The Campaign

Staples, the world’s largest office products company, launched Staples.com.au in Australia with a commitment to delivering a great experience to small businesses. Being new to the market, Staples needed to raise brand awareness and do something unique that demonstrated its different approach to office product supply. Our challenge was to generate awareness of Staples’ launch into Victoria, get people online to play Staples’ online Paper, Scissors, Ink game and drive customer trial. To bring the Paper, Scissors, Ink concept to life and get people talking, we brought the World Rock Paper Scissors Champion to Australia to participate in a quirky and attention-grabbing media tour. Our campaign generated over 100 quality stories, resulting in more than 43 million audience impressions (Australia’s population is 21.8m). During the week of our media tour, visitors to Staples.com.au increased by 530%. The following week, orders increased by 3,620%.

The Brief

With a goal of successfully launching Staples.com.au in Victoria, the PR campaign objectives were: • Generate broad awareness of Staples by securing positive media coverage with a reach of 7.5 million audience impressions • Drive traffic to staples.com.au • Encourage customer trial The key target audience was media in Victoria, NSW and ACT that would reach small business owners as well as have a halo effect onto general consumer audiences. We strategically selected our media targets based on demographic profiling of small business owners, while Staples’ thorough research into the needs of small businesses informed our campaign messaging.

Results

The campaign delivered against all set objectives. Generate awareness of the Staples brand by securing positive media coverage with a reach of 7.5 million audience impressions We secured 101 positive pieces of top-tier media coverage across Victoria, NSW and ACT with a reach of more than 43 million audience impressions. 100% of coverage included Staples branding and we secured stories on top-tier television, radio, print and online media outlets. Coverage appeared on: - Australia’s second-highest rating breakfast TV program (TODAY) - A leading primetime current affairs program (The 7pm Project) - Australia’s highest-rating breakfast radio program (2Day FM Kyle & Jackie O) - Australia’s leading news website (News.com.au) - Australia’s most popular daily newspaper (The Herald Sun) Drive traffic to staples.com.au The week of the media tour, visitors to Staples.com.au increased by 530%. Encourage customer trial The week following the media tour, orders increased by 3,620%.

Execution

The campaign was delivered within a tight timeframe of just six weeks from strategy to implementation. After negotiating the involvement of the World Rock, Paper, Scissors Champion (Tim Conrad from Taylor, Michigan) we developed extensive briefing notes to ensure Tim remained on-message and had a solid understanding of Staples. Upon his arrival, we undertook media training and a photo shoot to generate branded campaign imagery. During the tour, Tim wore Staples-branded clothing to all interviews and a consultant from the agency accompanied him to ensure messaging was maximised. The majority of media sell in was conducted prior to Tim’s arrival in Australia. Our strategy initially focused on negotiating several exclusive editorial opportunities with high-rating print, television and radio outlets. Following the exclusives being secured, interview opportunities were offered to other relevant media; tailored materials distributed to consumer and business media targets; and an extensive sell-in campaign undertaken.

The Situation

Staples.com.au launched in Australia with a commitment to delivering a great experience to small businesses. As a global brand, to be successful in Australia Staples needed to raise brand awareness and do something unique that would resonate with the Australian psyche and demonstrate the company’s different approach to office product supply. Staples.com.au launched originally into the states of New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory in late 2010, followed by Victoria in May 2011. Our PR campaign to announce its Victorian launch therefore also needed to drive awareness in the NSW and ACT markets.

The Strategy

To mark its launch into Victoria, Staples created a free online Paper, Scissors, Ink game – a take on the popular Rock, Paper, Scissors game designed to echo Staples’ core product lines. Office products is typically a dull category and with Staples facing strong competition from several Australian brands, we needed to do something out of the ordinary to grab attention and demonstrate Staples’ fresh approach to the market. To meet the objectives, our PR strategy brought the Paper, Scissors, Ink concept to life in a way that would grab media attention, drive traffic to the website and engage potential customers in the Staples story. Australian media (and consumers) love quirky stories about people doing interesting things. We leveraged this mindset by bringing the World Rock Paper Scissors Champion to Australia to participate in a quirky and attention-grabbing media tour for Staples.com.au and act as an ambassador for the online game.