Whilst the rest of advertising looks back on history with rose tinted glasses. Rustlers instead chose to remind people what life was really like...awful. We should all feel appreciative to live in a time where flame grilled burgers cook in just 90 seconds. And not in an era, where we would be down a mine shovelling coal. What A Time To Be Alive.

We launched our campaign by piquing the interest of our existing and potential audience with supported posts detailing what life would be like had they been born 50-100 years earlier. Then we focused on landing ‘What a Time to be Alive’ with our broadcast of ’80 Years of Torment’ in cinemas, online and on television. This ran in tandem with out of home and digital displays targeting sixth form and university college canteens as well as POS and print. We then turned the campaign into a social engagement leveraging the hyperbole of the idea. This included the days headlines in painfully slow loading teletext form, competitions demanding inordinate amounts of effort in order to win burgers and burger related prizes. Like faxing us hand drawn pictures, enduring radio ads consisting entirely of morse code and ten minutes of a 360 walking tour of the great smog of London.

First and foremost the overall campaign exceeded commercial objectives, with penetration up 8% and YOY revenue growth up 18.8% in a category that only grew 3.72%. Purchase frequency was also up 18% and spend per buyer 21%, among our key target group. Correlation between regional ad spend and regional sales uplift showed the ATL assets to be the most significant driver in this but social metrics were equally encouraging, especially against the engagement and audience growth objectives we’d set. Average organic engagement was up 279% relative to the 3 months leading up to launch and organic reach was up 125% versus the same period.