -Zoom H4N
Talent – Cast in-house at the agency
Post Production – iMovie, Garage Band done with an iPhone by the Creatives daughter
Graphics – Word
Orange Whip…..oh dear….
I could have made these look better on my home video. And don’t start me on the terrible scripts. Not sure the recent move to Workshop was a good one if this is the standard of the work.
Wasted potential. A good line, but downhill from there.
Have Choice ever done a comparative test on ad agencies?
Would love to see who makes it through to their ‘what to buy’ recommendations.