To target potential investors to invest in the Metropolitan Smooth Bonus Fund. Potential investors were identified as those with an income above R10 000 per month. AMPS results showed that 64.9 % of this group had taken part in some form of gambling in the past 4 weeks.

Our target market has high disposable income and can afford luxuries. But, they are business-minded. They like to take risks, but they are single-minded in their pursuit of material wealth.Our goal was to convince them that the Smooth Bonus Fund is an investment fund that carries much less risk than other investment types. Casinos in South Africa have only become legal very recently: they are still a novelty and are exceptionally well-attended.By utilizing casinos as the environment to target potential consumers, our challenge was to find a way to physically access them and command their attention in such a way as to let them feel comfortable about receiving our advertising message.Disguised as a normal slot-machine in a casino, our rigged one-arm bandit is aimed at casino patrons - people who are used to getting nothing in return for their the money they ‘invest’ in gambling.It always ends up on the same message: An encouragement to invest more sensibly with the Metropolitan Smooth Bonus Fund. At the same time, the money (R5), which was put into the machine, is automatically refunded.

This was a media first in South Africa and cost was negligible – R12000 per machine and hiring of floorspace.In an country where financial institutions traditionally stick to targeting their audience through conventional media, the stand-out, novelty factor and creative solution guaranteed impact and talkability. This is one of those occasions where the media idea is the creative idea.

It is always exciting for a media planner to ‘find’ a new medium. In this case, to use a one-armed bandit as an advertising medium. But, how do you book and pay for space on a medium that you’ve just invented? Our team decided the most effective way was to build and own our own sites (gambling machines) and simply ‘place’ them in the appropriate places i.e. casinos. We believe that this is the first time a one-armed bandit has been utilized as an advertising medium, a situation which gives our client complete exclusivity. In addition, by placing the one-armed bandit in casinos, we target our potential customers at a place where money is very definitely on their minds.People throw money away by ‘investing’ it in gambling. To target gamblers in the very place they are losing their hard-earned money, and suggest to them that there is a more reliable way to invest money (in Metropolitan Smooth Bonus Fund) is the perfect marriage of the message and the medium.

Apart from being a ‘new’ media idea, positioned in a very appropriate place, the idea carries with something that can’t be bought: a willingness on the part of the consumer to undertake the advertising journey we want to take them on. The gambler is at the casino to make money. They put their coin in the machine. They watch the cherries and bars spin around. They’re excited to be gambling. And then they receive an entirely unexpected message that taps into the very thing they are trying to do: make money. The underlying message is a change in the paradigm of gambling from that of ‘sometimes you win’ to ‘here’s a way you can always win’.

This is one of those occasions where the media idea is the creative idea.

It is always exciting for a media planner to ‘find’ a new medium. In this case, to use a one-armed bandit as an advertising medium. But, how do you book and pay for space on a medium that you’ve just invented? Our team decided the most effective way was to build and own our own sites (gambling machines) and simply ‘place’ them in the appropriate places i.e. casinos.