The Campaign

One of Victoria’s biggest water suppliers, Yarra Valley Water, came to us with a problem. Australia has some of the cleanest and most sanitised water in the world, yet Australians are spending $600 million on bottled water every year, which is not only hurting the hip pocket; it’s putting great strain on the environmemt. The biggest single customer concern fielded by YVW is water quality, safety and value. The ‘Be Smart Choose Tap’ program is designed to address all three of these areas by highlighting the benefits of tap water over bottled. The strategy was to point out the absurdity of paying for something – environmentally and financially – that you really didn’t need to. With a small budget and no allocation for PR within the budget, we needed a unique idea that generated its own PR for free. So we created Dupé: a fictitious brand with a unique product line. Jars of Fresh Air; tins of Good Moods – things you can get for free. After all, that’s just what bottled water companies do. Overnight, we constructed a pop-up store in the heart of Melbourne, where we sold Dupé’s wares to unsuspecting customers. The whole process was captured on hidden camera and used to create a thought-provoking film that was seeded and seen worldwide. We also made our products available through an entertaining e-store that delivered our message as users shopped. Amusingly, one in four people actually tried to buy our false products.

The Brief

Through their Choose Tap initiative, Yarra Valley Water aims to raise awareness of the cost, health and environmental benefits of tap water. Our objective was to change how people think, create awareness and get them to ‘Choose Tap’ again. Since everyone should be drinking at least 2 litres of (tap) water a day, we needed something that everyone could engage with. Our research uncovered facts that go largely unnoticed but only supported our cause. For example, ‘it takes 3 litres of water to produce 1 litre of bottled water’ and ‘it costs more per litre than oil’.

Results

The campaign is evolving with more online activity scheduled, to date we have reached our initial objectives of connecting people to the Choose Tap brand, highlighting the key messages that choosing tap is better for your health, the environment and your hip pocket. With limited budget we created a campaign that engaged people and prompted them to share the message themselves, therefore creating awareness, engagement and conversion. Output/Awareness: • 206, 998 YouTube hits to date. Knowledge/Consideration: • Message reach to over 175 countries. • Nationally and internationally, other water authorities are replicating the campaign. Business: • Melbourne’s average tap water usage almost doubled during the campaign period. • 800+ visits (per week) to the DUPÉ e-store. • 19% increase in Facebook likes. • Facebook post reach peaked at 10,873 on the campaign launch on 21 October. Average prior was 200. • Growth of the Choose Tap community by over 1,000.

Execution

Overnight, we constructed a pop-up store in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD and sold Dupé’s wares to unsuspecting customers for one day only. The whole process was captured on hidden cameras and used to create a thought-provoking film. Originally intended to run as a simple mid-match commercial at a sponsored football match, we seeded it online so this important issue could be heard worldwide. We then made our fictitious Dupé products available through an entertaining e-store that delivered our message as users shopped.

The Situation

Melbourne has the best tap water in the world, yet the bottled water industry (and its environmental impacts) is only growing. Most do not realise what it takes to produce a bottle of water- the bottled water industry are using up to 3 litres of water for every 1 litre produced and bottled, charging exorbitant amounts to consumers. It has higher market share than Coca Cola and costs more per litre than oil. We needed to point out this absurdity and get people talking about this important issue.

The Strategy

Research amongst the public revealed that buying water had become an ingrained habit. Most remembered a childhood drinking straight from the tap, – all clean and practically free. At some point, behaviour changed; the importance of water and drinking 8 glasses a day was highlighted. Suddenly, the need for water on-the-go was real. Bit-by-bit, Australians started buying it. When challenged, research found Melburnians knew that bottled water was absurd when you considered the costs and environmental impacts. Marketing Strategy: Our strategy involved using the Dupé brand as our ‘Trojan Horse’ that tricked people into realising what they already knew- buying bottled water is absurd. PR/Media Strategy: We wanted the audience to create the reach. With limited budget, there was no allowance for paid media. With no ATL media we looked to online/social to spread our message. The TVC was uploaded to the YVW YouTube account with Facebook and Twitter posts.