The B&T Awards—adland’s night of nights— is inching ever closer. We’re set to take over Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion once more on 8 November.
On the night, we’ll be revealing the agencies that are truly at the top of their game and the campaigns that got them the high scores across all manner of categories.
In the last instalment of B&T Awards The Work, we looked at the Best Out-of-Home campaigns. This time, we’re looking at the Best PR Campaigns, featuring some of the most eye-catching work of the last year — from Thinkerbell’s bedazzled Menulog delivery bag to Special and PHD’s “Shift 20 Initiative” with the Dylan Alcott Foundation.
You can get a look at the rest of the campaign entries for this year’s B&T Awards here.
Here, in their own words, are this year’s Best PR Campaign finalists.
Eleven, “The Wheelchair Ballkid”, Mastercard
Being a ballkid at a Grand Slam is a life-changing opportunity for tennis-mad kids.
But those in wheelchairs have always been overlooked because society didn’t believe they could do it.
While there were no specific rules disallowing people in wheelchairs from taking part, an underlying social bias prevented them from doing so.
Mastercard has been the official payments partner of the Australian Open for 8 years. Outside of this partnership, Mastercard needed to build on their established commitment to inclusion by design beyond just payments alone.
We developed new assistive technology to bring the first wheelchair ballkid to the court during the first Grand Slam of the year, in Australia.
Because a world where we all belong is Priceless.
We brought together a network of passionate experts to make the first wheelchair ballkid possible – technology partners, ballkid coach and assessor Diana Sutterby, Paralympic wheelchair tennis gold-medalist Heath Davidson, previous world #4 tennis champion Alicia Molik, accessibility consultants and, most importantly, 11-year-old junior wheelchair tennis champion Sonny Rennison.
We developed first-of-its-kind assistive technology that allows wheelchair users to seamlessly pick up and store tennis balls with the same speed, agility and accuracy as every other ballkid.
The first wheelchair ballkid reached over 400 million people.
Every national television station covered the story with over 4.6 hours of broadcast, and it was front-page news in Australia’s two leading newspapers.
There was an 87% increase in positive brand sentiment month-on-month
Mastercard has open-sourced the technology for all, available through inexpensive 3D printing, taking the impact from an event in Melbourne to the entire world.
The pilot program was a groundbreaking success, showing what is possible.
As a result of the campaign, wheelchair ballkids will take part in tournament matches in 2025.
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Eleven, “TOUCH”, Mastercard
Breaking down barriers and making the world more inclusive is part of Mastercard’s brand ambition.
Their new Touch Card features unique tactile notches designed to make payment easier for the blind and low vision (BLV) community.
Mastercard wanted people to understand that these cards were not just a new design idea but were created to make a material difference for people who are blind or have low vision.
To celebrate the Touch Cards’ launch in Australia, the brief was to create a connection with the BLV community and bring the thinking behind the card to life in a new way.
So, we redesigned an experience that had always catered to those who are sighted: cinema.
‘TOUCH’ is a feature-length motion picture without pictures. Brought to life solely through Dolby 7.1 sound, without images or audio descriptions. Designed so all audiences can enjoy the magic of cinema together, no matter their level of vision.
By bringing together non-sighted and sighted sound designers, composers, actors & writers, we were able to reinvent the cinema experience through sound.
Together, we wrote an audio-first screenplay – refined by engaging recurring blind and low vision focus groups. Our sound team used spatial panning, subharmonics, original foley and more to turn each scene into an immersive sonic environment that didn’t need to rely on audio descriptions.
‘TOUCH’ has been submitted to film festivals globally, including Cannes, Venice and SXSW.
Importantly, the production learnings from TOUCH have been turned into a lesson module and shared with dozens of top-tier film schools around the world, giving future filmmakers a blueprint to make more inclusive productions.
Additionally, the production of TOUCH employed 34 people who are blind or low vision, giving them access to the film industry, where they’ve been traditionally overlooked.
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Hopeful Monsters, “The Original Macas”, Australian Macadamias
In 2023, the Australian macadamia industry faced a sales decline due to low farm-gate prices and limited marketing budgets. With high inflation, interest rates, and a tight labor market causing local food prices to soar, Australians were financially strained. However, cooking shows like MasterChef Australia promoted native ingredients, encouraging local food sourcing. Despite ideal conditions, many Australians were unaware that macadamias are native to Australia, growing here for over 60 million years.
To elevate macadamias’ profile, we launched the cheeky ‘Macas vs Maccas’ campaign, playing on the nickname Australians use for both McDonald’s and macadamias. A strategic billboard outside a busy McDonald’s in Sydney proclaimed, “We’re the Original Macas. Down Under for Over 60 Million Years.”
Michael ‘Maca’ McMahon, a Bundaberg macadamia grower, championed the campaign on Channel Nine’s TODAY Show, urging support for Aussie farmers. Media outlets like the Daily Mail and Delicious covered the story, boosting visibility. Chef Mindy Woods created a macadamia-infused menu, which influencers and media praised, further amplifying the campaign.
We invited other ‘Maca’-nicknamed Aussies to join the conversation, receiving support from iconic personality Sam Mac. We also encouraged McDonald’s to collaborate, though we’re still awaiting their response.
The campaign achieved a 17% sales increase, 163 media pieces, and 46.8 million opportunities to see (OTS), with the TODAY Show exclusive reaching 6.4 million OTS. Creator content drove 157,000 impressions and 208,000 views with a 6.81% engagement rate. The paid social campaign saw a 1.58% engagement rate, 1.44 million impressions, and 22,800 engagements at a $3.34 CPM.
The campaign, praised for its creativity and strategic execution, generated positive industry sentiment and won an award at The Drum’s Marketing APAC Awards.
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Organic Publicity, “Bridgerton in Bowral”, Netflix
For series three of hit regency romance Bridgerton, Netflix was given the opportunity to launch the global campaign with a tour of fan favourites Penelope and Colin. The catch was the tour was six weeks from series premiere, and a standard talent tour wouldn’t be enough to keep fans simmering over such a lead time.
From an insight that the appeal of Bridgerton for fans is a longing for the charm of the regency era, the concept of a town takeover was developed, allowing fans to truly step into the world of Bridgerton in Bowral, in Southern NSW.
Bowral became Bridgerton, literally. Restaurants served themed menu items, stores merchandised their shop windows in Regency core, local bakeries sold specific treats and held preview screenings for 2500+ fans.
The culmination was a garden party soirée, set amidst the historic charm of Milton Park Country House. Bowral witnessed a massive influx of fans, including die-hard enthusiasts traveling from across the country and from as far as London and Los Angeles.
The talent surprised guests at a screening event at a custom ballroom cinema before taking part in a global junket from their country manor in Bowral, and taking a stroll around the ton, creating viral social content at the key town activations.
Over 525 pieces of press coverage were generated reaching 526.5m, social media posts generated a viral buzz and reach of 127.7m. As reported in the South Coast Register, the activation brought over $50 million in additional tourism spending to the area.
Australia kicked off a global campaign that set up the series as one of the top 3 most watched Netflix shows of all time, with 764,900,000 hours viewed and 95,800,000 plays.
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Poem, “Australia’s Ultimate Second Car”, Uber Carshare
Australia is car obsessed. 92% of households own at least one. So persuading them that they should rent a second one, is challenging.
The solution? We took F1 driver Valtteri Bottas (an Aussie at heart) and put his ultimate Second Car, purpose built for an Aussie road trip, on Uber Carshare.
Then we gave Aussies a chance to rent it for free, whilst Valtteri was busy racing his first one.
The ute was loaded with Aussie essentials, from thong storage and mullet aeration technology, to a meat pie warmer.
The launch video had 30m+ organic views with no paid media, generated 830 press articles and was talked about throughout the Formula One Grand Prix coverage by commentators. Results showed a dramatic increase in brand uplift, ad recall (via a Meta brand lift study) and ultimately bookings.
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Special NZ, “The Gravy Train”, KFC
Whilst New Zealanders love their rugby, that love doesn’t extend to taking public transport to the rugby games. In fact, ‘a third would rather watch their team lose, than take public transport to the game’. So what could long time rugby sponsor KFC do to help change that? What about commandeering an entire 155 tonne train, running from Britomart to Eden Park (home of the All Blacks an the Auckland Blues), and turning it into KFC’s first ever locomotive service?
The Gravy Train delivered 58 local PR articles in NZ, 16.5m impressions (target of 3.5m)and earned PR to the value of $487,707. While this campaign was about awareness, and fame, we generated some serious commercial results for ‘delivery’ too – total delivery transactions increased by 9% while this campaign was running, including a 21.6% increase in transactions across KFC’s owned delivery channels.
Allllllll aboard the Gravy Train!
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Special & PHD, “Shift 20 Initiative”, Dylan Alcott Foundation
Despite almost 20% of Australians having a visible or non-visible disability, only 1% are represented by brands through their advertising and marketing communications, leaving a large portion of the Australian population feeling unseen and unacknowledged.
Partnering with the Dylan Alcott Foundation, we were tasked with not only raising awareness around the current lack of visibility of people with disability in mainstream media, but also inspiring long term change; for which Special created The Shift 20 Initiative.
The Shift 20 Initiative needed to resonate with the Australian public to inspire real behaviour change and brand action, with PR a driving force in prompting conversation around the issue. All launch activity was strategically devised to raise awareness of the nationwide issue, generating significant earned media coverage through a variety of media verticals. This strategic approach ensured earned media coverage through APAC-wide Advertising and Marketing trade publications, and consumer titles spanning national broadcast, print, online and social.
The campaign secured over 600M impressions with an estimated combined reach of 96% amongst Australians 18+. This was achieved through 144 pieces of media coverage in AU, 467 pieces of coverage in the US giving a huge 434 million opportunities to see.
Over 200 brands, organisations and agencies also reached in the weeks following launch to see how they could get involved in the initiative.
However the true marker of success was the response from members of the disability community, with personal stories shared expressing gratitude for the campaign’s role in raising awareness and fostering positive lasting change by opening new employment pathways.
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The Hallway, “The Cardboard Cake”, Wholegreen Bakery
Coeliac disease affects over 1 in 70 Australians (>380,000) with accelerating rates of diagnosis every year.
Getting diagnosed with this incurable autoimmune condition is stressful and unpleasant, especially the prospect of having to eat gluten-free food the rest of your life – because the general perception is that means a life sentence of replacing the food you love with bland and tasteless alternatives. Especially with the reputation that “gluten-free food tastes like cardboard.”
In this case, perception is not reality; Australia’s Wholegreen Bakery has been making delicious gluten-free food for more than a decade. It’s just that most Australians still don’t know this is possible.
With 2024 Coeliac Awareness Week looming, in partnership with Wholegreen Bakery and coeliac Australia, we decided it was time to dispel the “Gluten-free food tastes like cardboard” myth once and for all – by creating a cake that looks like cardboard, but tastes like… delicious cake.
No one had ever made a Cardboard Cake before, so bringing our idea to the bakery shelves required months of R&D. We had to lean into industrial design, creating a bespoke baking tray to make pastry look like corrugated cardboard and trod a delicate tightrope, balancing cardboard appearance with delicious taste.
With a media budget of $0 to achieve our campaign goals, we made The Cardboard Cake our media. We launched during Coeliac Awareness Week by identifying a list of 100+ celebrity chefs and foodie influencers and simply sending them each a slice of Cardboard Cake fresh from the baker’s oven with an invitation to share their feedback on social media.
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Thinkerbell, “The Delivery Bag in Disguise”, Menulog
A local tale as old as time…
Enter big global brand campaign, with a multi-million dollar global budget, featuring big global pop stars…
The Brief: Make it Aussie & MAKE US FAMOUS.
The Catch(s): We can’t change or Aussie-fy any of the assets from global. No contractual obligation or allowances from Xtina. Only local budget available (diddly squat).
Luckily, we had a Genie in a Bottle. Serendipitously, Xtina was coming to Australia for the first time in 15 years. So we devised a cheeky plan, and let the universe do the rest. We made a bag fit for a queen and gifted her our delivery bag, which just so happened to be Menulog’s most distinctive asset. She actually used the bag… and got papped at LAX on her way to Australia. Our gamble paid off. The images went viral. And when she arrived, Aussie media went mental… Not just because she was in Australia, but because she was carrying our Menulog bag. With all the love the bag was getting, we approached her to do one of those What’s in my bag? videos… and she said YES! And it clocked over 8.4M views organically. The little brown paper bag blew up more than we could’ve ever imagined, making it well and truly famous.
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Thinkerbell, “Vegemite 100 Years”, Bega
In 2023, VEGEMITE turned 100, and this was cause for a BIG celebration, worthy of as much earned media as it could get. And what better way to mark a century than to remake the iconic Happy Little VEGEMITE commercial?
We initially launched a national public casting call that invited kids of Australia to audition for a once-in-a-lifetime role in its iconic remake. Children all over the nation responded in droves and VEGEMITE received over 10,000 audition applications from aspiring Happy Little VEGEMITEs destined for stardom, and we received 2000+ media mentions too.
Along with a new cast of Happy Little VEGEMITEs, the remake also featured a very special member of the VEGEMITE family, Trish Cavanagh. She was just seven years old when she marched on top of the VEGEMITE jar in the original 1950s ad, and now 64 years later she’s back, aged 71, and on board as a special guest within the 2023 remake. The Happy Little VEGEMITE ad embodies everything great about this country that we call home.
The new Happy Little VEGEMITE ad, and the next generation of Happy Little VEGEMITEs, proudly celebrates the tapestry of Aussie life – where the simple act of enjoying VEGEMITE brings people together and fosters a sense of belonging and nostalgia that resonates with every Australian heart.
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WiredCo, “The Shop That Stops The Nation”, THE ICONIC
HOW THE SHOP THAT STOPPED THE NATION DELIVERED OVER 3.7M WISHLISTING EVENTS IN JUST 12 HOURS.
When you’re trying to ween your brand off the addictive performance marketing and discounting drug, you need more than just wishful thinking. In the ICONIC’s case, you need wishful actions. Let us show you how we broke that cycle for Australia’s biggest online fashion retailer, delivering record levels of PR and Social reach and engagement in the process.
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