When brands make a blunder, Australians love to capitalise, and that’s exactly what Velocity Frequent Flyer wants consumers to do with its latest campaign.
The work shows ‘Tim the intern’ accidentally give away one billion points instead of one million to Velocity customers.
CHE Proximity ECD Ant White says the work encapsulates the data positioning of the agency.
With more than 40 different videos, the month-long campaign plays out like a mini-series, with each clip documenting the impact of giving away that many points.
“We wanted to create something human and we did everything to make it feel like a mini-series,” White says.
“It allowed us to create each ad with a different message but fit within a wider, connecting story.”
The campaign stitched together their skillsets with a creative platform, but for the regular customer, the smarts were invisible – they were simply watching the mistake unfold like a mini-series.
Of the 40 videos available, different clips were targeted at viewers based on how much of the campaign they’d seen before and the likelihood to move points.
“We plan owned and paid media together. So, if it’s the right thing to send an email, we do that. Or buy a search ad, we do that. Or a video spot, we do it. Our channel approach is 100% agnostic,” White says.
“First party data obviously plays a role but it’s the campaign interaction data that will help us determine which part of the story people are exposed to.”
All activity is directed to a purpose built, personalised calculator that shows people what they can do with their points.
CHE Proximity managing partner David Halter says the digital complexity of the campaign was intentionally hidden.
“The goal of the work is the consumer doesn’t feel the smarts of the campaign, which is a big shift. A lot of work in digital campaigns around targeting and retargeting can feel very clunky,” Halter says.
“We’ve tried to refresh the story and have enough content to engage people for a whole month.”
The approach taken by Velocity, Virgin Australia's loyalty program, aims to inject a bit of humour into a dry category.
“For years we’ve seen points fatigue hit the market. Every major brand is trying to use points as a lure to create loyalty. What we’ve tried to do is disrupt the advertising you see around points,” Halter says.
“Points-related advertising can become very transactional. This campaign is satirical and taps into the truth that everyone has sent a bad email.”
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