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Posted 14/05/2024 10:13am

Pic: Midjourney

Editors' Note: Many Fast News images are stylised illustrations generated by Dall-E. Photorealism is not intended. View as early and evolving AI art!

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A bee named Trev speaks,
RAA shifts to member-first,
New era takes flight.

In partnership with
Salesforce

RAA buzzes into new era with 'Trev', the talking, bearded bee

The Royal Automobile Association (RAA) has launched a new campaign featuring 'Trev', a talking, bearded bee. This campaign signifies a strategic shift for RAA towards a member-centric approach, encompassing insurance, motoring, travel, and emerging categories. The creation of 'Trev' was a collaborative effort with Rising Sun Pictures (RSP), a renowned visual effects company. The campaign was launched on television, digital, and Out Of Home (OOH) in South Australia.

RAA, a household name in South Australia with a history of over 120 years and a membership of over 820,000, aims to reposition itself as a member-first organisation through this campaign. The campaign features a series of South Australians who could have benefitted from being RAA members. The campaign has reportedly been well received, with children dragging their parents into RAA's stores to get photos with Trev cut-outs and stickers appearing on laptops, lunchboxes, and school bags across the state.

"'Better to be a member,' says RAA CMO Michael Healy, 'isn’t something new for RAA really– the moment you walk into one of our buildings or talk to one of our people you can really feel how important it is to everyone that we do our absolute best for every single one of our 820,000+ members.'"

Healy further explained the rationale behind the campaign, "'RAA is the sort of brand grandparents give grandkids when they start driving, so it was important for us to be a bit more matter of fact when it came to repositioning and marketing RAA as a member-first organisation… it was time to put it on the tin so to speak.'"

The choice of a bee as the campaign's mascot was straightforward, according to Healy. "'While I’d love to have some imaginative and overly intellectualised answer that waxes lyrical about emerging trends, deep insights about how bees are critical to our planet’s survival, and millennials and tweens really feeling deeply about issues relating to bees; the answer is a lot more simple. Bees are yellow and black and the colour yellow is a very strong brand code for us, and more people tend to like cute bees than not… often advertising doesn’t need to be more complicated than that.'"

Brenton Bleechmore, Executive Creative Director at kwpx, expressed his satisfaction with the campaign, "'RAA’s brief was first and foremost for a distinctive asset / fluent device to maximise attribution over the next five to ten years (ideally). We wanted something that you just don’t really see on TV from any other brand, so when kwpx came to us with Trevor the bee, animated by one of the world’s best visual effects companies, we felt pretty confident they’d nailed the brief.'"

Rosa Johnston, RAA Senior Manager Brand and Sponsorships, emphasised the importance of local talent in the campaign, "'RAA is proudly South Australian, so when it came to strategically re-positioning the organisation we needed to be sure we worked with the best creatives in our state and beyond.'"

Bleechmore concluded, "'Trev the bee heralds a new era for one of SA’s oldest and most trusted brands. Trev is a brave refresh for a heritage brand. The fact our client trusted us and trust Trev to keep them moving in the right direction—at such a pivotal stage of growth—makes the work feel even better.'"

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