James Hardie urges Kiwis to feel the love in new TV spot to promote its cladding via Federation NZ

Federation has launched a new television spot titled ‘It Was Love At First Sight’ for James Hardie. The aim of the campaign is to keep James Hardie’s range of design-led fibre cement claddings top of mind for 40-somethings looking to re-clad, renovate or build brand new.

The challenge was making James Hardie the tall poppy in a traditionally dull, masculine category full of confusing terminology and boring building jargon. A quick look through the category advertising showed that a creative step sideways was in order.

VIEW THE SPOT

James Hardie isn’t just providing top-quality cladding, it’s actually genuinely improving lives. James Hardie and Federation needed to get this insight across in a simple, positive and aspirational slice of life with broad appeal. Love was the answer and James Hardie settled on the story of New Zealanders’ love affair with James Hardie cladding through the lens of one particularly enamored housewife.

Says Paul David, marketing manager, James Hardie: “We wanted our lead TVC to be the entertaining, intriguing face of the ‘life improvement’ campaign – providing an effective emotional hook to drive potential customers to our web platform, where the decisions are made. We feel the team at Federation not only achieved the difficult task of arresting the viewer’s attention, but brought the insight to life in an elegant way too – simply stunning.”

Client: James Hardie

Online: Paul Dickson, Cause+FX