The Brief

2 Million Australians live below the poverty line. Vinnies is a chain of charity thrift stores dedicated to helping them. Vinnies 243 stores were loosing relevance with the biggest consumer of retail goods, gen-y. This audience was instead choosing to buy their second-hand goods online or from high-street ‘vintage’ retailers. With stores accounting for 50% of money used to help Australia’s underprivileged, losing this shopper meant less money through the tills, less money to Aussies in need. We needed a promotion that would make this audience not just our biggest spenders, but our biggest advocates.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

We collected signed shirts from local and international music artists, hid them in Vinnies stores and told shoppers they were out there. Over 5780 emails were sent, hundreds of phone calls made, friends-of-friends-of-bands tracked down. We secured the support of over 100 of the best music acts in the world. We then sent the shirts out to Vinnies stores and hid them amongst racks of second hand clothing. With a distinctive blue label attached fans would know when they found one and by following our dedicated Facebook page they’d get hints and clues of where to find more.

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

For a cost of $6148 (printing and editing costs) over three months we: • Organically generated a fan base of 30,000+. • 83% aged 13-25. • Upheld social engagement of 77% for duration of campaign • Grew online share of voice from 24%-49.8%. • Generated $1mil+ in free media. • Generated 9.5% uplift in sales comparative to same period last year. • Moved $784,638 through the tills. For every $1 spent we made over $127.60 that could be given directly to someone in need. That’s 12760% return on investment not including the long-term worth of fan base and media coverage.

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

Many excited fans told us this was “the best promotion ever!” and we received posts, photos, stories and likes from 33,000 gen-y shoppers as they searched the state. By using Facebook as the method to deliver information about the promotion we allowed our fans to become loyal advocates meaning our messages were distributed via them, not the voice of an ageing charity. Equally this medium meant that the musicians involved could be part of our story. They tweeted, shared and blogged about their involvement adding credibility to the promotion and driving their fans to become ours.