Title | UNTIL WE ALL BELONG |
Brand | AIRBNB |
Product / Service | AIRBNB |
Category | B05. Use of Ambient Media: Small Scale |
Entrant | CLEMENGER BBDO MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA |
Idea Creation | CLEMENGER BBDO MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA |
Media Placement | STARCOM Melbourne, AUSTRALIA |
PR | N2N COMMUNICATIONS Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
Production | REVOLVER/WILL O'ROURKE Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
Production 2 | THE GLUE SOCIETY Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
Production 3 | FLARE PRODUCTIONS BBDO Melbourne, AUSTRALIA |
Production 4 | FINISH PRODUCTIONS Melbourne, AUSTRALIA |
Name | Company | Position |
---|---|---|
James McGrath | Clemenger BBDO Melbourne | Creative Chairman |
Ant Keogh | Clemenger BBDO Melbourne | Chief Creative Officer |
Evan Roberts | Clemenger BBDO Melbourne | Creative Director |
Stephen de Wolf | Clemenger BBDO Melbourne | Creative Director |
Tom McQueen | Clemenger BBDO Melbourne | Creative |
George McQueen | Clemenger BBDO Melbourne | Creative |
Paul Rees-Jones | Clemenger BBDO Melbourne | Executive Planning Director |
Sonia von Bibra | Clemenger BBDO Melbourne | Agency Executive Producer |
The Glue Society | Revolver/Will O'Rourke | Director |
Russell Boyd | Revolver/Will O'Rourke | DOP/Cinematographer |
Philip Horn | The Glue Society | Editor |
Andrew Packer | Flare Productions | Editor |
Phoebe Marks & Jasmin Hellier | Revolver/Will O'Rourke | Producers |
Brie Stewart | Clemenger BBDO Melbourne | Head of Social |
Josh Mullens | Revolver/Will O'Rourke | Executive Producer/Head of Projects |
Michael Ritchie | Revolver/Will O'Rourke | Managing Director/Executive Producer |
Craig Bulman | Clemenger BBDO Melbourne | Head of Studio and Print Production |
Cynthia Bons | Clemenger BBDO Melbourne | Agency Digital Producer |
Adam Hengstberger | Clemenger BBDO Melbourne | Senior Digital Designer |
Priya Stewart | Clemenger BBDO Melbourne | Digital Designer |
Sylvain Simao | Clemenger BBDO Melbourne | Technical Lead Developer |
Sonali Bhattacharya | Clemenger BBDO Melbourne | Tester |
Steve Pratt | Clemenger BBDO Melbourne | Head of Digital Imaging |
Nick Campion | Clemenger BBDO Melbourne | Group Account Director |
Lucy Grigg | Clemenger BBDO Melbourne | Head of Project Management |
Johannes Samson | Clemenger BBDO Melbourne | Account Director |
Ben Hallam | Airbnb | Brand Marketing Lead, Australia & New Zealand |
Daniel Gervais | Airbnb | Brand Marketing, Australia & New Zealand |
With a limited paid media budget (under $50,000) we wanted to go beyond just a short term consideration spike, we wanted to create a movement that would not rest until same-sex marriage becomes law. To do this, we needed a symbol that could be immediately recognisable, allow people to show their support and spark the volume of conversation and societal pressure that would be required to help create change. We took one of the oldest symbols of marriage – the wedding ring – and turned it into a unique media channel, a symbol for marriage inequality, the Acceptance Ring. The matte black metal ring is an incomplete circle with the gap serving as a physical representation of the gap in same-sex marriage in Australia, designed with support from world-renowned designer Marc Newson. It turned the hands of hundreds of thousands of Australians into a media channel supporting gay marriage.
The core execution was the ring itself and the ambient media that was created by having hundreds of thousands of Australians wearing it. With it’s distinctive look, and the huge levels of conversation around it across Australia, it became an always on media channel of support for gay marriage. On top of this, all that ordered the ring were encouraged to take the pledge in social media to continue to fight for equality until everyone could belong. In these posts, the ring continued to be front center, driving our earned media reach. Supporting this was a huge influencer outreach effort who were targeted with the first Acceptance Rings, all with the CTA to share #untilweallbelong. As more corporations rallied to our cause, we were able to bring our message to life in increasingly unique ways – for example, across the back of all Qantas boarding cards for the month
Within 3 days of our campaign launching, Airbnb became the most mentioned brand in both Australian and global conversations around same-sex marriage. We rallied other major corporates to our cause, including ANZ, Qantas, eBay, PWC, Foxtel, Fairfax Media, Marie Claire, ARN (Australian Radio Network). Our initial allocation was sold out within the first 24 hours. So far, 200,000 rings have been sold and are continuing to be ordered at a rate of 1,700/day. From sports stars, to supermodels, to digital influencers, to politicians, to every day Australians – the Acceptance Ring is permeating all tiers of Australian culture. We propelled the same-sex marriage conversation back into the forefront of public consciousness with over 2,000,000 shares of same-sex marriage articles in the 2 months since launch alone. Despite the inherently divisive nature of this subject conversation around Airbnb’s initiative has been almost universally positive, with a sentiment score of 98% positive.
This campaign set out with a singular, powerful goal – to reignite the same-sex marriage debate in Australia at a time when it had dropped off the political radar. Through our subversion of the most universal symbols of marriage – the wedding ring – we engaged the majority of Australians that are supportive of same-sex marriage, at the same time promoting the core foundations of the Airbnb brand; the desire that everyone should be met with tolerance and acceptance where ever they go. Through 100,000’s of rings delivered and pledges of support taken, we thrust the same-sex marriage conversation back
We knew if we could ‘normalise’ acceptance across all walks of life we could have significant impact on the same-sex marriage debate. Our strategic approach was to go beyond the core LGBTQ community, harnessing the support of the majority of Australians who want to see same-sex marriage become law. Most Australians know someone who was personally affected by this lack of equality and that we had to make this personal for each and every person. The acceptance ring would therefore be more than jewelry – it’d be a pledge & ambient media that stood out to all that saw it, always reminding them of the lack in equality in Australian marriage laws. Whoever it is you are wearing the ring for, by making it personal we knew we could maximize the conversation, ensuring we keep this issue top of mind for all Australia every time you looked at your hand.