Panasonic to launch blu-ray disc recorder with ‘The persecution of Rommy Gulla’ online campaign via The Campaign Palace Sydney
Panasonic launches its new Blu-Ray disc recorder on Monday with a quirky online campaign featuring Rommy Gulla, a 26-year-old from Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
‘The Persecution of Rommy Gulla’ is the brainchild of Reed Collins and the team at The Campaign Palace, Sydney.
For 28 days Rommy Gulla (pictured) has volunteered to be pranked every day for a month starting Monday, October 3. Fans are also invited to participate and suggest pranks during the 28-day period, with the best becoming a reality.
The project has been designed to launch the new 1 terabyte Panasonic BWT800 3D Blu Ray Disc Recorder which is capable of recording 28 days, or 684 hours of high-definition content.
Says Collins: “We could have gone down the normal route and produced against a whole bunch of well-trodden channels with lots of product features but then we would end up being like any other recording device. We wanted to single out its biggest defining feature and demonstrate how truly gigantic one terabyte is. After all it’s an entertainment device – why wouldn’t the advertising be just as entertaining?”
Viewers can watch Rommy’s daily pranks and others that they may have missed through Facebook and YouTube. They will also have the opportunity to contribute their own ideas on how to make it the longest 28 days of his life. The submissions will be voted on by other fans and they stand to win some awesome prizes in the process.
“We decided it would be much more interesting to put him in a situation where he knows something’s going to happen every day for 28 days, but never what, when or where. His task is to survive the longest 28 days of his life and hopefully with his dignity intact,” added Collins.
CAMPAIGN CREDITS:
Client: Panasonic
Director, marketing communications: Gemma Lemieux
Marketing communications manager: Rachel Bartrop
Agency: The Campaign Palace
National Chief Creative Officer: Reed Collins
Senior Creative: Hywel James
Senior Creative: Gerhard Myburgh
Group Account Director: Toby McKinnon
Agency Producer: Stefan Puskar
Designer: Samantha Hornitsky
Digital: Suede
Digital Strategy: Martin Hoegh-Guldberg
Digital Account Manager: Karin Hansen
Information Architect: Ralph Wayment
Digital Design Direction: Hallvard Nakken
Social Media Strategy: Tom Williamson
Designer: Casey Frendin
Front End Developer: Karina Arias
Flash Developer: Matt Bonnington
Developer: Alex Zui
Project Manager: Sarah Davies
Production Company: Film Construction
Director: David Wood
Production Company Producer: Warwick Boulter
Post Production: First Light Digital
Editor: Bruce Flint
Audio house: GAS
Media Company: Universal McCann
20 Comments
Why don’t they make it more realistic and just get someone to work for 28 days at the palace…I’m sure that would be the longest 28 days of anyone’s life….but then again no one deserves to be pranked that badly. All joking aside this will either be a fantastic campaign if it gets some traction or an absolute disaster…watching 28 days of lame ass pranks would be very painful for potential customers and will make not only TCP but also panasonic look like try hards, which would be extremely damaging from panasonic’s point of view. One thing that makes a good prank is if the person is not expecting it, so you get a great suprised reaction….not some guy who is probaly getting paid great money to act suprised. Interesting to see how this will pan out.
Would they just do the decent thing and remove the name The Campaign Palace from the building and the business?
Love it.
I hate the Palace. I really do.
But credit where credit’s due.
This is a cracker.
I learned everything I know about that product from the press release, and nothing at all about it from the advertising.
This campaign has the potential to be a winner. One of the best and most innovative concepts seen on this site for some time. Will be interesting to see how things play out over the next month.
Lets hope they have hired a great actor, sorry I mean “volunteer”. Not a great start for a campaign promoting a product and client that starts with the words The persecution of…….sounds very unfriendly, bullying and slightly disturbing (maybe that’s the image that Panasonic want to promote)….what were they thinking? Pure genius straight out of the gate.
very cool idea…
Nice. Cool idea. Well done.
Hywel you are a genius.
At first I thought ‘fuck, I love it!’
Then I thought, ‘will people actually watch it? Cause, a month is a long time.’
And then I thought, ‘that’s the point, innit?’
And then I thought ‘fuck, now I really love it!’
And then I had a beer.
Great concept….well done TCP. Let’s hope the execution and the pranks are just as good or this will turn into a 28 day nightmere for the palace and client.
Are you guys effing mad or just work for the palace? As I think someone said suprise is the key and that’s not present. Also in order to give a shit the character needs to be someone we give a shit about in some way (think first star wars movies and newer star wars movies).
People will check this out for three or four days and get bored, also it doesn’t sell the product, I mean not only do you have to watch 28 days of dog shit you’re supposed to record it? Beadles about in UK 1990’s was probably ten times better than this for pranks.
as a wise man, i’ll wait.
Slightly tenuous link to Panasonic. And are Jackass fans really their TA?
Ha, ha – that is so true. What client wants their product or campaign to be associated with the words persecution…given those words are usually associated with race and religon events that have shaped the world (usually for worse).
I agree with other comments….pranking someone who is expecting to be pranked is actually pretty lame and a second rate idea at best. This really is a recipe for disaster – as soon as they pull a prank that has been done before, people will start claiming ideas were ripped off, that they couldn’t come up with anything good without stealing ideas, the the reaction was over the top (I assume the volunteer has to put on a good show) etc and don’t forget all these pranks are being done on someone who is expecting it and probably getting paid very well. Time will tell.
Really nice writing on the spot. Idea is different enough for me.
I really like it, seems a lot of people are hating on the palace and not the work. Quite nice. Link isn’t as strong for me but fuck it, it’s hard to have a unique thought these days so the links will keep getting weaker the more we scream for originality.
I give it an 8 so far, 10 if it pulls off well.
This will backfire on the client….the odd prank might be funny, but in the end it will come across as bullying, childish and immature – not really words I would think that panasonic would want associated with their products. There will be sympathy for the actor/talent/Volunteer?. Panasonic will come across as the big bad company for – (using TCP’s own words) the persecution of Rommy Gulla….not sure the client or TCP has really thought this through. I get the feeling this will be a train wreck on an epic scale. I want the Palace to get back to where it once was, but if this was the number one idea pitched which was given the go ahead, both TCP and the client need a good smack in the mouth. Fasten your seat belts folks, this could be ugly.
Well done TCP! Looking forward to them. Ignore those haters out there, all they do is yap yap and complain like sore losers.
I watched the first 2 on youtube – 1st one put me to sleep, 2nd one is lame…
sorry Panasonic – this had great potential. Didn’t enjoy