| Title | STORY TEES |
| Brand | THE STAR CASINO |
| Product / Service | CASINO |
| Category | A02. Premiums & Giveaways |
| Entrant | THE MONKEYS Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
| Entrant Company: | THE MONKEYS Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
| DM/Advertising Agency: | THE MONKEYS Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Justin Drape | The Monkeys | Executive Creative Director |
| Micah Walker | The Monkeys | Creative Director |
| Becky Alperstein | The Monkeys | Art Director |
| Dan Beaumont | The Monkeys | Group Content Director |
| Kristen Hardeman | The Monkeys | Content Director |
| Pia Mcmorran | The Monkeys | Content Manager |
| Tom Harrison | The Monkeys | Head Of Print Production |
| Terry Chisholm | The Monkeys | Designer |
The Star is a casino and entertainment complex. In 2012, The Star was the official entertainment partner of Tropfest, the world’s largest short film festival. Our brief was to engage an audience who will have heard of The Star, but may have previously rejected it, with the brand idea of “There Will Be Stories”. In order to engage a likely cynical audience with the idea that The Star is a place you’ll leave with amazing stories to tell, we needed to connect with them in a way that respected, not interrupted, their reason for attending Tropfest – to watch the films.
Through connecting an audience of people who love stories with a message about The Star being a place where stories are made, we turned people who previously rejected The Star into walking, talking brand advocates. The t-shirts were well received as they added to the Tropfest experience, instead of interrupting it. The quirky nature of the stories also helped position The Star as a brand that understood the festival audience and gave them something to value long after the event had ended.
To align Tropfest and The Star, two brands that are all about stories, we created Tropfest Story Tees - a series of t-shirts printed with fictitious movie synopses set at The Star. To encourage people to wear their t-shirt, those who submitted a photo were given a chance to start a story of their own: an exclusive weekend at The Star. The desired outcome was for all t-shirts to be given away in the first few hours, with the recipients wearing their t-shirt throughout the event and talking to others about The Star.
The Star Story t-shirts proved to be a hot commodity Tropfest, with all shirts “sold out” in an hour. Loads of folks wore their t-shirt for the entirety of Tropfest, acting as “walking billboards” for The Star, stopping to talk to strangers in the crowd about the promotion. The competition attracted a large number of entries, with one in every ten people who received a t-shirt submitting a photo. Many others uploaded their photos to Facebook, helping to share their Tropfest stories, and ours.