ASKO launches integrated marketing campaign in Australia via Trout Creative Thinking

A creative marketing strategy for premium Swedish home appliance brand ASKO, conceived by Trout Creative Thinking gives the globally established brand a local flavour. The strategy harnesses the power of brand endorsement through talent and media partnerships to create captivating content that draws the attention of Australian renovators, architects, and designers.

An Australian-first partnership with ArchiPro saw ASKO utilise the platform to capture spectrums of the market from affluent homeowners, influential specifiers and the architecture and design community at large. Through platform membership, native content and digital properties, ASKO utilised the channel to provide extensive reach and brand visibility to the platform’s highly engaged audience.

A key component of the consumer campaign includes commercial content partnerships with Broadsheet and Are Media across digital and print channels. Through the curation of bespoke content, the brand was able to find creative and engaging solutions to deliver messages that bring to life their promise of Scandinavian design and highlight product selling features.

Content produced with Broadsheet and Are Media resulted in partnerships with some of Australia’s leading wine industry personalities including Jessica Ghaie (co-founder of Blackheart & Sparrows), Meg Brodtmann (certified Master of Wine) Almay Jordaan (chef) and Nick Hilderbrandt (sommelier owner at The Bentley Restaurant Group).

Additionally, Are Media’s Eliza O’Hare, editor of Inside Out was partnered with Michael Drescher from DKO Architecture (the team who designed ASKO’s national showroom), to create a bespoke piece of content for Inside Out social channels, supported by a double page editorial feature in the December edition.

The content campaigns aimed to increase awareness of the ASKO brand in Australia while showcasing key product launches for the brand including the Wine Climate Cabinet, the world’s first smart wine cabinet which was recently awarded Gold in the Australian Good Design Award.

While ASKO has been in Australia for 52 years, the brand partnered with Trout to design and implement a combination of strategic talent and media partnerships unlike anything ASKO has delivered in one of its largest global markets to date. The result is a campaign that strikes a unique balance of aligning to the ASKO brand globally yet making it relevant to the Australian market.

Says Owen Holbourn, sales and marketing director, ASKO Australia: “ASKO is thrilled to bring many innovative products to the Australian market and we couldn’t think of a better partner than Trout to help us achieve our branding and sales goals.

“We’ve had a long-standing partnership and I’m particularly excited about the work Trout has delivered with the recent campaigns. Their deep knowledge of the Australian renovator market and breadth of experience working with global brands puts them in great stead to deliver creative work that meets business objectives.”

ASKO will continue to partner with Trout as it looks ahead to 2023, including branding support to launch new products, always on activities and continued brand work.

On the partnership with ASKO and how it showcases the work of the agency’s specialist expertise, Lachie McKernan, general manager Trout says: “As Australia’s only living brands agency, Trout is dedicated to servicing businesses within the homemaker, renovation, build and construction sectors, to shape how we live and work. Our work with ASKO captures how Trout uses creativity to give brands the momentum they need to achieve business goals through strategic brand and engagement work, creative, and paid, earned and partnership activity.”

Client: ASKO
Sales & Marketing Director: Owen Holbourn 
Creative Agency: Trout Creative Thinking 
Group Brand Partner: Giulia Tan  
Brand Strategist: Effie Demetrios
Engagement Strategist: Clare Acheson 
Creative Lead: Richard Overall
Designer: Sam Inglis
Media & Partnerships Leads: Antoinette Marshall & Elie Zuch