Rise of the vanbassador

Car companies have been doing it for years: gifting a celebrity or ‘influencer’ with one of their products for a period of time, in the hope it will be seen and viewed in a favourable light by their thousands of fans or online 'followers'.

Now the RV industry is starting to get in on the act, with top-selling Australian brand Jayco signing up surf live-saving and Ironman legend Wes Berg, together with his wife Jade and their three young photogenic children, as the 44-year-old Victorian manufacturer's first 'vanbassadors'.

The attractive Queensland family have been taking monthly trips in a Jayco Expanda since 2017, making them “a natural fit to be Jayco’s first official ‘vanbassadors’  because  they share our passion for caravanning and all the benefits that it can offer families      when they  head away,” Jayco Australia CEO Garry Moore explained in a media release. “We are delighted to have them as part of the Jayco family.”

Berg is not the first surf-livesaving champ to be a caravan brand ambassador, with Hall of Famer Ky Hurst taking delivery of a Navigator camper trailer back in 2014 when the Fleetwood-owned Coromal adopted him as the then 38-year-old RV brand's first ambassador.

Jayco already had a commercial relationship with the surf live-saving industry as a previous sponsor of the Ironman Series, and this week enlisted another Jayco ambassador, Prince Hotel Executive Chef Dan Hawkins, to cook for a Jayco Silverline event in Melbourne's CBD.

Top-3 caravan manufacturer New Age has also been utilising the star power of sporting champions, with Brownlow Medallist and current AFL player Paddy Dangerfield recently taking delivery of a New Age Wayfinder camper trailer that features in some New Age branded videos.

No stranger to outdoor lifestyle promotions, Dangerfield also recently starred in the two-part 'Mobile Living' TV show sponsored by Dometic, in which he toured Victoria’s Great Ocean Road with his extended family in an Avida motorhome.

Other RV manufacturers to hop on the ‘vanbassador’ gravy train include Melbourne’s JB Caravans, which supplied a Dreamline Platinum caravan to musical brothers Vanderaa while they toured the country recently.

The top-10 Australian caravan manufacturer also recently supplied a JB van for a TV cooking program hosted by AFL legend Robert DiPierdomenico, as well as enlisting a couple of stars from A-League soccer club Melbourne City for a light-hearted promotional video.

Meanwhile. at least two RV brands have benefitted from a commercial association with Justin and Bec Lorrimer of 'Trip in a Van' online fame, who together with their three young children have attracted around 100,000 Facebook followers while touring Australia full-time for the past three years.

The enterprising family previously enjoyed the comfort of number of Jurgens caravans, including the latest Solaris, before swapping to a new Boab X family van earlier this year as the new ambassadors for fledgling Victoria RV manufacturer Willow RV, whose owners previously worked for Jurgens.

Major caravan park chain BIG4 also splashed the ambassador cash recently on a couple of well-known celebrities -- former Olympic swim champion Giaan Rooney and screen star Shane 'Kenny' Jacobson.