40 years after founding The Campaign Palace, Gordon Trembath starts Serious Fun Brands
. . . . . . The how, why, when and where of here, there and everywhere.
Painless Fashion. For . . . . . Shoes.
. . . . Island. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side of the ocean.
This winter you’re going to be a peasant. For . . . . . . . . . .
Get wrecked on . . . . . . . . Island.
. . . . . Jeans. If you think our ads are cheap you should see our prices.
You belong in the zoo. For . . . . . . . . . . . and . . . . . . . . . . . . Zoos.
… . . . Island. Just a drop in the ocean.
I’m not going if I can’t wear my old . . . . . . . . shirt.
Up there Cazaly. For . . . . . Sport.
How to kill a baby. A . . . . . . . . . feature article on the culling of Harp seals.
Never mind that Gordon Trembath started The Campaign Palace in 1972 in the front room of his house in South Melbourne, if you can put the brand names to even some of these campaign catchlines, ten, twenty or some thirty years since they last ran, you’ll know just how good Trembath, Lionel Hunt and Co was at branding in those halcyon days of the the first decade of The Palace. When the brands they added their magic to were etched forever into the Australian psyche.
Campaign Brief caught up with Trembath for a brief interview:
“It doesn’t matter if you wear a Tshirt to a client meeting proclaiming THE ONLY COMPROMISE WILL BE YOUR OWN, if you’re clearly presenting memorable uncompromised work that’s so obviously going to brand that client a hero, you’re going to be loved forever for your uncompromising stance.” says Trembath today.
“Which is exactly why in those first ten years, when Lionel Hunt and I were on exactly the same wave length, we never lost an account, NOT ONE. We had a reputation for resigning business, mostly cultivated from that Tshirt, as part of our branding, but the only client that ever walked out the door was Sportsgirl, which Tom Dery fired rather than compromise, while Lionel and I were off fishing. But we got them back later.”
CB: And the moral is?
“Great advertising is great branding and great branding cements great relationships”.
CB: And what about winning all the awards, wasn’t that your very simplistic four word business plan, WIN ALL THE AWARDS?
“That’s how we won all the awards. Great uncompromised advertising, great uncompromised branding. It’s also how we won all our clients.
“And to do it day in day out, the question we asked ourselves every day was IS IT GOOD, OR IS IT GREAT? If anything that’s the hard part, then and now, always asking that question, never falling in love with your own work, no matter how clever. There’s a very fine line between clever and smart ass.”
CB: And today, can you do it all again?
“Remains to be seen, doesn’t it? Of course I’ve moved on from advertising. No more crazy deadlines, one reason I got out, and anyway I always did get a big kick out of design and branding. Which goes back to very early at The Palace when I talked Holeproof into rebranding a dud brand called Manly as Underdaks, then proceeded to design all the underpants.
“Of course the same principles apply, Branding fresh on ideas, so well designed as to be timeless classics. No room for compromise there. Good, clean design aesthetics never offend anybody, bad always offends somebody.”
CB: So, SERIOUS FUN BRANDS right? But a new start up after all these years, The Palace turns forty next year doesn’t it?
“Does it? Reason enough then. but if you’re alluding to my age, and I suspect you are Michael, perhaps you should read my business plan. Frank Gehry, world’s best architect at eighty four, has pride of place under ‘Inspiration’. Not doodling in his dotage but creating landmarks like the Bilbao Guggenheim. He doesn’t so much inspire me to do great work, don’t need any pushing there, but TO WORK, to make up for lost time”.
CB: CB hears you’re relocating. Have you decided on Melbourne or Sydney?
“Still up for grabs, I have reasons for either. Depends a lot on my work in progress, especially China’s First, but my lease in Brisbane finishes in November so it’s decision time.”
CB: And China’s First is?
“Thought you’d never ask. An audacious blue sky idea that I thought would never happen but now it looks like it just conceivably might. Thing is, it’s a huge concept. CHINA’S FIRST GLOBAL SUSTAINABLE BRAND. Fashion, furnishings and furniture, scents and toiletries, art, interior design, publishing, in destination stores in Shanghai and Beijing, and boutique hotels, the living catalogues. All launched simultaneously, well that’s the plan at least.
“Not only Chinese well made, but a cool iconic Chinese brand fresh on big ideas, and with all the clean design aesthetics and uncompromised qualities needed for it to go global from day one.
“Think of it, China has no truly global brands to speak of, and certainly not a cool, sustainable brand with the legs to fill voids, not just in their domestic market, but globally, and to reinvent itself perpetually”.
CB: And the brand name?
“Off the record? No, not even off the recordl. I’d have to kill you!”
CB: OK, but isn’t it an awful time to be starting any new business, much less a brand of the magnitude you say?
“Well, not in China. Their need is great and their patience is great, IF they can be sold on the idea. Big IF I know. And my first crack at that is hopefully happening right now. Failing that, it’s up to me to learn some patience for once in my life, because I’ll have to crank up Plan B or C.
“Strangely, starting up Serious Fun Brands in Australia in the current climate feels like a much bigger ask. I might well have to shelve the shock of the new for a bit and concentrate on rebranding. God knows there’s any number of businesses out there, especially in clothing and retail, that need a kick up the bum, an uncompromising kick up the bum, especially those that think all they have to do get someone to make them a smart website and all will be well.
“Which is why I’m talking to you CB, because it would be nice to work hand in hand with ad agencies who understand exactly where I’m coming from. The need and the synergies are obvious, and though rebranding or just getting a brand back on track might sometimes dictate strategy and even come up with the odd great catchline, I have no wish per say to make ads. Albeit I might be an extra pair of hands in making some great ones”.
CB: Been there done that right?
“Just nothing to prove, but I do still enjoy the buzz of working with good writers and art directors, and they happen to be in advertising agencies”.
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To contact Gordon Trembath : +61 408 723 999, or email gordontrembath@gmail.com
4 Comments
Very talented man but it’s hard to attribute those campaigns without mention of Lionel (Hunt, to those under 40)
Old fan – GT sounds nice.
Mr Tembath is dead right about China desperately needing simple, powerful ideas to create brands. At the moment China has a lot of goods, but few real brands of its own. So big opportunity for someone – and something the multi-nats working here have largely failed to do so far.
I wish him all the best with it.
Nice to know you’re back Gordon.