Havas Red partnered with ECOVACS to launch its outdoor robotics range in Australia with a campaign designed to do more than demonstrate technology. The “Dad Stance” tapped into a uniquely Australian cultural truth – our obsession with standing back and admiring a job well done, and transformed it into an experiential platform, content engine and official Guinness World Record™.
ECOVACS wanted to build awareness and preference for its expanding outdoor range across lawn, pool and window cleaning, while positioning the brand as a category leader and ultimately driving consumers in-store and online.
But the category was crowded with brands talking about the same functional benefit: convenience.
Havas Red identified an opportunity to move beyond simply telling Australians that robots could save them time. Instead, we focused on something much more emotional – the pride Australians take in their homes and backyards.
The Challenge: Making Outdoor Robotics Matter
ECOVACS wanted to build awareness and preference for its expanding outdoor range across lawn, pool and window cleaning, while positioning the brand as a category leader and ultimately driving consumers in-store and online.
But the category was crowded with brands talking about the same functional benefit: convenience.
Havas Red identified an opportunity to move beyond simply telling Australians that robots could save them time. Instead, we focused on something much more emotional – the pride Australians take in their homes and backyards.
A Cultural Insight Built Around Backyard Pride
Our strategy started with a simple truth: in Australia, the backyard is part of our identity.
It’s where weekends happen, families gather and friends come together, and a well-kept backyard is something Australians genuinely take pride in. The campaign therefore positioned ECOVACS not simply as technology that removes chores, but as technology that helps house-and-garden-proud Australians maintain the spaces they love.
That led us to another insight. If ECOVACS is doing the mowing, cleaning the pool and washing the windows, what are dads supposed to do with all that extra time?
Stand back and admire it.
Creative Execution: Turning the Dad Stance into a World Record
Havas Red took the universally recognisable Dad Stance: feet apart, hands firmly planted on hips, quietly inspecting a job well done, and turned it into the centrepiece of the campaign.
At The Calyx in Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden, we created an immersive ECOVACS backyard where consumers, media and creators could experience the outdoor ecosystem in action, culminating in an official attempt to set a Guinness World Record™ for the Most People Performing the “Dad Stance” Simultaneously.
The two-day experience brought ECOVACS’ technology to life through:
The result transformed a product demonstration into something people could participate in, photograph, share and talk about, while keeping ECOVACS technology at the centre of the experience.
41M+ earned media reach, taking ECOVACS into the national conversation
One Guinness World Record™ for the Most People Performing the “Dad Stance” Simultaneously – a total of 380 participants
572+ pieces of earned coverage with highlights including all commercial broadcast networks across Sunrise, Today Show, Channel 9 News, Channel 10 News, coverage on ABC Radio, an online syndication across the AAP network, and 10 News, 7 News and 7You social channels.
22M+ social reach, with 21 creator partnerships
800 Participants for the activation across two days
From Product Demonstration to Cultural Participation
Dad Stance turned ECOVACS from a brand talking about outdoor robotics into a brand participating in Australian backyard culture. Rather than asking consumers to admire the technology, the campaign gave them a reason to experience it and then quite literally stand back and admire the result.
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