Christmas in Australia is different to the northern hemisphere. Summer is just starting, schools have broken up for the major holiday, and the media market is in hiatus. TV networks are out of official ratings period, so they default to re-runs and old movies. It’s a time for people to get outside. All advertisers also know this fact – that’s why the media market, especially outdoor, is all but tied up months in advance of Christmas.

We also knew that 60% of shoppers are exposed to outdoor media within an hour of shopping so we needed to find a way to cut through that clutter.

Our idea was to gift wrap luxury cars and boats and park them near major shopping centres and tourist attractions in the week leading to Christmas. That way we reached last-minute shoppers at exactly the right time, just before they started their shopping.

During the week before Christmas, we gift-wrapped luxury cars and boats, effectively turning them into fun, eye-catching mobile billboards. These were parked near major shopping centres, tourist hubs and high-profile advertising sites. A large gift tag on the presents read, ‘The little gift that could win big.’ A not-so-subtle reminder that targeted our customers at the right time - while they were on their way to do their Christmas shopping. The outdoor activation ran for the seven days leading up to Christmas in the key markets of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. To extend the reach, we filmed the stunt and posted a video in social channels. Picking up and responding as people saw the stunt and posted it to their social pages. PR was also used to help increase the reach of the stunt.

$1.1 million in earned media for a campaign cost of less than $100,000.

Over 1.9 times the number of Christmas tickets were sold compared to last year.

Instant Scratch-Its sales were up 18.3% year on year.