Advertiser: BEYONDBLUE
Agency: MARMALADE
Category: Best Integrated Campaign Led by Direct Marketing
Advertising campaign: IS IT OK TO BE LEFT HANDED?
Director: Corrie Jones (Guilty)
Head Of Digital: Donal O'Keefe (Marmalade)
Art Director: Frank Trobbiani (Marmalade)
Account Manager: Pip Duncan (Marmalade)
Community Manager: Kate Pattisson (Marmalade)
Producer: Rohan Timlock (Guilty)
Director Of Client Service: Lisa Gumbleton (Marmalade)
Executive Creative Director: Neil Mallet (Marmalade)
Chief Executive Officer: Victor Maree (Marmalade)
Agency Producer: Beaver (Marmalade)
Account Manager: Hayley Sims (Marmalade)
GM Marketing/Communications: Janine Scott (Beyondblue)
Creative Director/Writer: John Akritidis (Marmalade)
Execution
Teenaged boys would simply disengage if they were seen 'supporting' GLBTI people. So we needed to give them permission by showing their support for a person they could directly relate to without losing face.
Client Brief Or Objective
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex people experience higher rates of depression and anxiety disorders. In fact, homosexual and bisexual people are twice as likely to experience anxiety and nearly three times as likely to experience depression compared with heterosexual people. Younger people are more vulnerable to discrimination by their peers as they become more aware of their self identity. ‘Coming out’ is a difficult time for young GLBTI people as often they are subject to discrimination and bullying at school. So how do we talk to multiple audiences ranging from young teen males to the GLBTI community themselves?
Outcome
The integrated social media campaign was backed and spread by our target demographic. Close to 500,000 views on YouTube fuelled the debate that spread across blogs as diverse as the Christian Association.com through to GLBTI blogs like QueerAttitude.com. Once social news sites Reddit and 4Chan picked it up, there was no looking back.Our Facebook Likes almost doubled, with over 40,500 new page likes during the campaign period.40,472 likes on campaign content Over 4,000 comments posted on campaign content5,700+ Facebook shares Plus, 1,307 new Twitter followers – more than double what we had pre-campaign (1,261)
Implementation
We started with the toughest audience first. Teenaged boys. We know they respond to metaphors, so we created a two-minute film that draws the comparison between being born lefthanded and the discrimination GLBTI people face for simply being themselves.