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THE RIDERLESS BIKE

The Challenge

The Captain’s Ride is a challenging charity cycling event for the Steve Waugh Foundation (SWF), raising funds for the 400,000 children throughout Australia affected by rare diseases. Sporting legend Steve Waugh AO would lead a group of 62 experienced riders on an enormous six-day 701km event from Mittagong to the peak of Mt Kosciuszko. The children he supports are unable to participate, so he challenged us to make them feel part of the ride by creating something inspiring and extraordinary with a creative PR and social campaign.

The Solution

The ‘Riderless Bike’ is a world-first self-propelled bike that would follow the peloton from the rear, representing the children the ride was raising funds for. We collaborated with a number of technology partners and creative designers to undertake the huge challenge of engineering the bike. We also had to navigate approvals from the RTA, NSW Police, local councils and insurers.

We created a dedicated web page (www.captainsride.com) for public donations, offering a first-person viewpoint of the ride from the Riderless Bike. People could sponsor the Riderless Bike for part of the route, and be notified as it passed through their section.

We used celebrities taking part in the ride to spruik media and get people on-board via their social followings, and our technology partner, Finch, to explain how the tech worked.

The Results

552 media clips, 90% contained an image of the ride
100% of stories contained our call to action
190M+ reach
Website traffic up 150% on previous year
Raised $1M for children with rare diseases
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiryQj0oj3M

Categories

Not-for-profit
Fundraising campaigns
Integrated campaigns
Consumer marketing
Ambassadors
Innovative technology
Social media
Media relations
Influencer relations

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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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Creating Malaysia Fest 2016

The Challenge

Red Agency was given the daunting task by the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) of conceiving, planning and executing the staging and promotion of Malaysia Fest 2016, a two-day celebration of all things Malaysia to take place on 4-5 December 2016. We needed to get at least 25 booth-holders and 15,000 visitors, despite having a restricted budget, no venue and just five weeks during the pre-Christmas rush to pull it off.

MALAYSIA FEST 2016

The Solution

We secured Pyrmont Bay Park, mapped out a multi-layered, sensory experience to promote Malaysia as a perfect holiday destination, Malaysian cuisine, the fashion and lifestyle scene, and the country’s unique culture, and activated our contacts as well as MATRADE’s own database to quickly fill the booths.

At the centre of the action was a bright, branded stage, the focal point for an ongoing entertainment program including cultural displays, music, dancing, cooking demonstrations and destination films, curated by Red. We staged an opening ceremony and hosted Honourable Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed, Minister of International Trade and Industry on a walk-around.

A website was created as the promotional hub, while Facebook and paid digital advertising campaigns, earned media outreach and flyer distribution drove awareness, buzz and key message penetration.

The Results

Despite the enormous timing, cultural and budget challenges, the event was a huge success and delivered beyond the KPIs set.

18,300 Malaysia-lovers attended – 3,300 over target
35 booth-holders secured – 10 over target, with takings ~$100K
60+ positive stories including major metro newspaper pieces
Facebook event attracted 6,300 interested in attending, 1,200 definitely attending and 2,200 shares
Digital event ads drew 5,535 responses – $2.92 per response
Engagement ads drew 419 responses – 64c per response

Categories

Trade development
Travel and tourism
Food and hospitality
Consumer marketing
Integrated campaigns
Experiential events
Event management
Social media
Digital advertising
Stakeholder management

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Western Sydney Uni UNLIMITED

The Challenge

Our brief was to relaunch the University of Western Sydney (UWS) as Western Sydney University, embrace the cultural diversity of its home, help build pride in Western Sydney and change how people think of it. A disruptive strategy was required to reshape views of the area and the University’s role in it, and make the University a more attractive place for students.

Sudanese refugee lawyer Deng Adut

The Solution

Our strategy was to seed the rationale for change through earned and social media, drive interest in the University’s Open Day to unveil the rebrand, and hero alumni stories embodying diversity and the new brand via content and earned media.

We ran a teaser social media influencer engagement program coined #NewWS to champion viewing Western Sydney through a new lens leveraging high profile people from, or connected with, Western Sydney and the University, placed University stories in mainstream media and officially unveiled the new brand at a media launch.

To launch the new brand with a bang and immerse prospective students and community members into the new look and feel university, we created an ultra-modern Open Day experience.

We then gave media access to the storytellers of the rebrand campaign, closely working with one graduate, Sudanese refugee lawyer Deng Adut who was taken from his family at five and turned into a child soldier. We ensured the detail of his education was told through earned media.

The Results

1000+ earned media items (July-September) including every major broadcaster
The Deng content trended at the top of Facebook and Reddit for 48hours
Deng’s film attracted 2M+ views across Facebook and YouTube (over 200k views before any paid support!)
50%+ growth of University social profiles
128% uplift in Open Day attendance
7% increase in school leavers putting WSU first preference

ABC’s Gruen called the campaign their ‘best of the year’ and commentators around the world have celebrated the work as a new benchmark for higher education marketing. The campaign was so successful and the story so compelling, Deng was asked by the New South Wales Premier to give the prestigious keynote address at Australia Day in 2016 and he has also signed a book deal.

Categories

Education
Consumer marketing
Stakeholder management
Advocacy
Social media
Influencer relations
Media relations
Event management
Experiential events
Integrated campaigns

Deng Adut is the co-founder of leading Sydney criminal law firm AC Law Group. More on his incredible life story can be seen on Deng’s personal website.

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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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