American Express: REALISE YOUR POTENTIAL

Credits & Description:

Advertiser: AMEX
Agency: MINDSHARE
Category: Financial Products & Services
Advertising campaign: REALISE YOUR POTENTIAL
Client Leader: Clay Gill (Mindshare)
Exchange Director: Amanda Buckley (Mindshare)
E.S.P Director: Eliza Giddy (Mindshare)
Joint Head Co-Creation: Adam Ross (Mindshare)

Effectiveness
The restaurant reviews are in – it was a massive success.30% increase in brand recognition.50% increase in personal service brand perception.21% increase in card applications.PR generated at $400,000.4,000 people went to the Mchef restaurant.3,375 tickets sold (sold out).1,033 photos tagged on FB.

Strategy
‘Service’ is a key differentiator for American Express but one that is very difficult to showcase to someone who is not a member and equally difficult to excite existing members around.Challenge: Attract new card applicants by showcasing first hand the benefits of belonging to AMEX.AMEX has struggled to unlock conversation about their amazing service because it is very un-Australian to brag about wealth.Subsequently members aren’t passing on their experiences and this meant that non-members weren’t seeing the benefits either.Insight: Australians don’t talk ‘wealth’ as it goes against our local DNA.Therefore, we needed to align AMEX to a cultural phenomenon that everyone is talking about.Solution: Enter Masterchef, Australia’s biggest cultural property and one that allowed for more than just broadcast integration. Idea: leverage the credibility of the show to create Australia’s first ever 5-star, 2 storey pop-up restaurant!

Execution
Australia’s first ever 5-star, 2 storey pop-up restaurant.At two storey’s high and located at St Mary’s Cathedral, this pop-up restaurant was a first of its kind and brought an entire new meaning to ‘service’ for AMEX.A rotation of celebrity and ex MasterChef talent hosted a three course meal each night, wandering around to each table to chat one on one with the diners. We structured access to the restaurant so that members were given pre-sale ‘access’ and exclusive VIP seats. So that non-members could also experience the service they were given access via general admission tickets. We shared the content from each night through AMEX and MasterChef pages. Within the TV show we negotiated break interrupters, unseen footage and a first ever product mention during the highest rating moment of the show – the winner announcement whereby we gave the finalists a cash prize to ‘realise their potential’.