Background

Sparked by Andrew Forrest’s deep passion and commitment to the cause, GenerationOne is a movement aimed at ending Australian Indigenous disparity in our generation. GenerationOne is funded by founder Andrew Forrest, James Packer and Kerry Stokes, and supported by business leaders such as David Gyngell, Andrew Fox, Paul Ramsay, Steven Lowy and Indigenous and community leaders throughout Australia.

Client: GenerationOne
Campaign: National launch and roll-out
Agency: Prime Digital Media
Media agency: Mitchells

Objective

To significantly raise awareness for the Indigenous disparity issue and measurably engage thousands of Australians to support the cause. The idea was for GenerationOne supporters to choose to spread the word, mentor a youth, pledge an Indigenous job or contribute to the ideas pool.

Strategy

For a campaign this bold, dealing with an issue this complex, it is important that Australians everywhere have the opportunity to truly engage with the movement. The strategy was to lead with a tightly integrated set of experiential and social media activities, using traditional media to support the campaign.

Campaigns of this scale are usually led by traditional media; however, it was decided to launch Australia’s largest, fully integrated experiential campaign in order to call people to action and get immediate results.

The campaign included:

• an interactive projection on the sails of Sydney Opera House, supported by simultaneous giant outdoor projections in five other cities
• a national road show, touring the country and engaging local communities
• a series of business breakfasts, engaging the local business community with the issue
• a series of national university campus activations, engaging the support of students
• a comprehensive social media and digital campaign including online advertising, social networking, a viral kids’ game and a range of eDM activities
• the inclusion of executions via traditional media (TVC and print)
• supporting PR activities, and
• periodic awareness and issue research.

Execution

Research was undertaken by Crosby Textor to better define the issues and key triggers. Prime Digital Media (PDM) managed activation events in eight university campuses across the country, designed to gather feedback on the movement and enlist early support from students. Social media leaked information online to build anticipation of the launch event, while a range of media and PR activities created a buzz.

The launch itself was big and the first time that a real-time interactive event had occurred on a world Heritage site such as the Sydney Opera House. A cross section of Indigenous leaders, Australia’s most powerful business leaders and celebrities, including Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, took part in the event, which was held at the Overseas Passenger Terminal in Sydney.

All attendees at the event placed their hands in paint and pressed onto a canvas mock-up of the Sydney Opera House. This was filmed and projected live, using eight high-definition projectors, onto the sails of the Sydney Opera House.
Simultaneous to the Opera House event, GenerationOne branded outdoor projections took place on iconic buildings in five capital cities (Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra) to reinforce the concept of GenerationOne as a national campaign.

The launch event was broadcast live on Sky, while GenerationOne TVCs went to air the same night. The GenerationOne website, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook streams were all fed content in real-time from the launch, with the PDM team working in shifts to provide a series of post-produced edits online within hours of the launch taking place.

Online advertising featured across online news media, while Facebook and Twitter established a user-generated dialogue and drove traffic to the website. A viral kids’ game (Go Game) was released online and via Facebook, encouraging play-and-share. A GenerationOne-branded bus undertook a three-month national road show, touring the country and making over 30 stops.

A communications team would send advance information and invitations to Indigenous and community stakeholders to raise awareness of the activation. At each stop, the GenerationOne team would erect a branded tent where spokespeople would talk to the crowd while staff would encourage people to sign up to the movement. A roving camera crew would capture interviews and success stories, upload them overnight for editing and have them published online the next day. Public relations activities and both national and regional print and television activity supported the campaign.

The final stage of this first phase occurred during the third week of May with a six-city giant outdoor projection event thanking GenerationOne supporters, encouraging other supporters and revealing phase two of the campaign. During this period a three-day blitz in Westfield shopping centres nationally will engage shoppers in the campaign and seek their support.

Results

A Crosby Textor survey 48 hours after the launch showed that more than a quarter of all Australians had seen or read something about the launch of GenerationOne.

One month into the campaign over 20,000 supporters had already signed up. The rolling campaign has captured over 150 separate video interviews and success stories, and attracted significant national and local media coverage.

Marketers have long spoken about a future in which large campaigns are led by non-traditional marketing (experiential, social media and digital) and supported by traditional media. This campaign can be seen as a living example – a big, bold and sweeping movement driven by deep, lasting brand engagement. It demonstrates the potentially valuable role non-traditional media can play in a successful launch.

The national ‘Bookend’ event will mark the transition from launch to build, in which a range of integrated initiatives will build upon the progress made to date, continuing to grow awareness and the registered supporter base.