The Top End Photography Adventure

Challenge: The Top End is known for many things, crocodiles, vibrant colours, hot weather and salt-of-the-earth Aussies. When we brought together Canon and Tourism Northern Territory to showcase all the area has to offer through the best lens in the industry – we knew we were onto a winner.

For Canon’s part, we identified the trend of people purchasing new equipment when they planned to go travelling. This was an opportunity to use a premium destination to showcase the features of the EOS and digital compact camera ranges from Canon and target travellers at a time they are considering their next trip.

Tourism NT aimed to encourage travellers, both local and international, to travel to one of the most beautiful places in the world and take beautiful photos in the process.

Strategy: To kill two birds with one stone we thought we’d share the love and take media on a six day photo safari to the NT to play with Canon’s arsenal of super cool EOS and compact cameras, including the newly launched EOS 650D and tough compact, PowerShot D20.

Sound fun? It was.

Think Mindil Beach Sunset Markets, Kakadu National Park, Cooinda – Yellow Water, Gunlom Falls- working with Tourism NT we designed an itinerary to showcase the best of the NT region, and give Canon’s range the workout of a lifetime.

Along with our top tier travel and photography media and bloggers, were two winners of a competition hosted on the Tourism NT Facebook page which challenged fans to share a photo which they believe best represented the area. Pro photographers Krystle Wright and Peter Eve were also on hand to guide the group on how to use the best equipment for each occasion.

Results: The Top End Photography Adventure was not only a blast for all involved, but an awesome example of how we took a real strategic look at our campaign thinking and brought two brands to work together to achieve not only their own objectives, but expose themselves to whole new audiences.

The NT adventure saw coverage surface across the photography, tourism, and lifestyle sectors, along with deep penetration across social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

After six intrepid days surveying, eating, exploring and snapping the very best of the NT, the trip culminated in photo competition at the Darwin Ski Club. Check out some of the handy work!

Say G’Day to Carnival Spirit – Australia’s newest and largest cruise ship

Challenge: More than 18 months ago, Pulse Communications was tasked with building excitement and anticipation for the arrival of the world’s largest cruise line, Carnival Cruise Lines, a brand barely known in this market. The challenge was to whet the Aussie appetite for a very different style of cruising in a marketplace not only cynical about cruising, but which had also yet to experience the ship, Carnival Spirit.

To grab the attention of the nation, the Carnival Cruise Lines and Pulse teams understood they needed to make Aussies feel part of the new ship which meant bringing the “Aussie spirit” to Carnival Spirit. As Carnival Cruise Lines spent $15 million in upgrades ensuring Carnival Spirit was just right for this market, so Pulse Communications invited Australians to be part of the big changes being made.

Strategy: Playing on the theme of “Aussification”, Pulse engaged the country to help make Carnival Spirit their ship through a series of activities and events. A world record slip and slide attempt provided a thrilling way of finding a name for the steepest and fastest waterslide – created specifically with Australians in mind; Australia’s Barista of the Year was brought aboard to train the ship’s staff in how to create that perfect flat white, and Aussie kids competed to design the giant Power Drencher tipping bucket in the waterpark.

When Carnival Spirit sailed through Sydney’s Heads for the very first time on 17 October 2012, her Aussie Spirit was almost complete – now all she needed was the ultimate Australian welcome to bring her into her new Sydney home. Waving Aussie flags from Spirit’s top deck, hundreds of guests signaled Spirit’s arrival whilst aerial stills and vision coordinated by Pulse was picked up by the Sydney Morning Herald, Channel 7, 9 and 10 news, The Project, Sunrise and TODAY.

Once the ship docked at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, a press conference attended by AAP, News Limited, 2GB, 2UE and every commercial TV network, was held in Serenity – a huge child-free retreat with panoramic ocean views, and one of the major Aussification upgrades. Media could then sample the true extent of the Aussie upgrades including testing their adrenalin on Green Thunder, the steepest and fastest water slide at sea, and sampling a cool Aussie beer at one of the newly-subbed bar taps.

The blanket publicity that followed triggered the highest booking period in Carnival Cruise Lines Australia’s history. Jennifer Vandekreeke, Director Carnival Cruise Lines Australia said, “Public relations played an integral part in driving awareness and ultimately, consideration of Carnival Spirit as Australia’s newest holiday destination. Website visits, calls to the contact centre and bookings jumped following the extensive media coverage surrounding Spirit’s arrival, notably the three and a half minute segment on A Current Affair.”

Results:

Monday, October 22^nd was CCL’s biggest booking day EVER

Net bookings versus the same day prior week were up 393%

Trade bookings up 606%

Direct bookings up 150%

Over 70 clips to date, with a reach of over 35 million

Total PR value of more than $1.5 million

Social media engagement up by 269%

Over 800 new Facebook page likes in 5 days

358 Twitter mentions

Dipped in Blue @ Ford HQ

Challenge: In early 2012, Ford Australia indicated they were eager to highlight their role as a hub for design, technology and engineering both locally and globally. More than ever before, a wide range of media and influencers need to be engaged; the auto industry is no longer confined to the car pages of metro newspapers and technology advances mean that tech influencers are of increasing importance to Ford.

Strategy: Pulse Communications, Ogilvy Public Relations’ consumer public relations firm, suggested that a ‘Dipped in Blue’ immersion event would put the spotlight on design and technology developments being led by Ford Australia whilst also leveraging and building upon current influencer relationships.

Due to the popularity of the idea, Ford Australia decided to provide Ford Asia Pacific markets the opportunity to invite key influencers to the event. In turn, an additional day was allocated for the international media.

In August, tech, automotive and consumer media and influencers were invited to visit Ford Australia Headquarters for a one-day event for hands on demos, product previews, behind the scenes access and exclusive news. On top of this, attendees were also given access to the faces and voices of Ford, such as Ford Australia CEO Bob Graziano, and Chief Engineer Adam Frost. The brand new design centre, complete with the state-of-the-art Virtual Reality Centre and Powerwall room, was opened to media for the first time.

SYNC technology, to be brought to Australia with the release of the new Focus ST, was showcased to the media and influencers by Ed Pleet, Connected Services Director for Ford’s EAPA region. Attendees also experienced Active City Stop and Active Park Assist technologies, further cementing Ford’s place as a market leader in terms of smart technologies.

Results: In total Pulse had 42 consumer, tech and auto media and influencers attend from the Asia Pacific region. Key influencer relationships were strengthened through exclusive behind the scenes access to Ford Headquarters and its design and engineering teams.

In all, the ‘Dipped in Blue’ immersion event allowed Ford Australia to successfully position itself as a market leader in terms of technology and design developments, whilst also demonstrating its commitment to growth and thought leadership.

LG hosts smartphone scavenger hunt

Challenge: Back in July, LG Electronics launched its new range of smartphones, the L-Style series. Although the range received media interest at the time of launch,  LG wanted to increase awareness of the product and establish the brand as a leader in smartphone design using their newly signed ambassador, Erin McNaught.

In addition to this, LG wanted to promote the functionality and convenience of the Quick Memo feature, a technology which is exclusive to the L-Style range.

Ultimately, LG were keen to build word-of-mouth recommendations around the product and ultimately drive purchase, which proved challenging given the product had already been on the market for three months.

Strategy: On the 4^th of October, Pulse’s LG-One team worked with Erin McNaught and LG Electronics to host Sydney’s first LG smartphone scavenger hunt. Erin visited four well-known Sydney landmarks throughout the day, tweeting picture clues as to her whereabouts to give fans a chance to find her. The first five people to find Erin at each of the locations won their very own LG L-Style smartphone, simply by telling Erin the winning phrase: “I’m all about L-Style”. To showcase the phone, Erin used the Quick Memo feature for each of her clues, a technology which lets users draw messages on photos taken and then share them via their social networks.

Results: By the end of the day, 20 very happy winners walked away with their own brand new LG L-Style phone and subsequently tweeted about it via their networks. In the lead up to the activation, key coverage was secured in metro titles including mX Sydney and an exclusive interview on 2DAY FM’s Kyle and Jackie O Show on the morning of the hunt. The day saw in excess of 150 tweets with a total reach of more than 3 million Australians. Well-known Australian celebrities such as Jennifer Hawkins and singer/songwriter Gabriella Ellis had visibility of the LG L-Style Scavenger hunt, tweeting about it on the day to their own networks. The activation also made an impact on Instagram, with a total audience reach of close to 100,000 followers and more than 500 likes.

Kleenex Cottonelle Pin To Make a Difference

Challenge: Despite Kleenex Cottonelle’s leading sustainability credentials – it is the first toilet tissue in Australia to gain Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) accreditation and Australia’s only toilet tissue brand endorsed by the WWF – its sustainability story wasn’t gaining cut through with consumers.

While the brand’s multi-million dollar ‘Love Your Forests’ TV advertising burst was gaining awareness, its sustainability message was too remote among target mums who couldn’t see a compelling reason to pay more for a household basic in an uninteresting product category.

The solution was clear: engagement. But how to achieve it for a brand in a low-interest category, on a low budget, and within the niche (and arguably unfashionable) cause of everyday household sustainability?

Objectives: The team was briefed to drive high-impact awareness and talkability among Australian mums around Kleenex Cottonelle’s FSC accreditation and show how, as a premium and environmentally responsible toilet paper, Kleenex Cottonelle was worth investing in.

Essentially, we were tasked to dial up the brand values of ‘environmentally friendly’, while giving mums a compelling reason to believe in the premium credentials of the product beyond price.

The success metrics required by the client was a campaign to reach 1 million Australian mums.

Campaign Insight & Strategy: If the brand’s FSC accreditation, in addition to the product’s efficacy, was a reason to believe, then the existing ‘Love Your Forests’ ATL burst wasn’t enough to make it stick. Our qualitative planning research showed that while the sustainability message certainly had impact for three-quarters of target mums, the pressures of modern family life took precedence, and that ignorance and a lack of inclination often prevailed.

From our planning process we understood that in order to be successful, our campaign with a cause needed to: inspire; educate; make it easy for mums to get involved (and reward them for their involvement); and create a direct and impactful dialogue with the audience. We also needed to demonstrate an emotional value proposition – by making the campaign speak directly to mums in their own language and involving them, we could show them the returns on inspiration that sustainability can bring through their own everyday choices.

Our solution was clear: by creating a virtue of the territory of “making a difference” – easily and every day in the home – and taking brand ownership of it, we could make mums feel good about social good, thus creating a halo for Kleenex Cottonelle. Showing mums how small steps for a big impact really was as easy and simple as changing the everyday choices you make, such as buying sustainable products, like Kleenex Cottonelle, in the weekly shop.

So, we invited mums to make a difference – easily, every day, and with Kleenex Cottonelle. Our early research showed that helping others is the #1 reason Australians chat online about household goods, and that ‘new kid on the block’, Pinterest, was fuelling phenomenal growth in home-interest conversations. Not only that, but Pinterest was also Australia’s fastest-growing social network (+194% in six months since December 2011) among women, of which 62% of users were female with an average age of 30. In its ability to reach women who care about home-interest issues, Pinterest was an obvious choice to spread our sustainability message loud and wide.

With that, the Kleenex Cottonelle ‘Pin to Make a Difference’ campaign was born.

Key Executions: Our campaign took a three-phased approach:

1. Recruiting mums and starting the sustainability conversations;
2. Involving mums by bringing them together at an Australian-first brand event, and:-
3. Rewarding mums for their involvement through micro-contests post event.

Phase One – Starting the Conversations

The campaign centred around a branded ‘Pin to Make a Difference’ event in central Sydney, inviting Australia’s most influential mum bloggers and media to network, pin and share their ‘make a difference’ sustainability tips, and take part in Australia’s first and fastest pinning competition.

We created a branded Pinterest account, analysed Australia’s most influential mum bloggers, and targeted them to attend the event. A media announcement followed, seeding anticipation and outreach, and creating a groundswell of support, with media applauding Kleenex Cottonelle for its leadership with Pinterest, and for driving an ‘Aussie first’.

Bespoke, independent research into Australian mums’ sustainable habits and behaviours in and around the home, created branded talking points and started the conversations in both traditional and social media.

We also engaged primetime TV presenter and Channel 7 breakfast show anchor, Mel Doyle, and one of Australia’s most influential bloggers, Darren Rowse, to MC and present at the event. Both ambassadors had influential, active social and traditional media and business networks, and news of the event gained momentum quickly, which was then seeded by influential media attendees.

Phase Two – Involving mums through the event

We staged the event on 2^nd May 2012, with 26 of Australia’s most influential mum bloggers and mainstream media attending. Guest speakers from Kleenex Cottonelle, the WWF and the FSC inspired the “make a difference” conversations, reaching +2 million people and fuelling 1.2 million twitter impressions. Powerful social currency amplified the conversations, from the specially created ‘Pin to Make a Difference’ social badge, to the event hashtag #pin4good, leading to the event trending #1 on Twitter, ahead of TV’s ‘The Voice’, the most popular TV show in Australian TV history. The event fuelled traffic and content at the Kleenex Cottonelle Pinterest account, with an average of 200 followers per pin board.

Phase Three – Rewarding mums for their involvement

Post-event we maintained the momentum of the sustainability conversations by placing micro-contests on target mum blogs, who cascaded the message through their networks, giving their communities a Kleenex Cottonelle ‘Make a Difference’ goody pack. The activity reached +20,000 people in mum blogger communities. This, combined with ongoing mainstream outreach from our bespoke brand research showing that nine in ten Australian mums support in-the-home sustainability but time, pressure and modern technology not money are their biggest barriers, drove continued outreach and impact, keeping the boards alive.

Results: Results were based on coverage and search analysis of campaign mentions from 4 April 2012 up to and including 28 May 2012. The campaign significantly exceeded the KPIs and client expectations by achieving:

• An overall reach in excess of 5 million Australians within all targeted mum media channels, with a +1,100% increase of conversations in Australia about sustainability in and around the home
• Sustainability mentions reached 1.2 million people; tweets about the FSC and its accreditation during the campaign reached 7, 727 people; WWF tweets during the campaign reached 314,744 people
• 100% positive campaign sentiment across traditional and social media channels including Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook and blogs
• A +475% increase in social conversations about Kimberly-Clark (from 3 months prior)
• 33 pieces of branded coverage about the campaign, coupled with a Twitter reach of 1.2 million Australians; and including #1 trending on Twitter in Australia
• The campaign reinforced Kleenex Cottonelle’s market-leading positioning, with the brand lauded as a top 10 brand using Pinterest (Marketing magazine) and one of the ‘Eight Australian Brands to Watch on Pinterest’ (the Village Agency)

Overall, the campaign succeeded in making the brand relevant and meaningful to mums by telling the biggest and most high-impact sustainability-in-the-home story of the year, positioning itself as a pioneering leader and brand champion of everyday ‘social good’ and easy, everyday sustainability in the home.

Ready, set, go! Getty Images captures the action of London 2012

Challenge: With the London 2012 Olympic Games in full swing it’s not just the athletes who are working hard to be at the top of their game – the Getty Images team of award-winning photographers are also in the thick of the action at the world’s greatest sporting event.

This year, Getty Images is the official photographic agency to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), a designation they have held for 24 years, since the Calgary Winter Olympics of 1988. At London 2012, Getty Images has a team of more than 100 photographers, photo editors and support staff to capture the excitement of the Games from behind the scenes to the finish lines.

Throughout the Games, Getty Images photographers will capture the action from every possible angle at each of the Olympic sporting events as well as the opening and closing ceremonies and medal presentations.

An Olympic first

Although Getty Images has a long-standing history with the Olympics, London 2012 will be the first time that their photographers will use cutting edge 3D and robotic camera technology to capture the action.

A team of select photographers will shoot the games in 3D in addition to using custom designed robotics rigs to capture the agony and the ecstasy of the competition.

Strategy: To showcase Getty Images industry leading innovations the team at Howorth devised a communications program which focused on the technology and talent behind the camera lens.

Featuring TV and print profiles of top Getty Images talent including VP of Editorial Photography Stuart Hannagan and Australian photographers Mark Kolbe and Chris McGrath, the program also targeted leading technology websites.

Results: Coverage was secured on Channel 9’s Wide World of Sports Road to London program, with a segment featuring Stuart discussing iconic Olympic images syndicated to 37 stations across Australia.

An in-depth interview with Mark and Chris in CNET Australia examined the different ways in which Getty Images is “pioneering new ways of thinking about sports photography.” CNET is one of the country’s most popular technology websites, visited by 1.8 million Australians each month.

Computerworld Australia featured an interview with Getty Images Senior Director of Editorial Photography, Ken Mainardis and Gizmodo, Australian Creative, Campaign Brief and Photo Review produced articles on the technology being used by Getty Images during the London 2012 opening ceremony.

Mark was also interviewed by the Inverell Times and The Northern Daily Leader newspapers about the 3D technology, and Chris was featured in the Sunshine Coast Daily, discussing the robotics rigs he will be operating during London 2012.

Kronos Healthcare Study

Challenge: Kronos is a global company specialising in workforce management. As part of the ongoing public relationship campaign, Howorth was engaged by Kronos to identify a newsworthy issue outside their typical scope on which Kronos could offer a fresh perspective, which would in turn generate positive media coverage and support the overall sales drive.

Strategy: Howorth recently worked with Kronos on a case study with the Macquarie University Hospital. The study generated much media interest and as such, signalled a definite area of opportunity for the team to further explore.

Focusing on the Healthcare sector, Howorth set about creating a research campaign that would help to support future conversations for Kronos with media as well as potential customers. Supported by good customer examples, this would present a very compelling reason for media and influencers alike to listen to what Kronos had to say.

Howorth’s initial research revealed that despite healthcare being a vital part of the economy -and important to every Australian, there were significant pain points regarding the welfare of nurses and the fact that the industry had not benefited from the technology revolution that is fundamentally changing whole industries.

Howorth engaged and interviewed over 200 healthcare professionals from across the country as part of the “Nursing Pulse Check” survey regarding their concerns and pain-points about the industry. The survey examined the working conditions of Australian nurses, the attitudes they have toward their jobs, as well as opinions on technology and the future of the industry.

The research revealed that half of Australian nurses planned to leave the profession within next ten years.  With work-related stress being such a large factor, as well as nurses indicating that they extend themselves to their limits to manage their workloads, the results strongly indicated the need for healthcare management and employees to collaboratively review current workforce management methods.

Results:  As a part of the media strategy to support the launch of the survey, Howorth proactively pitched to over 50 media targets across both print and broadcast publications by drawing upon three main angles:

• General news angle: critical shortage of nurses in the Australian healthcare industry;
• Technology angle: the ability of the healthcare industry to adopt technology such as the roll out of the recent e-health initiative;
• Health angle: dissatisfaction of nurses suffering from stress and burn-out.

Howorth secured and facilitated eight media pre-briefings, as well as six on-the-day radio interviews for Peter Harte, VP APAC for Kronos.. These briefings resulted in a total of 119 pieces of coverage. This includes ninety-five pieces of coverage across broad spectrum of news, health and technology publications, including The Daily Telegraph, Canberra Times, The Age, News.com.au and Courier Mail. A further twenty two pieces of broadcast coverage were secured in the form of live radio Q&A, news grabs and pre-recordings. In addition, the survey findings featured on two top tier free-to-air and pay television news broadcasts.

The challenge: Design and implement a national environmental media campaign in 72 hours

When a group of 300 companies operating across the Australian economy, including Westpac, GE, and IKEA, wanted to communicate their support for carbon pricing they contacted OgilvyEarth. We had 72 hours to come up with a media strategy that would give profile to the group, Businesses for a Clean Economy. The timing of the public relations campaign – on the eve of historic climate change legislation being introduced – meant there was strong competition for media space, but great opportunities if the right strategy was employed.

Drawing on experts across Ogilvy Public Relations’ network, we created tailored content and took a strategic approach to media engagement, including holding a press conference that was streamed live on ABC News 24 and Sky News. We also set up a media tracking team, including social media experts, who monitored and responded to developments as the day unfolded.

The result was over 210 pieces of overwhelmingly positive press coverage, including:

• Front page coverage of the group’s position (SMH and AFR)
• Coverage on all major national television news programs
• Reference to the group by the Prime Minister
• 70 radio clips
• 115 articles online
• Retweets that reached over 200,000 followers

Best of all, as a result of the coverage, a further 88 companies joined the group (a 29% increase in membership) adding their support for positive action on climate change.

Imagination for business – a thought leadership project for Canon Australia

Challenge: Howorth has been working with Canon’s corporate and business imaging communication teams since the end of 2010. In 2011, Canon asked Howorth to develop a campaign that would support one of their core company values – imagination at both the corporate and the business imaging divisional levels.

Our work: It was clear this project would be more than a media relations campaign. The team at Howorth researched the concept of imagination and looked at existing data on imagination and productivity in the workplace. We found a team at UNSW that had proven a link between imagination and learning effectiveness in school children – but the phenomenon of ‘the imagination effect’ had never been proven in a corporate setting.

Canon formed a partnership with the School of Education, UNSW. We designed an experiment for members of Canon’s business imaging sales team to see what effect engaging the imagination had on the effectiveness of a new training module. Participants were split into two groups and completed multiple choice tests on product knowledge before and after an e-learning program. Both groups were given different learning instructions. The imagination group was instructed to use their imagination to learn concepts and procedures about a Canon product and the study group was instructed to use traditional study methods.

The results were extremely interesting – for the first time, the imagination effect was proven in a corporate setting. In fact, the imagination group made significantly more learning gains than the study group with the imagination group’s test results improving by 63% compared with 29% for the study group.

Concurrently, we commissioned a survey of 400 senior decision makers at medium and large organisations across Australia to investigate the state of imagination in business. The survey found that despite the fact those organisations that value and harness imagination were also the highest earning companies, across the board, imagination ranks last on a list of 15 workforce characteristics valued by employers.

Results: The research findings were published by Canon in a report titled Imagination for Business, stating the case for adding imagination to the managerial tool box. Additional content was produced for a microsite, www.imaginationforbusiness.com.au .

The story captured the imagination of business, HR and other vertical media, with more than 30 in-depth media articles published on the topic. The UNSW professors are also planning to present their academic paper at a number of international cognitive load conferences later in 2012.

But perhaps most importantly, the thought leadership exercise resulted in a real change in the way Canon will deliver its training modules as part of ongoing learning and development programs, because Canon now has a low cost way to make training more effective for their workforce – the application of imagination.

A brighter future for homeless men – The Michael Project, Mission Australia

The Michael Project is an inspiring new program designed by Mission Australia to provide support to homeless men, taking them out of the confines of isolation which are rife in the world of homelessness.

The final report for the project was launched on 17 April 2012, with attendees taken through the results of the research by Professor Paul Flatau, Chair in Social Investment and Impact and Director of the Centre for Social Impact at the University of Western Australia. They were also treated with special guest presenter Dr Dennis Culhane, Chair of Social Policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Michael Project was created with homeless men in the centre, using a range of services to ensure their quality of life was improved across as many areas as possible over the course of the 12 month program. The key was building on existing services to extend the range of support.

Mission Australia was able to demonstrate that the program could effectively save Australian taxpayers as much as $3,061 per participant.

The following three points were the focus of the project, and the reasons for its success.

• Providing temporary accommodation – leading to more long-term housing
• Providing specialist support service access – this helped to increase many of the men’s ability to earn an income and be more involved at a social level
• Providing one-to-one support from a case worker, assigned at the beginning of the project

Ogilvy Impact partnered with Mission Australia to produce a short video, bringing to life a developed infographic, for the launch of the project and to visually summarise the 69-page report. The video has been embedded into the Mission Australia page and has resulted in over 700 views, an excellent result in terms of awareness of the project and the work that Mission Australia does.

http://www.missionaustralia.com.au/research-and-social-policy/3153-the-michael-project

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