Results and Effectiveness

The debate about who did it, how they did it, and if it actually happened at all, helped this campaign smash Millward Brown's 54% awareness norm, driving 89% awareness of V Pocket Rocket in its first three months. Total V sales grew 32% to finish on the highest 3-month sales figure ever. The TVC measured as the most 'distinctive' and 'interesting' ad on record for Millward Brown in New Zealand. V Pocket Rocket claimed 51% share of the energy shot market in the first five months.

Creative Execution

The idea centred around the simple road cone. It all began with road cones mysteriously appearing around the city of Auckland. TV hosts and Radio DJ's started talking about them, asking 'who's behind this & why?' Two weeks later, Auckland woke up to a road cone on the top of the Sky Tower ñ the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. TV news, radio shows, online news sites and twitter) asked how on earth it got there. The rumours spun into overdrive.Later that day, a link to a YouTube clip spread around New Zealand's inboxes showing a guy with a 'V' Rocket Pack flying up, 'coning' the Sky Tower and confirming 'V' were behind it. The campaign then spread to TV, outdoor, digital and product sampling. But the debate didn't stop there, the big question then became 'was it real, or was it fake?'. And the debate still continues today.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Our task was to launch the new 'V' energy shot and take market leadership despite being last to market. The strategy was to make the new 'V' energy shot a huge part of the conversations of 18-24 year old New Zealanders. Insight into our target insisted that broadcast messaging wasn't the way to influence their behaviour. They're dismissive of traditional advertising and they're contemptuous about brands that don't engage them beyond advertising. Their attitudes and behaviours are shaped much more by the conversations they have with each other than by advertising messages. So we set out to get into their conversations. To communicate the brand's promise that 'V's new concentrated energy shot, gives you the energy to do extraordinary things. And to communicate it in a way 18-24yrs would find surprising, interesting and engaging enough to talk about. The conversation that followed helped launch the 'V' Pocket Rocket Energy Shot.