Turning paint into proof

Challenge

How could Wattyl stand out against its competitors who all show the same paint ad cliches of messy dogs, terror kids and clumsy DIYers?

Idea

Rather than showing paint in our consumers' hands, we took viewers behind the scenes and inside the official ‘Wattyl Test Lab’ to demonstrate the extreme lengths taken when testing it.

How it worked

• Launched “Don’t worry, it’s Wattyl” - a confident, authentically Aussie platform that reinvigorated trust in the brand.

• Developed a creative campaign of scientists that played up Wattyl’s strengths through comedic, hyperbolic tests.

• Delivered a 45-second hero TVC (and 30-second cutdown) at prime-time during The Block, plus three 15-second digital films on specific product features.

• Amplified through social, digital, outdoor, POS and a clever promotion where Aussie’s could win a Wattyl prize pack.

My role

Senior Art Director, working alongside a Copywriter and our ECD. I led scripting, casting, set design, props, and set the look and feel across the campaign, website and all assets. Carried through a 1.5-day shoot with a 20+ person cast, a two-director production team and an SFX crew.

Craft 

The hero film reads as one continuous take. At the tech walkthrough we found the set was spread too far apart to hold the illusion, so we tightened the layout. From there it came down to casting talent who could hold precise timing, a script cut to the beat, and every actor cue choreographed against camera and effects; take after take until it landed.

Outcome

Repositioned Wattyl from a commodity brand trading on category clichés into a challenger with proof-led confidence, distinctly Australian in tone. The platform ran cleanly from TV to POS, built to outlast a single campaign burst.