TamJai invites 'hot' Australian firemen to HK: A creative move or borrowed interest?

TamJai sister brands’ latest move to bring three hunky Australian firemen to Hong Kong to promote their latest products and wildlife protection, has become the talk of the town, with some relating it to an apparel brand campaign from over 10 years ago.  

Don't miss: TamJai sister brands invite Australian firemen to promote new products 

Before they arrived in Hong Kong to participate in a tasting event, TamJai sister brands took to their Instagram pages to share video teasers featuring the three performing pull-ups.   

In fact, the marketing stunt has drawn around 480 mentions from local netizens over the past nine days, according to media intelligence firm CARMA. Out of these mentions, approximately 33.5% were positive, while 19.5% were negative.  

Overall, netizens found the campaign to be innovative and creative. Some even drew a comparison to the Abercrombie & Fitch campaign that took place in Central about a decade ago, but noted that Tamjai's campaign is driven by a good cause, said Charles Cheung, CARMA’s HK GM. Interestingly, a few netizens made lighthearted jokes about the contrast between the firefighters and "Tamjai jeh jeh”, he added. 

Meanwhile, social monitoring firm Meltwater found that since the release of the campaign, TamJai sister brands’ brand sentiments have been 70.8% neutral, 20.4% positive and 8.8% positive across social platforms.   

In response, Ronald Wong, chief marketing officer of TamJai International (TJI) said the key difference between A&F's campaign and TamJai's campaign is that TamJai wants customers to be aware of the fact that the Australian firemen from the Australian Firefighters Calendar have been keen advocates of wildlife and animal protection. A big part of this campaign is also to support local animal protection causes, he added. 

Does it convey the right message? 

On the creative front, these Australian firemen have been known as "hot" calendar boys for years, making it easy to draw an association with the brand's "hot and spicy" attribute, said Rudi Leung, director and founder of Hungry Digital. 

“This marketing campaign is both creative and fun. In today's attention economy, any tactic that can surprise the audience and draw their attention is worth leveraging,” he added. 

The words “hot” and “firemen” have a strong connection with each other, and the firemen also have a reputation for taking photos with animals. Yvonne Ma, founder and managing director, Eighty20, said leveraging this angle to extend it to a charitable cause is a great move.  

The campaign has the potential to capture the attention of new Australian audiences, she added. 

The stunt has garnered attention from the media and generated significant buzz on various social platforms, which is a positive outcome, according to Andy Greenaway, chief executive officer and chief creative officer, Rumble.  

“Getting talked about, getting covered by the press, cutting through all the noise in the marketplace, is an exceptionally difficult thing to do in today’s highly fragmented media scene. So you have to give TamJai full marks for achieving that,” he added.  

What more can be done? 

Leveraging muscular Australian firemen in a marketing campaign can raise eyebrows in a rather conservative local market, however, some industry players believed that the campaign can further develop its creative elements to stand out. 

Given that the stunt has generated significant buzz on social platforms, John Koay, regional executive creative director at Edelman, said a fantastic brief like this could've landed on something a bit more creative and should have been crafted a bit better for better brand distinctiveness and disruption. 

“Next time, I'm hoping to see something more creative, rather than just featuring them in a teaser and sending these Aussie blokes to do a few spicy taste tests[…]. From my experience, when a creative idea has a twist, it becomes much more effective,” he added. 

Good brand buildings are built on a solid foundation. They all started by creating a strong and engaging brand platform, said Rumble’s Greenaway. 

 “So the question is, will the firemen stunt contribute to the long-term growth of the brand? Or will it just be a bush fire that rages bright and fast, but ultimately burns out in our memories?” he added. 

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