LOVER BOY OR LAVALAVA BOYS? THE GREAT NZ AUDIENCE HEIST.

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Case Film

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TitleLOVER BOY OR LAVALAVA BOYS? THE GREAT NZ AUDIENCE HEIST.
BrandMAORI TELEVISION
Product / ServiceGAME OF BROS
CategoryA05. Media & Publications
EntrantMEDIACOM NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Media MEDIACOM NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
PR PPR Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Idea Creation MEDIACOM NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Production MEDIACOM NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Production 2 BCG2 Auckland, NEW ZEALAND

Credits

Name Company Position
Fou Brown Mediacom NZ Business Director
Ying Yu Mediacom NZ Senior Planner
David Lister Mediacom Beyond Borders NZ Heads of Mediacom Beyond Advertising
Shannon Phillimore Mediacom NZ Digital Planner
Matthew Northin Mediacom NZ Head of Search
Hayley Meyer Mediacom NZ Digital Assistant
Nigel Douglas Mediacom NZ Managing Director
Matthew Vogts Mediacom NZ Strategy Director

The Campaign

Game of Bros was not only unheard of, it was up against the biggest television event of the year; The Bachelor NZ, season 2. The Bachelor had a loyal following of reality-show-loving, hot-men-adoring women; the very audience we wanted! With a budget 12x greater than Game of Bros*, we couldn’t out-spend them so we decided to steal from them. (Source: Nielsen Fusion) We came up with the idea to “Hijack The Bachelor”. It was media guerrilla warfare! We ambushed their marketing campaign to divert attention and steal eyeballs, placing our advertising alongside theirs. Our creative tag line was: Lover Boy or Lavalava Boys? It drew a comparison between the singular Bachelor and our 12 Polynesian Warriors, and asked Bachelor lovers to consider watching us instead. This was a brazen campaign designed to create controversy. We needed to turn $60,000 into $600,000 and we could only do that by generating PR.

Creative Execution

• Game of Bros mobile billboard parked directly in front of their premium billboards, focusing on sites within a 5 kilometre radius of Mediaworks HQ. • Keyword targeted banners, appearing on Bachelor stories on NZ’s biggest news sites. Achieving 100% SOV on all Bachelor editorial content. • Paid search, bidding on Bachelor NZ terms. Delivered 100% of the bought impressions as Bachelor was not running search • Full page ads placed immediately after Bachelor editorial content within in the largest tabloid magazines • Viral video which achieved half a million views in the first day by documenting our ambush of the standard Bachelorette exit-interview Within the first hour of launch we had contact from MW and WB. By day four we received an official ‘Cease and desist’ order. They played into our hands! We then launched our PR campaign telling the story of our underdog plight and the heavy hand of the big bad networks.

We achieved $755,460+ in media coverage within 7 days! Local and international press picked up on the story which and Kiwi’s rallied behind MTS and Game of Bro’s. The ROI was 19:1 and this was essential in helping us deliver the most successful launch for Maori Television since 2011. Key performance metrics include: • +193% YoY increase in average audience in that time zone • +91% YoY increase in show reach across • +600% increase in channel share against Females 18-49 • +50% increase in baseline impressions for Maori Television across broadcast and digital. This has remained since March • 10,000+ engagements across social • Majority “positive” sentiment messages (Source: Nielsen TAM) Our campaign proved that we could do big things on a small budget, with some clever media thinking.

We pulled off the most ballsy audience heist New Zealand (NZ) had ever seen! A smart, media-led strategy to support new TV show “Game of Bros”, created the most successful programme launch since 2011 for our client Maori Television (MTS). A total budget of $60k NZD forced us to be inventive in our thinking. So we ambushed the marketing campaign of the biggest TV show in NZ at that time – The Bachelor NZ Our activity captured the attention of the nation and achieved more than $750,000 in media coverage. An ROI of 19:1. More importantly, our campaign delivered significant growth in cumulative audiences

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

We had two target audiences that we were looking to reach and engage: Primary: Fans of The Bachelor (Females 18-49) Secondary: The Bachelor’s broadcaster and producers Mediaworks (MW) and Warner Brothers (WB) To successfully engage these people we employed a 3 phase strategy: ANTICIPATE: We hypothesized about the expected channel mix from The Bachelor across paid, earned and owned. HIJACK: Contextual targeting on Steroids! We utilized ambient and dynamic media, positioning them right next to the Bachelor ads to provoke a reaction from our audiences. CAPITALIZE: A comprehensive PR programme was planned to leverage the retaliation we expected to receive from the big networks. We would use this garner public support making us look like the good guys. Game of Bros = awesome. The Bachelor = not awesome.

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