We wanted to remind the youth of South Africa that they should travel now, in the prime of their lives, and not later, when the burdens of adulthood start dragging them down. To achieve this, we gave a famous young comedian the ultimate grown-up responsibility – a baby. We custom-built a robot baby called #BABYBOT and programmed it to behave exactly like a real one. We then sent them to a music festival, where thousands of young people go to have fun. The stunt was shared in real time, then amplified and activated in the online space with social media posts and online films. The campaign served as a reminder to our youthful audience that good times come easy when you’re young, so they should make the most of this fact and travel now, instead of later. The campaign reinforced Student Flights' longstanding platform, 'Travel before it's not fun anymore.'

Implementation:

We needed a robot baby as loud and demanding as the real thing, so we created #BABYBOT - a 15kg, wi-fi enabled bundle of annoying. It could poop, wee and cry on cue, so our Dad had very little sleep. Like a real baby, it also had no off switch. A film crew followed their every move, capturing content to post it in realtime with the hashtag #BABYBOT. The footage was then edited and we first released a teaser trailer and then later a full 3-minute film. Both were released on social media.

Timeline:

1/26/2017 - 1/29/2017- Festival/Launch. Posts shared on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook.

2/24/2017 - Online Trailer Released (Youtube)

2/28/2017 - Full Online Film Released (Youtube)

3/1/2017 – Loyiso’s Facebook post of Full Online Film Released (Facebook)

Placement:

Twitter.

https://twitter.com/LoyisoMadinga/status/837695330493812736

Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPvDuVkFIq3/

Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/loyisomadingacomedy/videos/1836697823249434/

Youtube.

https://youtu.be/YV-mXDepsqQ

https://youtu.be/PUwqUuS6oRI

Scale:

The campaign was launched during the festival, leveraging the popularity of both the festival and the comedian, with his existing following.

Business impact - sales, donations, site traffic.:

The primary objective was awareness.

TOTAL EARNED MEDIA = R2,463,156

Impressions:

Reach: 1494859

Impressions: 2547331

Change in behaviour:

Trending at No. 2 in South Africa, the #BABYBOT campaign caught the imagination of the country. People shared in and commented on the comedian's challenging experience of taking a baby to music festival. Many shared the story via social media and discussed how insane and "painfully amusing" the experience was.

Consumer awareness:

#BABYBOT trended on Twitter at South Africa's number 2 spot for over 2 weeks.

Widespread media coverage including national TV exposure (ANN7) and coverage from bloggers, marketing, lifestyle and consumer media including ADWEEK/AdFreak, Independent Media, Daily News and IOL.

Showcased by Africa's biggest podcaster. (CliffCentral).

PR VALUE - R1,187,220

SOCIAL MEDIA VALUE (BrandsEye) - R1,275,936

TOTAL EARNED MEDIA = R2,463,156