Regain relevance for a board game everyone already knows

Monopoly is a classic board game that everyone has likely played at least once, and one that remains unchanged after 88 years. To counter the countless new family games launched by competitors, they introduce several variants (circa 10) a year, to grab the attention. However, this hasn’t slowed an outsized decline when compared to the category. Although awareness and consideration are high, the conversion to purchase has lagged. Something extraordinary was needed to regain relevance and drive extra sales. Monopoly wanted a low budget pilot targeting the Netherlands and Belgium to see if a breakthrough approach can be developed and rolled out globally down the line.

Fighting is good

The creative strategy evolved into a campaign idea; fighting is good. Children were photographed as they played Monopoly with their real families and became increasingly frustrated and angry. Headlines reflected the life lessons child psychologists determined could be learned by experiencing these negative emotions.

Key results from the survey and scientific input from renowned child psychologists on the educational benefits of fighting, formed a strong foundation for a PR narrative that added extra depth and editorial value to the campaign.

To ensure the campaign’s impact, and maximise the reach of the small media budget, we only ran the ads on select streets which actually appeared on the Monopoly board. Online the images were promoted via social ads linking to the PR narrative and drove readers to the webshop. Parallel to the outdoor and social ads we ran an online sales campaign, driving to the web shop.

Unleashing global conversations, with ultra local outdoor on just a few real Monopoly streets

To ensure the campaign’s (PR) impact, and maximise the reach of the small media budget, we only ran outdoor ads on select streets which actually appeared on the Monopoly board. Such as Leidsestraat and Neude in the Netherlands, and Meir and Nieuwstraat in Belgium.

Small budget, massive attention

The outdoor campaign resonated extremely well, being picked up by 44 of the biggest national media outlets, and more lifestyle / parenting themed outlets with a media reach of 66 million! Beyond Dutch and Belgian borders, the campaign was picked up by 168 media outlets (from Rolling Stone to Adweek) from 20 countries with a media reach of 488 million.

Extra sales growth

The campaign drove a 35% (index 185) extra increase in sales of Monopoly games during the campaign runtime (August-October) compared to the year before.