Branded entertainment is a buzz in this country. Despite this, most traditional advertisers haven’t entertained the idea of testing this space as it requires a fundamental shift of thinking from eyeballs to engagement.

Therefore, how do you show the value of dollars spent when compared to their traditional everyday activity?

The challenges faced fell into two areas:

1. Distance

• Activating a national campaign in a country that’s 14 times as big as France attracts enormous logistical, transport, planning and activation costs per site.

2. Government legislation

• Most local Government sites don’t allow brands to activate, limiting the number of spaces available & brand messaging that can be communicated (<10% of signage). Thus all activity must be designed & pitched from a community benefit POV.

• Event runsheets, risk assessments, insurance, engineering drawings, signage and security plans all need to be produced prior to site approval.

• The approval process includes local, state & federal Governments, local police, commercial tenants & residents in the area all with varied agendas.

• Heritage listed sites in the capital city CBDs restrict permanent installation & require daily bump in and out.

Our campaign was built from a genuinely interesting insight that people had an instant emotional affinity with - the ‘disappearing lunchbreak’.

We raised the issue through a major PR release driving people to an online hub that facilitated engagement & social sharing.

To gain media attention without an exorbitant commercial spend, for the first time, we flew the world’s most famous magician, Dynamo, to Australia to highlight the plight of the disappearing lunch break.

His celebrity secured media exposure which acted as the hook to our online hub & thus engagement in the broader campaign activity.

The campaign was a runaway success.

Giving Australians even more reasons to love ING DIRECT by kick-starting a national movement dedicated to spending your lunch well.

Here are just some of the highlights:

1. Brand experience

a) Almost 20% of all city workers in Sydney and Melbourne attended an ING DIRECT Spend Your Lunch Well event.

b) With a further 620,000 Australians being inspired by the bite-size content from the comfort of their own desks. And a massive 12 million people (52% of all Australians) were exposed to the campaign.

c) PR value alone equated to over $1.4 million.

2. Brand consideration

In a mature category, consideration scores increased by 11% - an all-time high for the brand and over double our original target.

In fact, 1/3 of all people exposed to the campaign said they would switch to ING DIRECT.

3. NPS

The all-important NPS score increased by 45% - extending further ING DIRECT’s lead as the most loved bank in Australia.

With no products changes or additional advertising activity, our results spoke for themselves.

By thinking experiences not advertising, we proved a bank really can help Aussies spend their life well… one lunch break at a time.