Beyond the Brief: How Hellions brought their first big idea to life for Clearlight Saunas

Earlier this year, Elle Bullen and Mike Doman launched Melbourne-based start-up Hellions – “a creative joint”. Now, with the help of their first hire and longtime collaborator Dan Sparkes, they’ve delivered their debut campaign: ‘Enter Original’ – a full-blown repositioning of Clearlight Saunas built on individuality, style, and self-reflection. In this edition of CB’s Beyond the Brief, the trio unpack the thinking behind their first official piece of work as Hellions.

How did the idea for “Enter Original” come about, and what did the brief initially look like?

Mike Doman: Clearlight wanted a solution to a flood of cheap knockoffs that were hitting the Australian market and bringing the overall value of the category down, but the initial brief was for a sales event. But as we dug deeper into it with Lalena [King, Global Marketing Manager, Clearlight], the more we all realised we needed to do two things: create a more meaningful and distinctive brand long-term, and then activate that in our initial sales event.

‘Originality’ is such a bold brand idea. How did you turn the idea of ‘originality’ into something people could actually feel and connect with?

Elle Bullen: Clearlight is one of the genuine pioneers of the infrared sauna industry – responsible for developing the patented heater technology – so “the original” felt authentic. But looking at that through the lens of how a customer experiences the product was when we started to properly get excited.

Dan Sparkes: In today’s world originality feels reserved for the select few. Often, they are the people we admire the most. We crave their freedom. So, we asked ourselves “how do you actually give people permission to feel that way and let them know it’s okay?” We all have the power to sit in silence and reflect on who we are. We’re asking people to tap into that. When you find that peace, it brings with it a lot of benefits and inspires more original thinking.

The wellness space is saturated with sameness – soft palettes, soft voices. How did you intentionally break away from that?

Dan Sparkes: The strategic process really set up the importance of being distinctive. In a homogenous category, it isn’t a challenge to show up differently, but it is to do it in a way that still has credibility and relevance. So, when you flip wellness to be a conversation about being true to yourself, it allows you to draw inspiration from people and how they express themselves. Working with visual storytellers like Charlie Hawkes, Carlos Alcaide and Nicky Murphy – who bring a sense of originality to all they touch – made adding an unexpected sense of style and individuality a simpler transition.

This is Hellions’ first major campaign – what was the most defining or memorable moment in bringing it to life?

Mike Doman: There was a moment mid-shoot where the three of us were looking around at the myriad of people that were coming together to deliver the vision we had, and we realised “holy shit, we’ve made a thing that’s making things”. As a trio, we’re wired to act rather than live in deep theory, so the agency didn’t feel quite real until there was something tangible being made. So, we all ambled off to the side of the shoot and had a big hug.

What was the collaboration like with the Clearlight team – and how did that partnership help shape the work?

Elle Bullen: Every time we hang up the phone with Lalena from Clearlight, we say to each other “how bloody good is Lazzy K?”, but we were tightly embedded from the get-go. In fact, the strategic territory that we landed on wouldn’t have come to fruition without Lalena. We were struggling to make parts of the strategy work harmoniously between product experience, advertising and the business itself, and we only managed to crack that after throwing the approach around with her over the phone.

What were the biggest challenges in repositioning Clearlight for a global audience?

Mike Doman: We’ve had a fair bit of experience creating work for global audiences, but the fundamentals stay the same: seeking out universal truths, being really considered with our design language, and ensuring we capture enough that different markets can receive different executions that feel locally relevant. The only genuine challenge in shooting is that the Europeans really don’t believe in clothes in a sauna – and we couldn’t account for that.

Looking back at the campaign now it’s out in the world, what are you most proud of?

Dan Sparkes: We had a ball of making this. We patched into the Clearlight team seamlessly and were empowered to voice our opinions and consider how Enter Original would roll out across the entire customer experience. I also love that we’ve given a voice to Clearlight’s perspective on the world, in what feels like a really authentic and sustainable way.

Mike Doman: In addition to all that, we’ve seen really positive initial results. Engagement and traffic are up for Clearlight, as is their ROAS. Sales volume has doubled year on year. All of which are incredibly validating of our approach. From an industry perspective, we’ve been overwhelmed with the kindness of our peers who have reached out to say they like the work. But for an agency as new as ours, we’re also just proud we’ve officially made something. Conversations with our mates in the industry suggest it’s getting harder to make stuff, so it’s nice to have one done and a few more about to go live.

Clearlight International is a distributor of Clearlight Infrared Saunas & Wellness Solutions.
Client: Clearlight International, a distributor of Clearlight Infrared Saunas & Wellness Solutions
Sebastian Mierau, CEO and Co-founder
Johannes Jess, Co-founder
Lalena King, Global Marketing Manager
Ellen Williams, Founder, Sunnee Collective

Creative agency: Hellions
Producer: Sheridan Wadelton

Hot & Unbothered
Photography: Charlie Hawks
Director: Nicky Murphy
DOP: Marcus Cropp
Production: Hart and Co
Post-production: Lumberfly
Retouching: Gabi Hughes
Music and Sound: Gusto Music
Talent: Jessica Gomes

Enter Original
Photography and motion: Hell Studios
Photographer: Carlos Alcaide
Producer: Nicky Finlay
Talent: Nadia Fairfax & Ben Cutting

BTS Photographer: Adam Luttick