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BREAKING RECORDS FOR VIVID SYDNEY

The Challenge

Vivid Sydney, the world’s largest festival of light, music and ideas, is a major driver of visitors to Sydney, Australia, during winter, and adds millions of dollars to the New South Wales economy. It is owned, managed and produced by Destination NSW, the State Government’s tourism authority.

In 2016 Vivid Sydney ran for an extra five nights (23 in total) and included more light precincts and music and ideas events. Despite the size of the festival, a limited advertising budget existed. PR needed to encourage more visitors to see and experience Vivid Sydney for more nights.

The Solution

Our overall strategy was to become a content hub for Vivid Sydney with bespoke multimedia content created in partnership with media outlets, targeted by audience passion point, using new technologies such as drone footage and 360o video to offer new perspectives. This helped to overcome issues with diminishing media resources, prevent media fatigue by offering new glimpses into the festival and behind-the-scenes stories, and create shareable content for local and international media to ensure fast, frequent coverage.

A comprehensive campaign including launch events, newspaper lift-outs, live broadcasts and interviews ensured mass media coverage from program announcement to lights off and success marketing.

The Results

More than 2.31 million visitors, up 35%!
Visitor spend up 75% to $110M
88,300 travel packages sold, up 104%
15,880 media clips generated, reaching 15B + eyes, up 287%
2000 + broadcast segments, 62 hours of TV time
Visitor spend up 75% to $110M

Categories

Travel and tourism
Consumer marketing
Stakeholder management
Government relations
Content marketing
Media relations
Influencer relations

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Chandon: A Friendly Race

The Challenge

Launch the global sponsorship of F1 Racing Team McLaren-Honda by sparkling wine brand Chandon (part of Moet-Hennessy) at the Australian GP in March 2016 with a social and content led campaign leveraging drivers Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button.

The client wanted to produce a premium digital and social content film bringing the brand essence of ‘live life unplanned’ and ‘spirit of adventure’ to life that could be localised for use around the world. We had just 10 weeks to put it together, three hours’ access to the drivers and the film needed to be up on social channels inside 48 hours in time for the weekend’s race.

Chandon Friendly Race

The Solution

Our strategic idea was very simple. Have the drivers, who are in one of the world’s most engineered and planned sports, do something completely unexpected, and utilise one of Chandon’s key assets, it’s beautiful Yarra Valley winery.

We pitted the drivers against one another in a series of unexpected challenges in a gum-ball-style race across the property using different modes of transport. In true F1 style the winner would be crowned on a podium celebrating with Chandon.

We allocated two hours with the drivers to filming, and half an hour each to photography and an event for media and influencers to power coverage and social conversation. Key media partnerships included GQ, Buro 24/7 and Broadsheet.

The Results

4M+ video views (all platforms) against a target of 1.2M – officially viral!
160+ media clips (target 50) with 31M+ audience reach
50 posts by 16 influencers at media event reaching 2M+
13 interviews with drivers at the content shoot
7 partner events and 8 retail off-premise trade activations
Considered by Chandon as best practice for socially-led campaigns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3bDd2qD8oE

Categories

Alcoholic beverages
Consumer marketing
Content creation and marketing
Media relations
Influencer relations
Sponsorship leveraging

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Humanising The Bottom 100

The Challenge

International not-for-profit, The Fund for Peace (FFP), required a creative solution to raise awareness of the global refugee crisis and unrest that is dramatically increasing the number of people living in extreme poverty around the world. It was crucial that our campaign personalised the issue of global poverty to generate greater recognition and support for the FFP’s work from the public, government and private sector.

The Solution

We created The Bottom 100, a look at life at the other end of global top 100 ‘rich lists’, hosted at bottomhundred.org. Over two years we interviewed 100 of the world’s poorest people across 12 countries, five continents, covering 23 different nationalities and tens of ethnicities and languages.

We launched The Bottom 100 on World Refugee Day and transformed an unused space in Sydney’s Surry Hills into a real-life gallery where media, influencers, stakeholders and the public could see the faces and read the stories of those featured.

Through PR, social media, FFP channels and negotiated free advertising space, we celebrated as many of these individuals as we could. To do this, we selected hero stories for each channel and media outlet, allowing us to offer unique pitches.

The Results

110+ clips in first week across Tier 1 Australian media – 19M reach
Covered by global flagship media titles – 70M+ reach
Used global network to secure pro bono content film ad placement
Donated ad placements valued at $7.5M with a 7.3M reach
Significant traffic to Bottom 100 social channels
22,000 visits to website in first two days, 10% shared stories on social
Noticeable uptick in fundraising
Door-opener and ownable platform for the future

Categories

Not-for-profit
Integrated campaigns
Content creation and marketing
Stakeholder management
Social media
Media relations
Influencer relations
Event management

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Rebuilding Trust in Malaysia Airlines

The Challenge

After the 2014 tragedies of MH370 and MH17, we had the massive challenge of rebuilding trust in Malaysia Airlines. The airline couldn’t be seen to be engaging in costly marketing campaigns at the expense of consideration for the victims and their families, and a company restructure meant the impending loss of thousands of jobs.

The Solution

The communications strategy was encapsulated in one word: advocacy. We filled an information void with constant updates, strategic interviews, behind-the-scenes tours and a stream of positive news, and encouraged respected experts, travel trade and Government officials and media outlets to champion the brand. We secured Malaysia-connected celebrities as airline partners – TV cook/presenter, Poh Ling Yeow, and tennis star, Nick Kyrgios, whose mother is proudly Malaysian, and leveraged their involvement through creative, integrated campaigns spanning multiple touch points.

At the same time, issues were managed in a proactive fashion to limit their effect on our positive outreach.

The Results

Passenger numbers 7.8% ahead of what they were immediately prior to MH370’s disappearance
700 positive pieces of TV, print and digital coverage reaching 70M pairs of eyes
800K + video views on YouTube and social
150+ positive social posts by media and ambassadors

Categories

Aviation, travel and tourism
Issues and crisis management
Consumer marketing
Trade relations
Stakeholder management
Content creation and marketing
Ambassadors
Advocacy
Media relations
Influencer relations
Integrated campaigns

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