Wake Up! Central Sydney hostel sees four-fold jump in web traffic after ‘Wake Up’ campaign
A youth hostel that shares the same name as the ‘Wake up’ campaign has seen traffic to its website increase four-fold in the eight days after the guerilla marketing campaign launched.
The identity of the brand behind ‘Wake up’ was not revealed to be BlackBerry until Tuesday of this week, with some Sydneysiders and tourists thinking the Wake Up! Central Sydney youth hostel was responsible.
The hostel’s proprietor, Christian Millett, also noted that activity on the hostel’s Facebook page has increased, with pictures of the Wake up stunts – including a boat towing a banner and the words ‘Wake up’ written on Bondi Ice Bergs swimming pool – posted to the page.
He said it was too early to say whether the campaign has meant an increase in guests at the hostel.
Millett said that while BlackBerry’s campaign was similar in look and feel to his own marketing, he was “very happy” with the awareness it has generated.
“The ‘Wake up’ campaign uses a similar font to ours. And like our own marketing it’s fairly simplistic. We own the trademark on Wake up. But since it’s a good quality brand that’s behind the campaign, I don’t have a problem with it.”
He also suggested that the strategy agency behind the campaign, Tongue, might have taken inspiration from the name of his hostel, as Tongue is located 650 metres from Wake Up! Central Sydney.
Tongue denied that this was the case.
ridicilous! bi
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It sounds like this campaign is driving awareness for every brand OTHER than its intended target – Blackberry.
I’d love to see the post-campaign reporting for this 😉
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All this misattribution is massively embarrasing. Epic fail.
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Blackberry:
Used to signify a well paid city worker with important emails.
Now signifies a less well paid city worker whose boss won’t get them an iPhone.
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‘Similar font to ours’. You’ve got to be joking! Nice try Millett, but sorry, nobody cares about your lame logo
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I’ve always wondered why a hotel chain would be called ‘Wake Up’? the last thing I want to do at a hotel is wake up (well, until the late morning anyway).
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Has anyone else noticed that this font actually does (sorry again Millet) strike a resemblance to the ongoing DARE iced coffee ads? I may be late on chiming in on this misattribution? When I think of waking up then see an ad for coffee it links…when I think of Blackberry I think of broken roller wheel navigation and client emails…
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Seahorse. It’s a hostel not a hotel. There’s no sleep going on there. Just herpes
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what a successful marketing campaign!!!
Just goes to show Blackberry has no chance against Apple and other tech companies. Using a Blackberry feels like I’m using my old Nokia 2110.
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