The Brief

We had to launch the new season of Danger Beach Muruwai, a reality television series. Due to the sheer volume of reality programmes on New Zealand screens, we had to make some noise. To generate as much cut-through as possible, we targeted those who could truly amplify our message – the radio stations our target market listen to.

Creative Execution

Muriwai Beach is one of the deadliest beaches in the country. More people die at this beautiful surf spot than nearly any other beach in New Zealand. We took this chilling statistic and flipped the convention of ‘hearing the sea inside a shell’, on its head. When someone turned over our ‘adapted’ shells, they were greeted with the screams of the sea.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

Our target was to get a 10% increase in viewing numbers from last season. On its own, this was no easy feat, but having a small budget made things even harder. Our solution focused efforts on the media our target market consumed – a way to get maximum exposure at minimum cost. How? Well, Auckland’s DJ’s had the beach’s sinister side brought to life. Everyone’s heard the ocean inside a shell, right? We took this playful tradition and turned what’s usually a magical surprise into something much more unsettling.

Results

We delivered the shells to the city’s leading radio stations prior to the season launch. The DJs spread the word to our target market, and we achieved an 11% increase from the previous season. A superb result: not only had we managed to reach the target set by the client, but bettered it by an extra 1%.