THE BILLION POINT GIVEAWAY

Short List
TitleTHE BILLION POINT GIVEAWAY
BrandVELOCITY FREQUENT FLYER
Product / ServiceVELOCITY FREQUENT FLYER POINTS
CategoryC03. Data Driven Targeting
EntrantCHE PROXIMITY Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation CHE PROXIMITY Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Media Placement CHE PROXIMITY Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Production GOODOIL FILMS Sydney, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
David Halter CHE Proximity Managing Director
Ant White CHE Proximity Executive Creative Director
Mia Matulic CHE Proximity Group Account Director
Brian Jefferson CHE Proximity Group Creative Director
Marianne Apolinario CHE Proximity Senior Account Director
Kat Lear CHE Proximity Senior Account Manager
Adam Kotecki CHE Proximity Senior Account Manager
Caitlin Adler CHE Proximity Account Executive
Daniel Davison CHE Proximity Art Director
Ashley Wilding CHE Proximity Copywriter
Meredith Besseling CHE Proximity Digital Designer
Elizabeth Geor CHE Proximity Director of Experience
Catherine Hooson CHE Proximity Head of Experience
Bea Teehankee CHE Proximity Senior Strategic Planner
James Shaw CHE Proximity Head of Performance
Elliot Tindale CHE Proximity Performance Manager
Jenny Livingston CHE Proximity Head of Production
Natalie Hort CHE Proximity Production Manager
Blaise Palmer CHE Proximity Senior Digital Producer
Abe Forsythe Goodoil Films Director
Sam Long Goodoil Films Executive Producer
Llew Griffiths Goodoil Films Senior Producer
Crighton Bone Goodoil Films Director of Photography
Dean Chadwick Velocity Frequent Flyer Chief Marketing Officer
Sterling Brain Velocity Frequent Flyer Chief Financial Officer
Steve Baird Velocity Frequent Flyer Head of Customer Loyalty
Renee Thorpe Velocity Frequent Flyer Marketing Specialist – Brand
Annabel Brusasco Velocity Frequent Flyer Marketing Advisor
Jonathan Steel Velocity Frequent Flyer Head of Digital
Simon Harries Velocity Frequent Flyer Manager - Customer Experience

Brief Explanation

The intern ‘Tim’ made a typo in an email sent to some of Velocity’s 7.5M members offering them a slice of 1 billion (instead of 1 million) Points. Filmed from inside Velocity’s walls, we see the implications of this mistake play out over a 40 part docudrama style mini-series. The series starts shortly after the mistake has been uncovered as we see Tim’s boss try to calmly explain the situation to his irate CEO. From here we follow Velocity’s employees as they go through the motions, from denial, “what points?”, to realisation “We’re going to need more planes”, to acceptance and finally relief “one week, just one week”. As the series concludes we see that the mistake has clearly taken its toll...

The Campaign

Honouring a mistake is the quickest way to build brand trust – it shows we’re only human. The mistake, made by our intern ‘Tim’, was typo in an email to some of Velocity’s 7.5M members offering them a slice of 1 billion (instead of 1 million) Points. The more bank reward points people moved across, the bigger their share of the billion Points. After 24 hours of headlines and an explosion of commentary, we decided to honour the ‘mistake’ (like all trusted brands should) and framing this as the biggest points giveaway in Australian history. The Billion Point (that was supposed to be the Million Point) Giveaway. The consequences that followed were documented in a 40-part mini-series that played out across May.

Creative Execution

Implementation: The mini-series ‘Dramatised’ the ‘mistake’, stopping people in their tracks. Our ‘Contextual’ assets made Velocity Frequent Flyer Points tangible, and then our ‘Commercial’ activity, drove transfers with action driven messages. Timeline: The series ran throughout May. However, unlike most dramas where you tune in, this series found you, knew what you’d seen, regardless where you saw it, then served the relevant episode the next time you went online - making each customer journey and length unique. Placement: The online mini-series targeted our audience across Facebook (owned and paid posts), Instagram, YouTube, news sites, blogs, and even LinkedIn, where Tim searched for a new job. Scale: We built an addressable audience across Facebook-3.4M and DBM-1.2M by data matching in paid channels which allowed us to extend the reach of the campaign in a relevant, highly targeted way, at scale.

Reach: Facebook alone achieved 3.1 million in reach and 29.6 million impressions. And our big mistake - The Billion Point Giveaway video mini-series - was viewed over 7,333,290 times. Engagement: The campaign micro-site garnered 1.3 million unique views, and over 2 million sessions. Visitors engaged with on average 4.3 pages per session at over 3 minutes per visit. Sales and Business targets Compared to the November 2016 campaign (same 15% bonus mechanic), we had; - More transfers: 19% increase in total campaign transfers, - New members: 116% increase in new transferees, - Higher value transferees: 27% higher average points transfer for these new transferees, - More points transferred: 34% overall uplift in points transferred and, - A better ROMI: $6.60 return for every dollar spent.

An intern, one email typo, 7.5 members, and the most watchable mini-series of the year. Audiences were seamlessly guided through a 40-part mini-series storytelling of the consequences of an email typo to some of Velocity’s 7.5M members offering part of 1 billion (instead of 1 million) Points. But unlike most dramas where you tune in, content found you, knew what you had seen, then served the subsequent episode when you went online. Owned and paid media supported the storyline, from display banners, eDMs, social posts, SMS, partner assets, to LinkedIn, where our intern job hunted.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Target audience: Using Velocity’s first-party data, we segmented the audience into nine distinct cohorts based on factors such as demographic, account activity and engagement attributes. Relevance to platform: Knowing people don’t consume media on social in a linear fashion, we made sure the content from this series found you, knew what you had already seen and served up relevant episode the next time you went online. Approach: This approach allowed us to execute a ‘CRM at scale’ strategy that: - Balanced owned and paid media, ensuring the precise use of every dollar. - Informed tailored creative that kept people interested throughout the month with a sequenced model based on in-market behaviour.

Links

Video URL