Why is this work relevant for Media?

This campaign used screens as a way to trojan-horse books back into kids’ lives. We created a series of content which reimagined their favourite kids’ books as original rap songs and then we released them on Spotify, Youtube, Facebook and Instagram. Kids interacted with the work via their favourite entertainment format - screens - but as a result turned their attention back to their favourite books.

Background

Kids were addicted to screens and literacy is suffering as a result. As the country’s biggest retailer of children’s books, Big W needed to get screen-obsessed kids back into books.

Describe the creative idea / insights (30% of vote)

Given the context of kids’ screen addictions, it could be assumed that parents would be seeking to limit screen time, but through qualitative research we discovered that parents were instead seeking ways to use screen time for constructive means. So we found a way to trojan-horse books back into kids lives, via their favourite entertainment format, screens. We partnered with singing social media sensation, Jessica Mauboy, and beatboxing YouTube star, Tom Thum to reimagine childrens’ books as original rap songs.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Our bullseye audience was parents of new and young families who were relishing small moments of bonding with their kids, while reconsidering the role of screen time in their everyday. These parents no longer see screen time as a nemesis to be eliminated, but as a helpful sidekick in setting their kids up for success later in life. Our strategic approach was to leverage parents’ changing attitudes towards screens by catapulting children’s books into the digital age. Our media approach centred on digital, social and audio channels to capitalise on parents’ changing attitudes to screen time whilst also promoting and seeding the Rap Books videos. Contextual placements in these channels allowed Rap Books to be present and relevant in everyday family moments beyond the traditional evening story time.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Together with Jessica Mauboy and Tom Thum, we created a series of content which reimagined favourite kids’ books as 4 full original rap songs and music videos, which we released on Spotify, Youtube, Facebook and Instagram. We also promoted the series on Kinderling Kids Radio. We even invited people to take part with karaoke videos, which they then recorded and shared on their own social media, spreading the idea even further.

List the results (30% of vote)

This campaign resulted in unprecedented engagement for BIG W - Australians loved watching our Rap Books and making their own, so much so that they spent 4,335,475 minutes doing so.Our long-form skippable placements performed +57% more than planned and overall campaign sentiment was at 100%+. For every listen we donated royalties to our charity partner, the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation. And best of all, kids were asking to read again - in fact, Big W reported a 122% increase in book sales.