The Brief

Virgin Mobile asked us to drive an additional 50,000 unique visitors to their website in December, to capitalize on the pre-Christmas sales period. They wanted a ‘socially enabled’ campaign, which effectively utilized social media, provoked mass engagement and sparked conversations amongst their youth target audience. We were required to ensure the campaign was consistent with their ‘Fair Go’ platform, which has been in market since 2010. Our idea was to launch Australia’s biggest socially enabled finders keepers initiative called ‘A Fair Ride For All’, which saw Virgin Mobile give away 25 push bikes every week for 3 weeks, Across Australia.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

We're proud that the overall campaign that was implemented varied very little from the original concept presented. However, due to the popularity of the first week of activation and we found that hunt participants were locating the bikes more quickly than anticipated – often before the second and third clues were released. This required us to reassess the bike locations and difficulty of clues for the remainder of the promotion. More discreet locations were identified for the bikes to be hidden in and more cryptic clues developed. This ensured participants would spend more time in a Virgin Mobile branded environment in order to get new clues, whilst also ensuring they experienced the thrill of the chase.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

In the three weeks A Fair Ride For All was live, nearly 100,000 visitors spent an average of eight and a half minutes on the site, with visitors to the mobile site spending an average of 12 minutes. The campaign generated over thirty thousand social actions and reached over half a million people through Facebook alone. We set out to drive 50,000 visitors to the site but this innovative, unique treasure hunt sparked mass engagement and as a result we more than doubled this target. During the last week of the campaign Virgin Mobile experienced their best sales day ever.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Our research into their market led us to identify the rise in popularity around push-bikes, particularly with youth influencers in the popular culture scene in Australia. This was a cultural phenomenon that we could aim to successfully leverage. The campaign was built on the consumer’s familiarity with Virgin Mobile’s ‘Fair Go’ proposition and leveraged their established brand assets. The bikes given away were premium and very desirable amongst our target audience, to ensure maximum social currency. We knew that we needed to engage an audience of digital natives with in initiative that had social participation at the heart of it.