Inside the five most eye-catching launch campaigns of 2018
From a chicken dinner-proof Xbox controller to a dramatic pitch to Sir David Attenborough and a video optimised for dogs, Mumbrella asked launch marketing experts Five by Five to nominate and help tell the stories behind some of the most creative promotions for new products and services we’ve seen this year.
‘I told the UN, I’ve got an idea that will change the world’ – The Lion Share
Late last year, Christopher Nelius was watching TV when he had something of a eureka moment – and promptly rushed into his colleague Robert Galluzzo’s office to get it off his chest. Animals, he explained, don’t get paid to appear in ads. And in a world where up to 10,000 species are facing extinction every year, with precious little funding to stop it, those appearance fees could be a life-saving revenue stream. “I think you’re onto something,” agreed Galluzzo.
Nelius and Galluzzo helm Sydney-based production company Finch and after a few days’ thought, settled on the proposal that 0.5% of all media spend from campaigns staring animals should be donated to help conservation causes.
The pair told friends and then friends of friends in the industry until Andrew Clarke, then global CMO of Mars, promised the confectionary giant would back their proposal but only if they could persuade the United Nations to get involved. “So I wrote to this guy at the UN,” says Galluzzo, talking in a giddy rush on the phone, “and told him I’ve got this idea that will change the world. But I need one hour in person with them.”
And then things went a bit Hollywood. Incredibly, the UN emailed back. Could the pair come to New York next week to pitch it, they asked? They hopped on a plane, made their case, it got approved and then things moved quicker then they could scarcely believe. They were invited to Cannes. The Economist signed up. Clemenger BBDO Melbourne helped turn it into a proper campaign. And then Sir David Attenborough offered to be the frontman. Fast-forward to the end of 2018, and the campaign is already lining up to purchase land, including a jaguar corridor in Belize; Elephant paths in Kenya; and orangutan and tiger habitats in Sumatra.
It stands as probably the year’s most unbelievable launch campaign. And perhaps the only one built entirely on a fleeting moment of inspiration.
“There are two things about this idea that I really like,” says Matt Lawton, managing director of launch marketing agency Five by Five. “First, it was boldly launched at the bullseye not from the periphery to test the water. They went to Cannes and had all the right endorsements to validate this initiative from the start. Secondly, they kept the proposition simple when the temptation would have no doubt been to complicate it as it became bigger and gained momentum.”
What nobody perhaps realised, though, is that their simple idea actually solved a long-term thorny political issue: how to get commercial entities involved in fundraising in a way that doesn’t compromise ethics. So impressed was everyone involved, that plans are afoot to take the lessons from this and roll it out in other sectors.
“The UN is talking about this being the clue to saving the world from the sixth extinction,” says Galluzzo, not skipping a beat. “Something fundamentally has to happen in the private sector to link responsibility and compassion. If this plans works, what other things like this could, too?
“This could be a tipping point.”
‘At times the challenge felt insurmountable’ – the Meccaland beauty festival
In April 2018, beauty brand Mecca took a leap far beyond its comfort zone: launching a three-day festival in Melbourne for 6,000 of its customers. For a team who had never attempted anything like it, the scale was mind-boggling. There were 25 brand booths, beauty panels, influencers, interactive sessions, artists, glam-bassadors, product exclusives, ball pits, glitter machines, fortune tellers, dance machines and even fish dance troupes.
Was it gamble? “Absolutely,” says Marita Burke, the creative director of the event, which became known as Meccaland. “Not just because of the cost, but because we had absolutely zero expertise in running large-scale events. We knew retail, not festivals. Initially, everyone thought we were crazy attempting to pull something of this scale off outside our stores.”
The idea first came to fruition when team members were brainstorming how to celebrate Mecca’s 20th anniversary. But really, its aim was to tap into the growing junkie community for beauty products, allowing the business to put its ethos into life. “We wanted to create a digital and physical experience like never before,” says Burke.
While an external agency, Taboo, managed the logistics of the event, everything else was done in-house, meaning resources had to be deployed internally to make it work. An incentive was launched to encourage 400 ANZAC store staff to help run the event, with workers standing for hours meeting attendees. “The challenges were enormous and at times felt insurmountable,” admits Burke. “Not only did we previously have no experience in this space, we didn’t even have an event space.”
Lawton identifies what determined their success: “Apart from the fact that I’m a 45-year-old dad and never knew Meccaland was happening – an endorsement of their targeting – the other reason I nominated this campaign is because it exemplifies one of the most important steps in launch planning: getting employees on board. There’s no better way to ensure success.”
Despite the team’s apparent inexperience, the event was such a success that tickets sold out within an hour. “We also had unprecedented social exposure, with those who were there posting and those who couldn’t attend watching it all unfold on social media,” says Burke. “We had 14m impressions over the four day period. Content is incredibly important for a brand like ours, and creating unique experiences as content is perhaps even more important. Meccaland drove huge social noise, and everyone who wasn’t at the festival was watching and commenting which only added to the social engagement.”
Are there any plans to roll the festival out to other locations around Australia?
“Watch this space,” teases Burke.
‘We found the right influencers and respected their different styles’ – Your Dog’s Happy Place
Carmela Soares, the executive creative director of Clemenger BBDO, oversaw the agency’s launch campaign to encourage dog-owning Melbournians to visit regional Victoria. But, in many ways, she was as much its audience as its creator. “I love to travel, even if it’s for a short break – but I also have three dogs,” she says. “Before I had my pooches, I would take every opportunity to jump on a plane to Sydney, Brisbane, Auckland, Port Douglas or Broome. But after I became a pet parent, this changed to getting in the car and driving a couple of hours to a pet-friendly destination.”
The digital and social-focussed campaign was called Your Dog’s Happy Space and featured a video coloured for dogs’ vision; content that reviewed the best canine-friendly walks, parks, cafes and pubs as well as placement with relevant Instagram influencers. While it was produced on the insight that 65 percent of Victorians own a pet, much of its inspiration came from team members’ observations and intuition. In 2018, there’s a cultural trend that pets are part of the family. “And,” jokes Soares, “Dogs and Instagram are a match made in heaven.”
Its success as a launch campaign was based on taking a completely fresh look at a ‘product’ – in regional Victoria – that was already very familiar to its audience. It also seamlessly slotted into Visit Victoria’s ongoing Your Happy Space promotion, making it feel like a campaign rather than simply a one-off stunt. “I commend this campaign for investing in a niche that reflects a highly motivated target audience,” says Five by Five boss Lawton. “It reminds me of a big push I was involved in with a regional tourism board to target disabled visitors – a niche audience that proves very fruitful when you consider how many travel with companions. I like the client’s full commitment to this launch campaign which levers consumer motivations so effectively.”
Soares also used the creative licence to inject some fun and personality into the campaign. Place names were rewritten in dog language – Ball-arat, or Mount Paw Paw – while the team released canine-friendly souvenirs. But they were also sensible with not just who they chose as partner influencers but how they treated them. Owners such as @Tomandcaptain, @ChandlerThePug and @HuckAndCo were given complete creative freedom, making the resultant content authentic even if creative control was sacrificed.
“Collecting and sharing content is not enough,” says Soares. “In modern creativity very few – if any – brands will be able to achieve this without the support of influencers. From the beginning, our thinking revolved around creating and encouraging experiences with a great social output.
“We found the right influencers and gave them a creative brief that respected their own styles.”
‘We just said, “Hey, we wanna build a bank”’ – Xinja
Launch marketing presents challenges and opportunities for marketers because, often, by definition, the product is fresh to consumers. On the plus side, this provides marketers with a clean slate for ideas – without existing brand guidelines or legacies – but the reverse is that there is usually no brand history or recognition. Advertisers have nothing to build on. However, the challenge was even bigger for Camilla Cooke, the co-founder and CMO of Xinja. “There was no actual product in the market,” she admits. “In fact, I feel like a little bit of a fraud because we didn’t do a traditional launch. We just said, ‘Hey guys, we wanna build a bank.’”
First, we need to take a step back. Xinja is, or at least hopes to be, one of the first “neobank” in Australia. Neobanks are financial institutions which operate solely online and on mobile without any physical stores. The obvious benefits are that, without the land grab and associated staff costs, they can pass on the savings to customers in the form of lower interest rates paid and higher interest rates returned. The less obvious perks are that, without all those old cumbersome legacy infrastructures, banks can build a much more effective operation to serve contemporary customers.
“Banking was the last industry to get disrupted,” says Cooke. “Why? Because there was no commercial will – there was no incentive to change because the traditional banks are making a vast amount of money. Australia’s are some of the most profitable in the world. And also, it’s a pain to change bank accounts. By the time you’ve filled in the forms and been in and out of branches for days you realise it’s not worth it. You’re more likely to change your partner than your bank.”
But Xinja’s launch challenge was even bigger than simply persuading customers to embrace something new – it also involved trying to raise funds, too. So Cooke killed two birds with one stone by launching a crowdfunding campaign. Something only legalised for financial institutions due to legislation change at the end of 2017. “Founding Xinja” – as they’re dubbed – provided funds, spread the word of neobanks while also organically building a reputation that was customer-centric. It became just the tonic for a public who are cynical about the industry.
And, ironically, that very modern PR story landed the front page of the AFR – something that landed it old-fashioned credibility, too.
“Often the way one disruptor beats another at launch stage is by investing in their brand earlier than their competitors do,” says Lawton. “Xinja thought about the brand all the way through their customers’ experience. Even their card is delivered in a unique little pack that flips out like a karate chop to the wrist that helps confirm you’ve made a positive decision to join something likeable.”
Xinja’s early campaign essentially involved targeting would-be investors, the types already scouring the internet for crowdfunding opportunities, and that meant persuading them not just of their “product” but of their philosophy, too. “The core proposition for Xinja is not that we’re digital,” says Cooke. “The core proposition is to help people make the most of their money. That’s our business model. We’re not Mother Teresa, we’re ordinary, pragmatic people but we think it’s time a new type of business model prevailed.”
‘Xbox’s approach is quirky and crazy’ – greaseproof controllers to launch a not-so-new game
The concept of online video game Player Unknown Battlegrounds – or PUBG as it’s known to fans – is best described as an anarchic twist on The Hunger Games. Each deathmatch begins with 90 to 100 players parachuting in from a cargo plane onto an island, wearing only basic rags. Once on the ground, users raid abandoned buildings to scavenge for supplies while trying to kill others and avoid the bullet themselves. The twist, compared to its many similar rivals, is that a forcefield slowly closes around a battleground, making it gradually smaller and smaller. “Survive all that,” explains Luke McClelland, who helped oversee the game’s launch on Xbox, “and the words ‘Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner’ pop up on the title screen.” Bonkers, of course, but a phrase that has become a kind of cult reference for fans.
And that was the back-to-basics inspiration for a smart launch content campaign that saw McClelland’s agency, OPR, physically create 200 Xbox controllers that can be played with sticky chicken dinner hands. Really. The initiative generated huge buzz – 160 pieces of coverage in Australia, 200,000 campaign views, 35 original videos created by fans – as well as lending itself to dramatic, still-life videos. So successful was it, that territories all around the world signed up, following Australia’s lead.
But as a launch campaign, it had a tough brief. The game itself had already built a cult following on PC, but had to transfer that to the Xbox console, with its very different user base. McClelland had to walk the tricky – or should that be sticky? – tightrope between introducing the game to new users while also respecting and leveraging its legacy. “There was a real opportunity to transfer people into the Xbox ecosystem,” says McClelland. “Xbox Australia has become known for its fan-first approach which is quirky and a little bit crazy. We wanted fans to go out and advocate for us and this idea let us put fans at the heart of the campaign.
“Xbox has been proving they understand the gamer audience really well for quite some time now,” says Five by Five’s Lawton. “Finding the insight and generating this level of hype has to be admired because this type of ‘launch’ – launching something that’s effectively already been launched – is one of the hardest to crack. Recognising the link between gaming and food is one thing, but doing so with authenticity is quite another.”
“What also made this unique was that the creative idea led the product launch, rather than the other way around. This presented challenges in both manufacturing something extremely unusual and then creating the content to do it justice” remarks Lawton.
“We have a supplier in the US who can take any consumer product and give it a lick of paint so it takes on any form you want,” says McClelland. “But the content was key, too. We have an in-house team who know how to do things that I as a PR wouldn’t. We created a video, for instance, where grease drops onto the controller and that was captured by a special camera that was able to film in a huge about of frames per second.”
It demonstrates aptly how modern PR launch campaigns are about far more than simply writing press releases. “As an agency, our mantra is ‘Feed the newsfeed,’ especially for Xbox users on Facebook and Instagram,” says McClelland. “Today, we need to have a content team, a creative team and then specialists in digital publicity and also influencers.
“We all come together and say, ‘This is our content but how can we make it live across all channels?’”
Read last year’s rundown examining the best launch marketing campaigns of 2017