New ad agency pitches 60-year-old movie in Rex digital campaign

Rex Airlines’ new ad agency, T&PmAustralia, is hoping a reference to a Hollywood Golden Age movie couple from the 1950s will encourage Rex travellers to rethink their relationship with rival airlines.

Rex Airlines today launched ‘Your Rex’ campaign, ‘An Airfare to Remember’ in reference to the 1957 movie, An Affair to Remember, starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr.

Running over a month, the digital campaign aims to build brand awareness of Rex and its expanding domestic network to major cities, which now includes flights to Perth.

Through a series of humorous, double-entendre tactical ads, Australia’s Airline of the Year winner said it hopes the campaign’s playfulness will improve consumer brand recall and recognition.

T&Pm Australia’s general manager Britt Lippett said the cheeky, low-key campaign is the exemplar of Rex, whose stealthy uprising against the airline duopoly has been a win for travellers.

“Rex is a brand perfectly suited to wit and satire because it is the quintessential underdog a scrapper from the bush who moved into big jets and brought competition,” Lippett said.

“Until Rex came along, fares between Melbourne and Perth for example, hadn’t shifted in 10 years and there was little incentive for the major airlines to change, or to improve services.

“But building up a brand when the big two hold a 95 per cent market share– dwarfing the banks and supermarkets– requires a powerful tool, and we think humour is the best one.

“The ‘Your Rex’ campaign works because it invites the consumer in on the joke.”

Researchers found amusement in ads crosses generations, improves memory and receptivity, but Lippett said our cancel culture had spooked many agencies and marketers from using it.

“It’s been well documented that the industry had seen a decline in irreverent ads over the past decade, with brands less willing to take a comedic risk for fear of a pile-on,” Lippett said. “Thankfully, post pandemic, we are seeing a resurgence of humour with the Cannes Lions Awards introducing a humour category this year, recognising its importance and impact.

“And to its credit Rex has got on board with us- embracing a little mischief to try and encourage disaffected travellers to dump the bigger airlines that took all of us for granted for so long.”

Lippett said the simplicity and cleverness of the Rex campaign is in stark contrast to the film budget, emotive efforts of its rivals, whose service levels haven’t matched their own ad hype.

“You can have as many doe-eyed choristers singing on the Brooklyn Bridge as you like, but if you cannot get on a flight, get a refund, use your COVID credits or find your bag, it’s a mismatch.”