Belong celebrates the joy of belonging in new brand platform via Howatson+Company
Belong, Australia’s first carbon neutral mobile and internet provider, has launched a new brand platform – ‘It Feels Good to Belong’ – celebrating the joyful, inclusive world of data and the internet, created by Howatson+Company.
‘It Feels Good to Belong’ is a fully integrated platform that extends across the Belong business, including brand communications, product, sim card packaging, website, UI/UX, staff collateral and more.
The platform launches with a 60s television spot directed by Revolver’s Steve Rogers, based on the phenomenon of pareidolia – a very human ability to see faces in inanimate objects, proving that connection is all around us if we just look hard enough.
A ‘disruptively distinctive’ media strategy at launch will see the 60” format dominate the buy, complemented by a partnership with Channel 10’s The Masked Singer.
In addition to the launch film is a series of product films, showcasing the company’s carbon neutral offering.
The visual identity was inspired by the world of NFT art and features animated 3D characters and objects floating on black voids. These will be supported through digital and OOH channels.
Says Jana Kotatko, CEO, Belong: “We are incredibly proud of our new ‘It Feels Good to Belong’ platform and brand work. Belong is a brand that is all about joy and inclusiveness and bringing people together, we couldn’t be prouder of how that is represented in this work and are thrilled to see it out in the world.”
Says Gavin Chimes, ECD, Howatson+Company: “Belonging feels great, so why be serious? ‘It Feels Good to Belong’ allows us to celebrate the joy of togetherness while fully embracing the random wonder and whimsy of the internet – which is at the heart of what Belong offers.”
Living true to Belong’s values, the production of the campaign was approached in an inclusive and low impact way.
The Snowy Mountains’ local Monero-Ngarigo people were engaged to ensure the storyline, lyrics and land were respectfully considered, with the production being 100% carbon offset.
Audio descriptions have been applied to all visual video formats and will run on rotation for product ads on all commercial networks that don’t currently support audio descriptions for vision impaired people.
Further information about Belong or the campaign can be found at www.belong.com.au
Creative: Howatson+Company
Media strategy: Howatson+Company
Media implementation and buying: OMD
Client: Belong
CEO, Jana Kotatko
Head of Brand, Comms & Culture, Kelly Schulz
Head of Product, Aaliah Eggins-Bryson
Brand + Creative Lead, Leanne Boyd
Brand Specialist, Clare Taylor
Marketing Chapter Lead, Nathan Cole
Product Owner – Trading & Propositions, Loretta Bell
Senior Marketing Specialist, Adelaide L’Estrange
Marketing – Trading & Propositions, Josh Bailey
Production Company: Revolver
Director: Steve Rogers
Managing Director/Co-Owner: Michael Ritchie
Executive Producer/Partner/ Producer: Pip Smart
Cinematographer: Sam Chiplin
Production Design: Steven Jones-Evans
Editor: Alexandre De Franceschi
VFX & Post Production: Blackbird VFX
Music Supervisor: Trailer Media
Music & Sound: Sonar
Post Production: Heckler
Director: Julian Wolkenstein
Executive Producer: Carlos Zalapa
Producer: Maddison Costello
VFX Supervisor: Jamie Watson
Head of 3D: Tom Corbett
Design Director: Gina Wagstaffe
3D Team: Freddie Jiang, Phillip Wang, Gabor Prucsi, Boris Fomin, Dom Femia, Jack Scrase, Tim Jarick, Gareth Chang
Compositor: Nitin Amin
Animator: Kate Knott
I/O Team: Dan Page, Maud Chapuis
Music & Sound: Heckler Sound
Composer: Johnny Green
Sound Designer: Dave Robertson
Voice Over Artist: Lee Perry
48 Comments
The rock faces are nicely done. Also, I like the sheep.
Nice to see the H + W creative idea of letting someone sing the ad is still going strong. Can’t wait which brand is sung next
So Belong puts carbon neutral at the heart of their brand identity… why then the need / strategy to reference / nod to NFTs other than for a future award entry given that crypto and blockchain (for the moment) is predominantly a huge impact on the environment?
This is really good!
Love the rocks. Original and engaging.
Nice one.
It’s like they spent all the budget in the 60sec, genuinely engaging, rock piece then only had enough budget for the intern to do the supporting 30s.
Meh.
Oh the sweet irony.
Also, this work is entirely forgettable.
Agreed.
fun and different, id give it a go
Lovely work.
This is the most stupidest ridiculous ad I have ever seen in my life . Please take it off it makes no sense at all
I like how the prawn dances.
Great work!
Love the rocks execution
I really like this as a piece of engaging content. It caught my whole family’s attention on air last night. But then we got to the end and went – what???? Sadly I fear this is one of those ads where you remember the ad but not who it is for or what it is saying.
Gotta say I loved this work, hard to do decent work on big clients, but this is charming and hopefully a platform that can keep on going.
Wanted to jump on and change the conversation. Objects smiling is the oldest trick in the book, and one of the best directors in the world can polish a turd. But not by enough.
Only slightly better than watching grass grow is watching rocks not move. More forgettable than the winner of masked singer last year
Exactly. Another one of those high production value spots you immediately pay attention to and get excited for. Then the payoff comes and you’re left going what the hell did that have to do with anything?
Rock ad is sweet, the other spots look like they’re from a different campaign?
Linking carbon neutrality with NFT’s is odd considering they’re as far from carbon neutral as possible.
@singing nothingness
the latter part of your name is probably a good description for what you’ve achieved in your career.
this spot is great. made me smile. hats off.
No need to get defensive. It’s not a good idea. The execution is solid and that’s why you paid Steve Rogers to do. But there was no point in executing it. The idea is soft. The brand is lost. The audience will forget it. Sorry.
Exactly. This serves the director and revolver. Does anyone even know this is for a telco.
So Belong is carbon neutral and lovely and all that but it’s owned by Telstra which is not. So when you follow the cash the point of difference doesn’t exist
Creative obscurity for a client nobody cares about.
Bloody love the irony of inclusivity…
But, kinda like the work. The sheep saves it.
Creativity like this is why I work in this godforsaken industry!
This is very disparate stuff in terms of message and personality, gonna struggle with brand attribution.
This rocks.
… This ad rocks!
The retail ads are better than the rock choir.
all these clients with the word ‘brand’ in the title yet they haven’t noticed that none of this work looks like it’s coming from the same brand. rocks are cool. they should have stopped there.
Does it cost them a shed load of cash to use this song?
Can someone explain the rocks TVC to me? Why rocks? Why are the rocks singing? Is it because of the carbon neutral thing so you’re using… nature? What’s the link to the service? I’m all for quirky but it still has to make sense.
@singing nothingness
It’s not a retail spot (you probably know those well).
It’s a creative ad for a telco that is far different and engaging than anything else out there.
Get back to your bromides.
Shame when creatives sacrifice body and soul, they’re not credited.
because most of them have left
I know we love the circle jerk that brand advertising can be, but I highly doubt 99% of the public out there would attribute this to Belong, or even to the category. Which is what it should be ultimately doing.
Far better than H&W/H&C’s first big work with Allianz (which was a snoozefest), but still a miss.
We are in the middle of a pandemic.It’s all a bit depressing.Talented young Aussie creatives can’t travel to other countries for experience,which they’d normally bring back to the betterment of our industry.We can’t welcome creatives from other markets,who might bring new ideas and ways of working.Other creatives,probably the older ones are rightfully worried about their jobs.
In the midst of this ,somebody,who has well and truly paid their dues,bravely does a start up.
They do some work that’s different to every other predictable manifesto telco ad in this country,that’s well shot and interesting strategically yet all you bastards can do is nit pick.
I remember when we encouraged and supported each other.
What’s with the song? Are these LGBTQI+ boulders? This feels like a coming out story for a boulder? Am I getting that right?
I want to, I do. But I don’t.
I just don’t get it….. how does singing rocks connect with a Telco? it is regrettably, entirely forgettable!
What was the name of the Telco again???? Who knows!!!
It’s about contrast. We’ll start with beautifully crafted photorealism, natural environments, humanism and simplicity – a story of coming together … then the rest of the campaign is a spinning bitcoin and a low res dancing prawn.
I want to know if the rocks are real. They are fantastic
That is seriously the best ad I’ve ever watched
I love this ad ! I am a woman in her late sixties but it captures my attention every time I hear and see it. It is a lovely connection of the music/song and the amazing footage of the rocks. So unusual for me to pay attention to an ad.
Love this