Category: Ambient Media (Large Scale)
Advertiser: BANK OF NEW ZEALAND
Product/Service: SPONSORSHIP
Agency: SUGAR ADVERTISING
Creative Director: Tim Huse (SUGAR)
Art Director: Rob McDowell (SUGAR)
Copywriter: Jono Aidney (SUGAR)
Digital Creative: Vikki Cheng (SUGAR)
Account Director: Sharon Lew (SUGAR)
Group Account Director: Jane Hooson (SUGAR)
Head Of Digital: Jasmine Wilkinson (SUGAR)
Chief Executive Officer: Jeremy Johnston (SUGAR)
Media placement: Guerrilla Outdoor Projection - Aotea Square, Auckland - 6 May 2011
Describe the brief/objective of the direct campaign.
After 50 years, New Zealand’s most prestigious short story competition was getting old. Awareness remained high among established authors, but the lack of amateur entries raised a problem for Bank of New Zealand - their lifelong sponsorship arrangement was becoming unfeasible. So with less than NZ$20,000 (US$16,400) to spend, we were asked to breathe life back into the competition by encouraging entries from young, first-time authors. To achieve this, we had to let them enter from where they felt most comfortable. And since the biggest challenge for any writer is getting started, we wanted to help with that too.
Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective with reference to the projected response rates and desired outcome.
On one night, from a secret vantage point in Auckland’s arts district, we wrote hundreds of live story starts inspired by real characters and events, and projected them on an epic scale in the public square. We streamed a webcast (aimed to trend on Twitter) and created a viral video from our footage (as content for arts blogs). Once engaged, budding authors were encouraged to find starts of their own and enter a new 150-word category run via Facebook. From here, stories would be shared virally.
Explain why the creative execution was relevant to the product or service.
In previous years, campaign imagery had featured a vintage typewriter. Our decision to take language to a temporary space, using a digital, guerrilla broadcast medium, was important for the point we were making. Dead is the idea of the author, hunched over his typewriter in a stuffy, blackened room. With modern digital technology, the strike of inspiration can now be instantly channelled into text messages, blogs, Facebook posts, and much more. We showed young writers they could enter a literary competition just as easily. Then we made them do it.
Describe the results in as much detail as possible with particular reference to the RESPONSE of the target audience including deliverability statistics, response rates, click throughs, sales cost per response, relationships built and overall return on investment.
With our webcast trending on Twitter, and the resulting video shared by hundreds of arts, literature and advertising blogs around the world, Bank of New Zealand saw 500% more Facebook traffic overnight. Those fans stuck around, with a 340% increase in followers. The number of entries exceeded client expectations by 180%--more than enough to secure next year's sponsorship.
So what stories did our audience find? One started with a leaf, one with a lawnmower, a bear, a bus, a barbecue, and the winner, with a 1972 Holden Kingswood. The vast majority of entries were submitted by first-time authors, and shared on Facebook.