How HP freed Aussies of their Mac with Esc Therapy using Siri!

The APPIES Asia Pacific Awards is all about bold and disruptive marketing campaigns, and the new HP campaign called “Esc Therapy” hits the spot with their innovative approach to steer MacBook users their way.

Created by Edelman Sydney, the campaign won a Silver under the Consumer Electronics and Durables category at the EFFIES APAC 2021 awards.

Campaign Synopsis:

Aussies everywhere feel trapped in their relationship with Mac, so HP decided to show them how to escape. Watch Dave – a long time Mac lover – break up with his first love, with a little help from the real voice of Siri.

The campaign shows Dave in couple’s counselling with his Macbook (voiced by Susan Bennett, the original voice of Siri). After years of slowly dwindling happiness, he’s decided to let her down gently in a safe setting.

The inspiration for the campaign came from Aussies’ own experiences – they felt trapped in the Mac ecosystem, ignored by Mac’s product designers, and forced to buy expensive dongles to simply connect.

The campaign is interesting for a number of reasons, not least of which is the fact Edelman produced the content in-house.

Commenting on the work, Edelman Australia’s ECD Jamil Bhatti said he was incredibly proud to have produced the work in-house.

“It’s an exciting world we live in now where stories that travel are king. HP has had a long standing relationship with Edelman here and globally and we have been delivering integrated work for them for a number of years. This campaign is no different and has allowed us to use the full skill set available at Edelman, delivering content creation, media partnerships, internal comms and ultimately a fun and sharable story. This is the type of work we’re doing for a number of clients and you’ll be seeing lots more of it in the coming months,” said Jamil.

“We got a great brief from HP and if their bravery was going to get matched by us, we had to be hugely in each other’s pockets. Dan, myself and the team are on a WhatsApp group to make sure we could be as collaborative as possible, because the work gets so much better when agency client are one team, pushing for the same outcome”, added Jamil.

Another interesting fact is that the campaign was filmed and produced as social content first, not a TVC.

Dan Henry, CMO, HP South Pacific, said that HP has had a strong brand for a long time, but Apple has outshone all other comers when it comes to positioning its products as luxury items.

“When it comes to the quality and reliability, the brand signals that we have say that HP is still super strong. It’s just the premiumisation of the brand that Apple has done so emotionally connecting what carrying that product means to customers who are purchasing Apple. It’s not just about the features and benefits. It’s about what that says about them. I feel like that’s the differentiation that they’ve done a really good job at and that we have to work harder at and giving people a brand and an emotional reason why to choose HP”, Dan explained.

Credits:

Managing Director (Edelman): Fern Canning-Brook

CMO HP South Pacific: Dan Henry

Director – Jason Perini

Executive Creative Director (Edelman) – Jamil Bhatti

Senior Producer (Edelman) – Jasmin Malam

Copywriter (Edelman) – Joshua Campbell

Art Directors (Edelman) – Jackson Ainsworth & Marcel Bingham

DOP / Editor (Edelman) – Jilvan Mohammadi

Public Relations Lead (Edelman): Thom Landers

Audio House – Song Zu

Dave Character – Mansoor Noor