The 2024 showing of the B&T Awards are mere weeks away now, with the best, brightest and most beautiful in adland set to descend upon Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion on 8 November.
In the run-up to the awards, we’re taking you through the work that got these agencies a place among the finalists. Last time out, we looked at the Award for Bravery finalists. This time, we’re looking at the Best Digital Campaign finalists.
But to find out who wins, you’ll need to grab your tickets for the B&T Awards now!
Here, in their own words — and in alphabetical order only — are the finalists.
Akcelo, “For The Plot”, Tinder
In November 2023, Tinder Australia was facing an unprecedented summer dating season; with increased competition for share-of-voice & users from other dating apps, & Gen Z Aussies growing more casual in their approach to their dating lives. To address this, Tinder developed a campaign to (re)inspire Gen Z Aussies to get back into dating on Tinder, through an influencer-led approach that would dominate dating category share-of-voice on social (organic + paid), & drive YoY Tinder user growth & positive brand affinity.
Around this time, Gen Z Aussies were creating & consuming content on TikTok that celebrated themselves as the main character of their own story. While #maincharacter already had +17 million views & +800 posts in Australia (Tiktok Insights, Q4’23), #doitfortheplot was emerging as a complementary new trend on TikTok.
Tinder engaged 20 single TikTok creators to go on first dates, with new Tinder matches ‘For The Plot’. Creators posted date content to their own channels, leveraging their audience reach & engagement, & seeding content organically on #doitfortheplot. To put a unique & ownable Tinder spin on the trend, the team developed ‘plot twist’ date concepts that would be exciting for users to watch & make them think differently about dating.
The campaign resonated strongly with the target Gen Z audience. Influencer content (organic + paid) drove +35 million views, with 17 million of these views on influencer channels alone. Content engagement was strong, with +255,000 likes, and brand sentiment in the comment section was overwhelmingly positive. Most importantly, the campaign resulted in a positive lift YoY in users for Tinder Australia, during key campaign periods
Jaywing for New Balance
In Australia, New Balance faced the challenge of expanding beyond its lifestyle brand perception during a cost of living crisis. With consumer spending down and strong competition from giants like Nike and Adidas, traditional growth strategies were limited. Jaywing, a digital performance agency, approached this challenge with a strategic, integrated digital campaign.
To optimize ad spend, we utilized Adthena’s automated bidding technology to identify and eliminate wasted spending on branded search terms where New Balance already ranked organically. This strategic adjustment saved $40,000 within six months. We also leveraged New Balance’s new Customer Data Platform (CDP) to target specific audiences more effectively in Meta campaigns. By focusing on three key audiences, we achieved a 30% improvement in campaign performance, which increased sales and revenue while reducing overall ad spend.
To further enhance New Balance’s market position, we invested in improving their organic search presence. We reorganized the website architecture to better highlight running products, optimized content, and focused on high-traffic keywords such as “men’s running shoes” and “women’s running shoes.” These efforts led to a significant increase in organic search rankings and visibility.
The results were outstanding, with a 69% year-over-year (YoY) increase in organic revenue, a 98% growth in paid search revenue, and a 49% rise in Meta Ads revenue. We also achieved substantial savings in Google Ads and improved the return on ad spend (ROAS) across both paid search and Meta Ads. Organic search traffic to running pages increased by 322%, and impressions grew by 620%.
This comprehensive strategy not only delivered exceptional results but also solidified Jaywing’s partnership with New Balance, leading to our appointment as their agency across the APAC region and the expansion of our office footprint in Asia.
Grab your tickets for the B&T Awards now!
TBWA Australia, “Autotranslate”, mycar Tyre & Auto
Introducing Auto-Translate. A web-based mobile tool to help people learn the language of car. Housed on the mycar site, it translated technical car terminology consumers were used to hearing into humorous and easy-to-understand analogies.
Designed to be used where consumers were most confused by technical automotive language, people could simply pull their phone from their pocket then talk, type or upload a bill to translate in real-time.
DDB Sydney, “The Original Mouthful”, McDonald’s Australia
In 1974, the Big Mac jingle went viral before viral was even a thing. 14 little words. 7 delicious ingredients. Known by four generations of Australians. But a new generation – Gen Z – didn’t know it at all. To them, the Big Mac was their ‘Dad’s burger’. It was famous, yet forgotten.
McDonald’s Australia embarked on a nostalgic journey with “The Original Mouthful” campaign, reinvigorating the iconic Big Mac chant to resonate with both long-time fans and the new Gen Z audience. The seven-week media schedule was meticulously crafted to connect the past with the present, while strategically supporting throughout with key craveable limited time offer (LTO) Big Mac Range comms to drive purchase conversion for consumers.
The campaign kicked off and laid the groundwork of ‘Connecting Past and Present,’ Paying homage to Big Mac’s enduring legacy, we set out to connect the next generation of Big Mac lovers with the old by bringing back our most iconic burger using mass reaching channels within highly visible environments.
Bringing back the original promo, reimagined.
Following this, the campaign shifted gears for three weeks with ‘The Chant Promo.’ We encouraged active participation as Australians were invited to recite the Big Mac chant, utilising channels that drive strong audience engagement and encourage participation (UGC) with bespoke social filters on Snapchat and Tiktok to enter the 4sec challenge.
To round out, we proved that Gen Z where now an integral part of the Big Mac’s evolution. Using targeted media placements we showcased Big Mac’s new appeal to Gen Z consumers by celebrating their UGC content social, and OOH using ‘out-of-phone’ technology bringing Tik Tok content out into the world. The campaign’s success was a testament to the timeless charm of the Big Mac for generations to come.
Grab your tickets for the B&T Awards now!
Dig, “Margret – Bulla Chief Cottage Cheese Officer”, Bulla
This campaign was picked up and featured on Gruen (refer Gruen video), cited as the most effective use of social/TikTok they had seen. Achieved mass reach with 37mn views, strong brand equity uplift, and sales growth.
Cottage cheese is seen as a product of yesteryear, consumed for dieting. Our job was to establish relevance to younger generations.
Counterintuitively, younger people, like Gen Z’ers are increasingly connecting in socials with authentic content from older “gran-influencers”.
Enter Margaret, Bulla’s Chief Cottage Cheese Officer.
In this hilarious and self-deprecating campaign, we see Margaret takeover Bulla’s TikTok to show young people what they’re missing out on. Margaret featured in content that felt authentic to her character whilst keeping native to TikTok. Putting on her own twist on popular TikTok formats such as the ‘Of course’ and ‘Everything I eat in a day’, as well as whipping up her own original content that showcased the benefits, deliciousness and versatility of Bulla Cottage Cheese to her loving audience. Her role has been pivotal in solving the problem Bulla faced introducing Bulla Cottage Cheese to new audiences and bringing relevance and modernity to a heritage brand.
Imagine trying to sell-in to Bulla’s stakeholders that the best way to engage younger generations was to lead with an older person.
@bullafamilydairy Jumping on the #OfCourse trend! ❤️ Margaret, Bulla Chief Cottage Cheese Officer #CottageCheese ♬ original sound – Bulla Family Dairy
Havas Host, “Louie The Flyhunt”, Reckitt
Approaching pest season in 2023 (December to March), all the data was pointing to one of Australia’s worst fly seasons on record. Described by national news outlets as “plague-like proportions”, where a nation saw a problem, we saw an opportunity for the brand to stand out and, importantly, tackle a brand problem at the same time.
The next generation of insect killer grocery buyers were not engaging with Louie or the brand. For them another TV ad wasn’t the solution – a channel they were tuning out of. Instead, we delivered something they couldn’t ignore, by turning the 3 billion flies already buzzing around Australia into 3 billion bespoke product demonstrations.
The strategy was simple, capitalise on and react to the unprecedented fly season heading our way whilst levering the strength of Louie in a way more fitting for the next generation.
We put a $10,000 bounty on Louie’s head and launched the nation’s biggest fly hunt. Through an AR mobile web app with fly recognition technology, we asked Aussies to scan flies on their phone they had killed with Mortein to see if they had killed Louie and win the $10,000 bounty. Every fly scanned became an ad for Mortein.
We placed Out Of Home and street posters all over the country. And we created urgency through breaking news announcements that hijacked other brands in the Reckitt portfolios’ films with breaking news ticker tapes including Vanish and Finish.
Grab your tickets for the B&T Awards now!
Howatson+Company, “PetWatch” Petbarn
Every year, thousands of Australian pets suffer from paralysis ticks, heartworm and other deadly parasites. Invisible dangers that lurk in our backyards, waterways, parks and beyond.
But the average Aussie pet parent was only buying enough treatment to protect their pet from these parasites for 35-65% of the year.
Petbarn and Greencross Vets needed to jolt pet parents out of apathy and into action. So we made the threat visible for the very first time.
PetWatch is an innovative utility from Greencross Vets and Petbarn that uncovers and tracks parasite threats across the nation – by cross-referencing live weather patterns, satellite data and records from over 170 vet and hospital locations.
Now pet owners across Australia can search their suburb, discover their threat level, learn about the parasites around them, and find tailored preventative treatment for their pets before it’s too late.
PetWatch was launched across 200 Petbarn stores, 130 vet practices, and to the public through an integrated PR campaign that received thorough national coverage.
It delivered record-breaking growth for the overlooked and underappreciated category of preventative treatment at Petbarn on every single measure and drove an ROI of 3.14.
But, most importantly, it helped save lives, with Greencross Vets reporting a decline in parasite incidences for the first time in over four years.
Howatson+Company, “I’m Dying Inside”, Modibodi
Life’s a lot for young people. Heartbreak. Anxiety. Moving out. Coming out. Sex. #hustleculture. The f***ing climate crisis. Men. Then you get your period.
To show Gen Z how Modibodi, Australia’s leading period underwear brand, gives you the leak-proof support to navigate it all, we didn’t create an ad – we created a new series built for their favourite platform.
‘I’m Dying Inside’ is a modern period drama created exclusively for TikTok. Five episodes, four housemates, all getting their periods at the same time. A taboo-breaking celebration of life today for young menstruators, exploring issues like baby-gay hook-ups, endometriosis flare-ups, accidental period sex stains and more.
Created with the production value of TV,?crafted for 9 by 16. Featuring a cast, crew and writer’s room made up female and non-binary Gen Z talent, original screenplays dripping with cultural nuance and original music for each episode.
But we couldn’t just put the episodes on Modibodi’s TikTok channel and expect people to watch it. To make the algorithm work for us and drive views, we collaborated with TikTok to create an entire ecosystem of BTS content that tapped into platform trends and topics of interest.
This fresh approach to delivering content achieved huge results, helping an entire generation of young menstruators fall in love with the Modibodi brand. Slay.
Grab your tickets for the B&T Awards now!
M&C Saatchi Group, “UNCLOUD”, Minderoo Foundation
Launched as a safe version of smoking from a seemingly anonymous source, vaping has been able to grow in a vacuum free of truth and without challenge; branded, flavoured and socialised into aspiration. It felt like a safe and sexy habit to dabble with for many youth.
Against this backdrop and with traditional health messaging failing to slow the vaping epidemic, we had to take a different path. Introducing UNCLOUD, a revolutionary campaign that elevated the voices of those affected most, to lead a peer-to-peer platform to warn of the true horrors of vape addiction and shift behaviour and change the culture surrounding vaping from the inside out.
To launch, we got young Australians whose mental and physical health had been affected to write their own warning labels, in the style of iconic anti-cigarette packaging, empowering them to share their warnings with peers at UNCLOUD.ORG. These weren’t warnings from faceless legislators, they were warnings from the heart.
Each and every placement needed to be carefully crafted to appear authentically throughout in youth culture, with strategically placed warnings within TikTok, video games, and physical spaces. With incredible results, UNCLOUD showed that youth-led public health messaging can be far more effective than traditional approaches, providing a blueprint for future initiatives.
OMD, “Project Enigma”, NSW Government – Cancer Institute
Developed and delivered in partnership with the Cancer Institute NSW (part of NSW Health) and creative agency Bastion, the ‘Do you know what you’re vaping?’ campaign tackled the issue of increasing vaping rates among young people in NSW.
Around the world e-cigarettes, aka vapes, have been presented as a less harmful alternative to smoking. Full of nicotine and toxic chemicals, it isn’t harmless, and young Australians are being deceived into thinking it is. We needed to change this perception, to stop youth developing an addictive habit.
Vaping-behaviour is hidden and hard to detect, the same holds true for online culture – the space where our youth spend their time. Social media is where our teen audience feel free and where they control their identities. It’s in these spaces where they are hyper-connected, that misinformation and manipulation thrive.
Inspired by insights, and faced with the challenge of an elusive, un-trackable audience, we would revolutionise our approach to data to capture moments for motivation and action to drive change. Introducing PROJECT ENIGMA, an innovative solution constructed to identify trends among priority audiences. Blending data, research, and consumer intelligence to amplify the potency of our strategic thinking, and help determine how, when and where we needed to land our messages, and from who.
The Insider panel within Project Enigma saw a live target audience panel pressure-test communication, ensuring relevance and resonance. This iterative process optimised for maximise campaign success. Using these insights and influencers, we strategically positioned ourselves in the right contexts, delivering multi-variation messages to underscore the harms of vaping to shift behaviour. Deep audience understanding helped us tailor and optimise the source, message, language, channel and most effective creative as we progressed. This campaign smashed our target with 84% agreeing “Vaping is not safe” and 71% of vapers intent to quit.
Grab your tickets for the B&T Awards now!
Thinkerbell, “Incognito Launch”, Tooheys Extra Dry
To relaunch the infamous Tooheys Extra Dry Platinum (TED Plats), Australia’s first and most notorious high-strength lager from the early 2000s, we leaned into its past and brought it to the masses – by telling no one.
A relaunch befitting its controversial image, we created a fictional ‘shell company,’ Platinum Logistics, that acted as the front for its return. Visiting the business’s landing page in standard browsing mode showed you the credentials of a seemingly ordinary company. But visiting the same URL in incognito mode revealed the hidden whereabouts of TED Plats’ return. Details then led fans to sketchy underground physical locations nationwide where fans could redeem a passphrase for concealed packages containing Platinum.
Rumours spread across Reddit through a single post from a fan, and then the word was out, resulting in a reach of over 16 million impressions and making headlines around the country. Not bad for a beer we intentionally made hard to find. While our launch was purposefully incognito, the word is now well and truly out.
Grab your tickets for the B&T Awards now!
