The Campaign

The ascension of Donald Trump has put Australia on edge. With our first diplomatic foray with the new Trump administration ending in a very public humiliation, uncertainty about the status of our relationship with the U.S. and the weakness of our politicians has become the national preoccupation. This genuine fear and raw tension allowed us to frame HoC’s fifth season’s key themes of fear and insecurity within a rich, current, local context. Our idea was to create a new entity in the Australian political landscape. Showing our desire for a leader who would not yield, we would build a groundswell of support through an intensive campaign across TV, Print and Social. Australians for Underwood tapped into our anxieties about political leadership to engage Australians with the new series of the show.

Creative Execution

During an intensive three-week period, our flighting began with Budget Night. We piggy-backed off news and current affairs segments dedicated to budget-related coverage, positioning ourselves as Australia’s political fix. The ‘Australians for Underwood’ platform captured public attention, fuelling curiosity and speculation on social media about this new leader on the scene. The next day, a full-page print execution was placed in Australia’s leading financial newspaper, The Australian Financial Review. We specifically embedded the campaign ad within a dedicated budget coverage lift out – providing political context and credibility to the campaign. This drove further conversations among fans and journalists, capturing interest from finance journalists to entertainment reporters. The campaign’s tail left a lasting impression through highly visible OOH executions at Sydney airport - asking all Australians returning home to get on board. Across the campaign period, social activity rallied HoC fans and ‘Australians for Underwood’ supporters to spread the message.

In the first 24 hours, the TVC was seen on social over 320,000 times. Helping us achieve pick up in Time Magazine (Digital), Daily Mail, Gizmodo, Mashable, Junkee, Huffington Post, The Hook Mag, Cnet, News.com.au and Ask Men. Through this, we achieved syndication all over the world, achieving 52 million media impressions and a total earned value of $3.36 million. Our social community grew by 6000% (becoming a long term asset for future marketing efforts). We also were able to spark 25,988 interactions from 3,339,287 social views and achieved a 33% view rate on online content.

Launching the new season of the political thriller, House of Cards (HoC), we saw an opportunity to create substantial impact through a precision driven media strategy. With just a handful of spots across TV, Print and OOH, we hijacked the political conversation on Budget Night – a 24-hour window in which public interest in politics is at its highest. Every element of the campaign was deployed with pinpoint accuracy, turning a significant political event into a marketing coup.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

In an atmosphere of political fear and insecurity, we subverted the tactics of real-world political movements with an initially unbranded ‘Australians for Underwood’ campaign platform. Launching on the night when every Australian is a self-proclaimed expert on politics – the Budget hand down. Creating a high impact, high-value return campaign on an extremely low budget required a smart, inventive, and precise strategy. By hacking into the news cycle through a carefully crafted combination of precision placed TV, Print and OOH we elevated the idea that the unbranded campaign could be a real possibility. Initially, ‘Australians for Underwood’ only alluded to HoC, using none of the show’s stars or visual cues until after Budget Night. Only then, was the real intention of the campaign revealed. At a grassroots level, our supporting social campaign became a touch point for fan engagement and a vehicle for sharing.