Bonds reaches out to all Australians with ambitious The Birthday Project
Clemenger BBDO has created its first work for Bonds with an ambitious project stretching across online, social media, outdoor, print and radio inviting the public to claim their date of birth and receive a personalised T-shirt.
The outdoor element of the The Birthday Project campaign is one of the biggest in Bonds history. It will also mark the first time that the Pacific Brands-owned Bonds has done a pure brand campaign rather than promote specific items from its range.
Bonds will be giving away 15,000 T-shirts to the first people to claim their date of birth from the 35,000 dates up for grabs.
At the centrepiece of the campaign is the The Birthday Project website where consumers can race to be first to claim their date.
The campaign looks good. If the picture upload software was simpler and more adjustable it might actually work.
Some will claim this is the “share a Coke with…” of 2012
I think it might be even bigger.
Can’t help but feel this is a copycat of Coca-Cola’s personalised Coke bottles campaign, although doubt it will be anywhere near as successful…
Great idea but have they bothered to test the site? No one in our office can a picture up-loaded that ‘fits in the box’ unless of course you have one where your head is in the top right hand corner of the picture…. Pity as there was some excitement about doing it, now we are all frustrated and think it sh*t….
This does not get close to the share a coke campaign.
Sharing a coke does not involve a company obtaining somebodies email address. people are getting sick and tired of sharing their data.
In fact if a public photo of an individual is aired, along with their date of birth, this could potentially threaten their security. Criminals are smart and banks as an example appear to be very stupid. (I forgot my passowrd and they asked for my address and d.o.b. and belive it or not I was in and transferring funds…)
Not a bad idea and yes it will probably be a succesful campaign, however it will not get close to share a coke.
n.b I have nothing to do with “share a coke”…
What about Bonds shirts feature statistics about the number of Australians with disordered eating etc as a result of continually being bombarded with bullsh*t ads featuring unrealistic , too-skinny, airbrushed models.
It’ll be huge… if they fix all the bugs on their site.
Perhaps Pacific Brands could post across a T-Shirt how much money they’ve lost over the last few years.
Or how much Shareholder value they’ve destroyed.
Reasonable campaign but as pointed out seems to be a rehash of “Share a Coke” and I can’t really see how it’s going to sell more T-Shirts when most of Bonds retailers are de-ranging them or de-focussing their brand.
The women in my extended family still refuse to buy Bonds due to their “offshoring”. Might have been a while ago and sure there are a lot of other companies that have also taken their workforce off shore, but the “We are Bonds and we’ve been a part of Australian’s lives for XYZ years” sounds rather hollow.
Secondly, sharing your birth date and photograph is a huge security risk. While identity theft is not top of mind to Australians, try asking someone from a foreign country about it.
I sincerely hope their back end database is secure and can’t be hacked! Imagine the goldmine for someone wanting to create fake passports and ID’s.
Ok after some trial and error we have worked out how to do it, I am now officially back on board with this campaign
Saving the photo is a failure of lead generation….
NUP – Your dob and address details are freely available on the electoral roll… [except those who specifically have reasons to request they not be seen eg Judges]
@Ian – your photograph is not on the electoral role though.
*roll
The mobile site doesnt work – bit of a fail as so many people woudl like to use a tablet or smartphone to do it. Need to fix that quick!
I have given it a go though. And secretly hope i get my date…..such a sucker!
Re stealing details – you don;t put your last name on the form….
The site is under strain already. Any load testing done?
T&C’s: Applicants find out within two days and then have to wait five weeks for the shirt… success of instant social media, meets the administration limit of humanity and interns…
I notice the foot note, will this be the campaign of 2012? um…??
A campaign, with the same name already exists!
http://www.thebdayproject.com/
BRAVO….
If the fucking site works, it’ll be a genius idea.
Rang my brother to get his kids to grab their dates and he said straight away (as a non industry truckie type): “Isn’t this exactly the same as the Coke Can idea? Is everyone doing things with our names now?’ Then he asked me to find his date and grab it before it goes.
Your birthdate goes on a Tee , not your name.
Love the idea. Didn’t find the website intuitive – especially the select date and photo editor in particular. Probably hard to see this when you’ve been immersed in the project for some time. If these could be refined the conversion rate will soar.
wearebonds.com.au seems to have gone into meltdown. Maybe the TVC just went to air on the eastcoast…
great iudea I would like to claim my birthday 15.11.41
Shirley
my birthday is 25th october 1953, having grown up with bonds, a trusted label
lm a bonds boy , 20th march 1952
Site doesn’t work on mobile…
Love the concept but the execution needs help. Who’s making full flash websites in 2012 (with mobile traffic approaching 20%)?
I could not have survived without your swinger holders for all these years
14-06-1943
thats the fact nothing has given me the comfort and suport tyhat you provided
HARDY
Birthdate 7th May 1956
What a great idea, my birthday on my chest for all to see. I’m proud to be Australian. Proud to live in a multi cultural society, where as an Austrlaian we help each other. Bonds is Australiuan & my mother used bond underwear for all the children when I was very young & even into her late years before her death. Thankyou Bonds for such a great set of products. Alice Goodall
Hey forgot my birthday: is 30/12/1955
The website has crashed…
Hello
Think it is a great idea bonds grow suit were all my babies wore.
My Bithday is 8-8-1956
My Birthday is 21/04/1959 share it with the Queen. Would luv to wear it across the front of me to show what a true proud Aussie I am
Divulge your date of birth and you provide the #1 marker for identity theft.
Not by Bonds, but by someone among the thousands of anonymous people who will have access to it.
The agency must be assuming there are a lot of terminally dumb people out there! Sadly, maybe they’re right.
How can they execute such a great idea with a horribly clunky site?
What a let down. I could post a letter faster than waiting for the site to load.
My birthday is 34/01/62 my name is yvonne schilling ,
Comments 25-27 and 30-33… seem odd.
What a shame the website and UX is utter crap. It’s taken over an hour to upload my photo. So I’ve pulled the plug. Seriously guys this is woeful. Fail.
First 35,000 people get their identity stolen!
NEVER EVER give your date of birth to anyone
It is an alright idea but the campaign of 2012 should think mobile and tablets, if not first then at least second.
Sent from my 2 year old iPad.
I wonder what the KPIs are for the campaign … Bonds don’t really need to drive brand awareness they need to sell product. Will divulging your birth date get you to buy a bonds t-shirt. Maybe, maybe not.
Oh no. The Intercretins are already posting their names and DOB here.
Standing by to unsubscribe.
Another clothing company is selling a lot of product by guarantee-ing lottery-like randomness. The polar opposite to the Bonds thing. Go figure.
http://www.shiteshirts.com/
No mobile site at launch, a crashing website, and asking people top reveal their DOB. Genius. Clearly it’s not just manufacturing that Bonds have sent offshore but their brains also.
What’s with all the old people sharing their birthdates on this thread?!
As a poor writer, I jumped at the chance for some free sh*t, but balked at several things once on the site.
Sharing your birthdate would have been more palatable if you didn’t have to provide your name AND ensure that the photo is of your face (and not a landscape or your dog or something).
Too much information requested, too public, too buggy. A free t-shirt isn’t worth having my identity stolen.
There’s only one real difference between this and the Coke campaign. The Coke campaign made me buy a Coke. This doesn’t make me buy a shirt.
I entered this 24 hours ago – still nothing back. A confirmation email after submitting alerting me to the fact it would be moderated etc. My birthday is still listed as unclaimed. What gives?
You said it Simon. Bonds’ owner Pacific Brands has been losing millions in sales dollars and customers for years because the company has been too dumb to innovate for growth. Don’t be fooled. This is a last ditch move to lift the share price of the Pac Brands carcass so the Board ups the ante that KKR, the US venture capitalists, will pay for the company and the remains of its brands. And once those boys hit town you can kiss clever campaigns, and their agencies, goodbye.
I also entered this 24 hours ago and now today I see my birthday has been claimed by someone else. I hate you Bonds! Bad customer experience.
This concept is seriously flawed. How could it have been approved by so many smart people? Nobody over thirty wants to give their date of birth away. Why did no-one think of that before they all rushed into making a campaign that will held up for years as the perfect example of advertisers falling in love with “engagement” ideas that have zero resonance with real people.
Clunky experience, grew old trying 3 times. Finally did. Regret has set in. Can’t Ctrl Z… Noooooooooo
Lots of unhappy people…
Betchya Bonds wouldn’t pay for a proper development budget, timeline and hosting setup.
Wow – a lot of feedback on this one! I only read a couple of comments but my experience with the site upload etc was also CR*P. I got really excited with the concept, thought what a great idea, even thought about who I’d share the site with, then encountered the IT issues, photos don’t fit box, can’t move photo to fit box, the “back” button throws you outta the site completely and you have to start over! ARRRRKKK!!!!!! completely lost interest. Execution !!!
Can you put on an Expiry date instead?
Photo will not save, Filters will not work very frustrating.I suggest Bonds employ new IT people , the site is not all that complicated it should not be having all these problems.
I have done as you asked and submitted all the Information, and have recieved confirmation that I can claim my Tee. How is that done as I cannot see anywhere on your site to activate that request. In contrast to all the negativity, I feel that the concept is good, and the winging is only because some cannot get anything for nothing, but then again I am in the older age Group, and anything that comes your way you should be thankful for and not B—h about it