Situation

With Piper-Heidsieck entering its fifth year as the Official Champagne of the 2023 Australian Open (AO23), we were tasked to find a way to cut through the cluttered market of AO sponsors to grow Piper’s brand awareness and engage Upper Millennials in a summer of tennis like no other. With the Australian Open back to full capacity, we seized a unique opportunity to own our share of voice and generate as much national and international hype surrounding Piper-Heidsieck’s presence as possible.

Brief

Leverage Piper-Heidsieck’s Official Champagne partnership with the Australian Open, and find fresh ways to tell the brand story in its fifth consecutive year of sponsorship.

Objectives

Earned media: Increase earned social and media value;

Piper-Heidsieck owned channels: Prioritise quality over quantity by reducing total posts and increase video-led content;

Sales: Increase visitors to our on and off site activations.

We used two cultural capitals, Melbourne and Paris, to inspire the design of the Piper-Heidsieck Champagne Bar. The space reflected a Parisian-style corner cafe, injected with an effervescent Melbourne flair to create the perfect place for people watching and to enjoy a glass of Champagne in between matches. The reinvigoration of our onsite Champagne Bar was made possible by partnering with local creative visionaries, Bloom Boy (Floral Artist), TY Designs (Set Designer) and Mrs White (photographer).

We also built on our local heroes campaign of 2022 (Melbourne Uncorked featuring Melbourne’s talented performers) and celebrated our reinvigorated city showcasing heroes of a different kind, providing a stage for emerging actors, musicians, singers, performers, dancers and artists who were deprived of a stage for over a year during the pandemic.

By hosting daily talent, it established the Champagne Bar as the ultimate place to see and be seen for Upper Millennials.

Insight

After two lost years, Australians were shedding their pandemic skin. The world was in a recovery phase following the pandemic and people were seeking ways to maximise their personal experiences and to prioritise their happiness, focus on themselves, and reignite their connections with others.

Key message

Audacious and pioneering Champagne House, Piper-Heidsieck invites you to celebrate everyday moments by choosing Champagne as your drink of the summer.

Target audience

Upper Millennials – digitally native professionals aged 25-45 who prioritise lifestyle and experiences over future wealth; seekers of modern luxury; lifestyle enthusiasts who balance wellbeing with partying; engage with events and celebrities over TV and newspapers; and are driven by travel and adventure.

Assets

Through a full day talent shoot, Champagne Bar reveal and ambassador shoot and content capture at events and activations, we delivered 410 still images, 17 reels and 1x30 sec hero video.

The campaign was in-market from 29 November 2022–29 January 2023.

Key campaign beats:

Tease: 29 November-8 January

Launch: w/c 9 January (Week 0)

Elevate: 16 January-29 January (Week 1+ 2 of AO23)

To ensure Piper-Heidsieck was dominating media share of voice, we began seeding stories in November about our ambassadors, creative team and a peek into what to expect at the onsite Champagne Bar. We also ensured the conversation continued across talent and owned social channels to build hype.

Piper-Heidsieck was front and centre in Week 0 with a multi-tiered event strategy involving global and local talent across multiple locations, amplified on all channels.

During the tournament, to elevate the Piper-Heidsieck Champagne Bar and drive consumers to visit, we hosted well-known talent daily and a star-studded cocktail party to drive media results and cause a stir amongst tennis-goers.

Key results by objective:

Earned: Total PR value: $25+M advertising value equivalent x 3 (+0.4% from 2022)

Piper-Heidsieck owned channels: Reduced overall posts by 55%. Reels also accounted for 55% of our overall engagements, validating our strategy to increase video-led content.

Sales: Overall, 839,192 visitors attended over the 14 days (+144% from 2022).

Total PR value: $25M+

308M+ total reach

Increased Piper-Heidsieck’s IG followers by 606

Record crowds: +144% on 2022 and +4% on 2020 (pre COVID)

141 total online hits

491 total broadcast hits

57 total print hits

451 total social media hits (talent)

Gained coverage across all major news publications, for example: (Nine News, A Current Affair, The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Financial Review), The Australian, Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph, T Magazine, InStyle Australia, Ch 7+10, Harper’s Bazaar Australia, Good Food, Delicious, Broadsheet)

Broadsheet competition: 10k+ page views vs 8k in 2022. All content received approximately 11,420 page views with an average reading time of 02:29 minutes (Broadsheet’s average is 2 minutes)

Notable guests of Piper-Heidsieck:

Dannii Minogue, Australian Singer

Kelly Gale, Swedish Model

Joel Kinnaman, Swedish-American Actor

Rachel Griffiths, Actress

Anecdotally, Tennis Australia revealed no-one elevates their sponsorship of the AO like Piper-Heidsieck did. Our campaign increased crowd numbers by building anticipation for the on-site experience.

As a lower ranking sponsor regarding spend, the amplification plan ensured Piper-Heidsieck’s share of voice was high among larger sponsors. Compared to them, Piper-Heidsieck also engaged no paid talent aside from its ambassadors.