PAY WITH A KISS

Short List
TitlePAY WITH A KISS
BrandMETRO ST JAMES
Product / ServiceCAFÉ/RESTAURANT
CategoryA06. Best Use of Special Events And Stunt/Live Advertising
EntrantLAVENDER* Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Entrant Company LAVENDER* Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Advertising Agency LAVENDER* Sydney, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Marco Eychenne Lavender Director
Justin Brickle Director Of Photography
Rob Schreiber Sound Engineer
Etienne Ancelet Lavender Video Editor
Paul Gawman Outpost Retoucher
Lincoln Grice Logo Designer
Sébastien Millier Photographer
Donald Martinez Lavender Creative Technologist
Karl Reynolds Lavender Digital Creative Director
Marco Eychenne Lavender Art Director/Designer
Jérome Gaslain Lavender Art Director
Danielle White Lavender Copywriter
Marco Eychenne Lavender Executive Creative Director

Results and Effectiveness

Our campaign created an estimated AUD$2.41 million in earned media. As a direct result of our communications, Metro St James experienced a 150% increase in footfall. We generated a 120 to 1 return on media investment, the bistro was fully booked for the next 2 months, and we were published in more than 140 major news sites in 29 countries. Quantitatively, in the middle of a global financial crisis, the sentiment towards ‘Pay with a Kiss’ was hugely enthusiastic. And the café went from a faceless stopover point, to being a destination thousands sought out and Googled throughout June. It was so popular that the café even decided to extend the campaign indefinitely.

Creative Execution

The ‘Pay with a kiss’ idea was interpreted as playful, inherently French and romantic. So the tone of voice and all the media output had to reflect this campaign identity. A viral YouTube video was made to demonstrate the ‘Pay with a kiss’ concept. We adorned the café and its local area with promotional material (branded posters, cups and window decals) and made a Kiss Register app for social media sharing. Then we tweeted local bloggers, emailed online publications and called TV and radio stations. All these avenues worked together to achieve 500,000 YouTube views in the first 2 weeks of the campaign, and over 800,000 by the end of June. Each media segment that was aired on a major TV station generated $85,000 in earned media, maximising the campaign’s effectiveness locally and making the café famous globally.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Business objective: To make one small Sydney café famous and increase their footfall. Our marketing goal was to differentiate this new café from its competitors by creating a viral campaign. Target audience: Discerning city dwellers who feel that they’ve ‘seen it all before’. Their previous engagement with the brand was incidental, but they held no loyalty to it. They’re after a premium coffee and something that can make their path to purchase more interesting. Our insight: There are a lot of digital ways to pay for things, but we wanted to play on the French reputation for romance in creating an idea that was ‘human’. Our insight – there’s not enough romance in Sydney, and that’s one thing that the French might be able to teach the Aussies. This was relevant to the audience in that it stood out as a fresh and exciting new ‘currency’, and it succeeded in making our small client memorable for something big.