RAP BOOKS

Short List
TitleRAP BOOKS
BrandBIG W
Product / ServiceBIG W
CategoryD03. Artist as a Brand or Cause Ambassador
EntrantM&C SAATCHI Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation M&C SAATCHI Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Media Placement CARAT Sydney, AUSTRALIA
PR RED HAVAS Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Production BIG SYNC MUSIC Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Post Production M&C SAATCHI Sydney, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Cam Blackley M&C Saatchi Chief Creative Officer
Avish Gordhan M&C Saatchi Executive Creative Director
Mandie van der Merwe M&C Saatchi Executive Creative Director
Brendan Donnelly M&C Saatchi Creative Director
Allie Steel M&C Saatchi Senior Copywriter
Nicole Yeoman M&C Saatchi Art Director
Lucy Morgan M&C Saatchi Senior Copywriter
Ben Greenslade M&C Saatchi Group Head
Lydia Caldwell M&C Saatchi Senior Account Manager
Vanessa Millemaggi M&C Saatchi Integrated Project Director
Sabrina Douglas M&C Saatchi Senior Strategy Director
Emma Parsons M&C Saatchi Social Strategy Director
John Pannocchia M&C Saatchi Executive Producer
Jay McGuinness M&C Saatchi UI & Motion Designer
Michael Szumowski Big Sync Music Country Manager
Kristen Linders BIG W General Manager, Marketing
Carly Bowra BIG W Head of Brand & Category Marketing
Ruchi Agarwal BIG W Marketing Manager
Fiona Harrop BIG W Head of Media Buying, Social Media and PR
Michelle Bartolo BIG W Public Relations Manager
Alice Harrison BIG W Social Media Manager

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

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

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 using social media and relevant artists/influencers. 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

We partnered with singer Jessica Mauboy, who has a highly engaged following on social media given her exponential rise to fame following her singing debut on Australian Idol. She is a passionate Indigenous Literacy Ambassador and a favourite amongst our audience. We also partnered beatboxer, Tom Thum who has more traditional rap credentials. He is well-loved on YouTube and Instagram for his artistic talent as well as his playful, creative film production. Together we created a series of content which reimagined favourite kids’ books as 4 full original rap songs and music videos - complete with earworm hooks and toe-tapping beats - which we released on Spotify, Youtube, Facebook and Instagram. Every listen/watch engaged the audience with books, but also impacted literacy directly as we donated royalties to the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation. The artists encouraged audiences to participate with our karaoke videos, spreading the idea even further.

Describe the outcome

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. Overall campaign sentiment was at 100%+ and 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.

Links

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