The initial creative was to launch the Crack Ups with a mascot character ‘Mr Crack Up’ - a life-size Christmas Cracker that would front the campaign through a series of humorous content films that talked about how rubbish traditional Christmas crackers are and try to tell some of the many unfunny jokes that are found in them; Mr Crack Up and well-known Aussie comedians, Rove McManus and Ronnie Chieng, would provide the jokes for the crackers. The goal was to raise $100,000 via crowd-funding platform, Pozible, in order to get them onto Aussie Christmas tables, however, we believed the target wasn’t achievable through Mr Crack Up alone, so we looked to bring a more meaningful and authentic message into the campaign. We needed a more authentic 'hook', so we unearthed the story of comedian Andrew Barnett whose son was diagnosed with cancer - we convinced Andrew to front our campaign.

With six weeks to raise $100,000, our PR approach was four-fold:

• Pre-launch: Created teaser packs of the Crack Ups to drive excitement amongst media ahead of the official launch. These were shared with 40+ journalists across two publishing houses where they met Andrew and Mr Crack Up. (w/c 17 October)

• Launch: Nationally launched the campaign with Andrew’s emotive story delivering the meaning behind the new, special crackers - underpinned by research revealing Australia’s attitudes towards Christmas crackers. (w/c 24 October)

• Sustaining Momentum: Worked with Camp Quality families across Australia currently undergoing a cancer journey to discuss the Crack Ups and the importance of laughter at Christmas. (w/c 7 November)

• Influencer engagement: Gifted influencers with Crack Ups to raise awareness within their communities, highlights included: Rove McManus (Radio host/Comedian), Ada Nicodemou (Actress) Melissa Hoyer (Editor, News.com.au), Bronwyn McCahon (Former Editor, Cosmopolitan) and Shelly Horton (TV Presenter).

• An incredible 64 broadcast stories featuring Andrew, his son and the Camp Quality kids - representing over 7 hours of broadcasting

• 250+ media items in total!

• 47million+ audience reach

• $100,000 target exceeded two weeks ahead of deadline

• In total $140,360 was raised – our client said ‘this is the most effective PR campaign we have ever done’

The Pozible page featured a real-time donation counter which we leveraged to pivot the media strategy throughout the six week period and measure the impact of PR coverage. For example, when Andrew Barnett was interviewed on ABC Weekend Breakfast, the Pozible page donations increase by $30,000 within the following 2 hours.