Results and Effectiveness

While it was one of the wettest Australian summers in recent history – Banana Boat had a phenomenal season. From an investment perspective the campaign received a total of 223% worth of added value, making it one of the most successful partnerships we’ve ever embarked on 1 in 3 bottles of Sunscreen sold came from Banana Boat, growing the category by a staggering +170%. Most importantly, Banana Boat increased trust credentials, closing the trust gap between them and the cancer council by over 50%.

Creative Execution

We created an integrated partnership with the Nine Entertainment Company - one of Australia’s most trusted cross-platform networks. This gave us access to TV, magazines, digital and importantly trusted personalities. TV celebrity and mother, Shelley Craft became the key figure head of the campaign. Utilising Shelley, we created bespoke ‘edutainment’ content that ran throughout the 7-11am timeslot, demonstrating sun safety in an accessible yet informative way. We mirrored this on radio to further extend ownership of the morning. We delivered live crosses and integrated mentions on Australia’s top breakfast programme - The Today Show. We also created sun safe advertorials that ran across key magazine titles and in lifestyle online environments. As an accessible authority we needed to be approachable. We worked with female portal SheSpot to identify mummy bloggers to add credibility to our sun safe messaging. This content was integrated onto our Facebook page. ref. www.bom.gov.au/announcements/media_releases/climate/change/20120104.shtml

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Banana Boat is a fun and family brand. Over the years, these associations have contributed to it becoming category leader. However, attitudes are changing. We identified that as Australia becomes increasingly concerned about the sun’s harmful effects, trust is becoming a driving factor in sunscreen purchase. Banana Boat’s lead competitor- Cancer Council is currently most trusted in the category. The communication challenge was for Banana Boat to protect their ‘fun’ image while making the brand synonymous with ‘trust’ and more importantly close the trust gap. There were 3 aspects to our strategy: 1) Create Familiarity - consistent presence in the right environments; 2) Be an Accessible Authority - informative without being dictatorial; 3) Borrow Credibility - proximity to existing trusted sources/personalities. Our big media idea was to become a part of Australia’s morning ritual and own 7-11am. By staying focused we could create habit, familiarity and ultimately build trust.