Lilac City Brass musical director Andy Yule and the choir give their all in the NRMA Lighthouse advertisement: Photo: droga5.
Goulburn and Crookwell’s evocative heritage buildings are front and centre in two national brands’ prime-time advertising.
The multimedia advertisements are reinforcing a growing view that Goulburn’s future lies within its past.
A butcher’s shop in Crookwell and the town’s main street fall under the spotlight in NRMA Insurance’s ‘Lighthouse’ advertisement, along with a distinctive home in Mount Street, Goulburn and a drummer in the city’s main street.
Lighthouse was produced to mark the insurer’s 100-year history of helping Australians protect their property, and drew heavily on Goulburn people and places, including a private residence.
Styled to resemble American architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s design, the property in Mount Street has been home to artist Carol Divall and her husband Brian for 45 years.
Production company Good Oil approached the Divalls some time ago and the Goulburn couple agreed to make their home available. They heard nothing back until recently, Carol said.
“They were after a house with big windows and we fitted the bill,” she said. “They had to have a room big enough to bring in a piano.”
The Divalls moved their cars out of the garage which the production team took over as well as just about every room in the house.
“Over the road they had a food van, port-a-loos, trucks and things everywhere,” Carol said. “They had the house for one night. They dressed the house, taking out furnishings first in the main area and replacing them with their pieces including art works and piano.”
The home’s art deco exterior features in the advertisement as well.
“They didn’t finish (filming) until midnight, and then went down to Belmore Park and did a drumming scene,” Carol said.
Lilac City Brass musical director Andy Yule thought helping make an advertisement would be a good experience when Good Oil approached him.
On their request he assembled and rehearsed a small, enthusiastic choir. “We had a rehearsal in Goulburn a couple of days before and then did the shoot (in Crookwell),” he said.
“It was a really good experience and it was lovely for them,” he said. “I had put on my intro (to the production team) that I had done some music. I worked with some of the creative team around what music we would use, even though they did not use our audio in the end.
“They had rain machines, all the equipment there,” he said. “The director just wanted us to be natural: you are in a choir rehearsal; the power goes off; there is a spotlight; the power comes back on – that was pretty much the premise of the ad,” he said.
“Beamish”, the home of Carol and Brian Divall originally designed for artist Winifred Beamish, features in NRMA Insurance’s ‘Lighthouse’ advertisement marking a century of helping people. Photo: droga5.
Meanwhile the Lilac Time Hall, now a cinema with its distinctive grasshopper-like spans and ‘Old Wares’ a secondhand shop in Bradley Street have helped Volkswagen Australia stamp its point of difference.
Paul Kemp, who owns Old Wares in partnership with Michael Lamarra, said the ad’s producers hired the shop for a day and asked them to clear out window displays before changing it into a pink, balloon-infested frontage.
“They said we (Goulburn) may get more ads produced here because there is plenty of parking and everyone is so interested,” he said.
Ad agency DDB Sydney’s creative director Sam Raftl said the idea was to capture the feeling of driving an EV for the first time in the production titled: ‘The all-electric ID. Range – Batteries included’.
“So much of the EV work that’s currently out there is all very same, same,” Raftl told industry publication AdNews. “And Volkswagen didn’t want to talk about futurism, or leaning into the environmental benefits of electric; it was too saturated.”
Filmed entirely in Goulburn over three days the location allowed them to emphasise the regional and city sides of Australia, Raftl said.
“We wanted to show a slice of all of Australia. And Goulburn allowed us to do some regional locations, while building up a city centre as well,” he said.
The Lilac Time Hall has helped a Sydney creative agency to stamp its point of difference on Volkswagen’s EV cars and is among many unique Goulburn buildings to feature in national advertising. Photo: John Thistleton.
The campaign features Patsy Biscoe’s 1966 tune When I Grow Up.
The two advertisements are airing as Goulburn prepares for history-related events in October including the Steampunk Victoriana Fair on 18 October, the inaugural Goulburn Spring Gardens on 18 and 19 October and the Life and Rhymes of Banjo Paterson at the Lieder Theatre on 16 October. Bush poet Gregory North will perform on the 125th anniversary of Paterson performing in Goulburn.
