Two of the finalists for next month’s AFA Advertising Effectiveness Awards were revealed today at the Marketing in the New Millenium conference in Sydney.
The marketing team from Virgin Mobile and their advertising partners Host and The Glue Society are up for another award, shortly after winning big at the Cannes International Advertising Festival.
The team recently celebrated its ‘Five Cent’ campaign being one of just four winners globally of the inaugural Titanium Lions at the Cannes.
Also on the shortlist for an Advertising Effectiveness Award is work for Benadryl, the 55-year-old brand which has revived sales with its ‘Billy’s Mum’ campaign.
Host planner Olly Taylor said the Virgin Mobile brand had been suffering “growing pains” before the three Virgin Mobile campaigns—featuring Warren, a geek looking for love, a fun game called Ming Mong and midget rapper Five Cent.
Since the campaigns promoting the five cent Virgin to Virgin tariff were launched, the brand has delivered a $39.7m profit.
Taylor said the campaigns were designed to grab the attention of teenagers, a group which is the most price-sensitive and disloyal to brands, in a market that sees 50% churn every year.
“Teenagers are tribal, they have groups of less people who are contacted more. The phone is used almost exclusively for social reasons, so our aim was to drive down the cost of keeping in touch with your mates,” Taylor said. “We wanted to establish Virgin as the only youth oriented mobile brand.”
As a result, Virgin to Virgin calls have increased to 35% of total calls and calls to non-Virgin phones have also risen.
“The campaign was not successful just because of the price because that was matched and beaten as soon as it was offered. It was about encouraging teenagers to join groups and tribes.”
Batey Redcell planning director, Peter Barnes, also told of Benadryl’s success story.
The group was also under fire from 60 competitors, particularly Robitussin and new entrant Vicks.
“We did some research and found that 82% of consumer think coughing symptoms are worse at night and when a child coughs it disturbs the whole family,” said Barnes.
So the idea for the ‘Billy’s Mum’ campaign, featuring a tired family the day after a child has been coughing through the night.
Retail sales are up 31% and Barnes said the return on investment was 600%.
