Top Ads Around Aussie Events 2016

Farzana Haroon
14 Dec 2016
Generating audience traction, capitalising on brand alliance and building rapport are all key performance indicators Australia's largest brands use to value the success of a campaign. While achieving this is often difficult, by capitalising on key Australian dates and events, brands can create campaigns worth talking about.
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How do some of Australia’s largest brands capitalise on key Australian dates?

So as 2016 comes to a close, we have gone through BigDatr's Campaign Feed to pick out some of this years most popular campaigns.

Australian Open 2016

ANZ - #HeadbandForGood

This will be the eighth year ANZ has been a major sponsor for the Australian Open, with Brand Ambassador and tennis legend Novak Djokavic featured in a number of their campaigns.

The 30-second social ad #HeadbandForGood, supported World Vision Australia and encouraged tennis fans to take a selfie wearing a headband. For every selfie shared online, ANZ donated $2-5 to World Vision Australia.

Importantly ANZ states that the bank stands for both integrity and excellence, values both the Australian Open, and World Vision Australian align with.

With a media value estimation of over $800,0001 for January, ANZ donated a maximum of $100,000 to World Vision. In addition, the estimated value does not include the cost of featuring Djokovic in the adverts. As a result World Vision benefited from both the monetary donation as well as campaign exposure.

Image of ANZ Campaign Page A snap shot from the ANZ campaign page

Coupled with the campaign being primarily pushed on social media, including YouTube, ANZ was able to connect with the fans on a more personal level. The video advertising was also supported by TV and a range of Out-of-Home advertising so to reach a larger audience base.

Australia Day

Meat & Livestock Australia’s (MLA) - Operation Boomerang

This well executed and daring campaign features Lee Lin Chin and Sam Kekovich on a mission as they embark on saving Aussies abroad from going without the essential lamb barbeque on Australia Day.

Meat & Livestock Australia Group Marketing Manager Andrew Howie boasts that “Operation Boomerang” has been the most successful Australia Day campaign to date. Howie stated that the “Australia Day Campaign generated a 34.4 percent sales lift versus the weekly average, for the week preceding Australia Day, and a 39.4 per cent sales lift versus the weekly average, for the week of Australia Day. This equates to a 36.9 percent sales increase across the two week campaign period”.

The campaign aired from Monday 11th January 2016, through to Australia Day with additional media spend pushed out across digital, social and TV.

Australian Political Election

Liberal Party - People Like Me Lose Their Jobs

This campaign was one of the most talked about TVC during the election period. It depicted a tradesman on a worksite sipping from a clean mug, (as opposed to a typical worksite roughed-up one), and explaining how Bill Shorten wants to go to war with him because he wants to get ahead in life with an investment property.

The ad received instant reaction and went straight to Twitter with the campaign ridiculed for depicting a #faketradie.

Labor Party - Real Tradies Are Putting You And Your Liberal Party Last

Labor’s team was incredibly responsive to the #faketradie backlash. They pushed out a simple and clear counteractive campaign - “Real Tradies Are Putting You And Your Liberal Party Last". It only took a couple of days for the Labor Party to launch their counteract campaign on TV. Labor ran their ads primarily during the less expensive timeslots - during the day.

Using the BigDatr platform we found that the Labor Party were pushing out negative campaigns while the Liberal Party was doing the opposite - focusing on positive campaigns.

Rio Olympics

We have seen a number of brands cashing in on the world’s biggest sporting spectacle (or sporting debacle) of the year. Aussie brands including Woolworths, Swisse and Optus were spending up to $10 million on Olympic advertising - a big win for the Seven Network.

Our top 3 Ads of the Olympics

1. McDonalds: All Day Breakfast

2. Samsung : The Anthem

3. Optus: #FanUpAus

During the 2016 Rio Olympics, we found that McDonalds had the most TV spots. It is a little ironic that Maccas aligns themselves with healthy activities as a brand. It’s likely to be an attempt to shift their brand perception as ‘unhealthy’, and also emphasis their commitment to communities.

All of these brands had massive marketing budgets to play with. The Sydney Morning Herald reported strong demographic results - good news for advertisers considering Rio audience debacles.

International Women's Day

ANZ - #EqualFuture Pocket Money

The #EqualFuture campaign was released for International Women’s Day illustrating a social experiment - children’s responses to the inequality of men being paid more than women for the same work. The footage captured the reactions of a brother and sister completing the same chores but not receiving an equal amount of money in payment.

ANZ's 2015 Women's Report reveals the gender pay gap was at 18.8% Nationwide, with men earning an average of $1,380 per week, in contrast to $904 for women. The campaign showcased the innocence of children’s reactions and was designed to address the issue of gender pay gap.

The #EqualFuture campaign capitalised on a hashtag that was already strong across social media. TVC’s were supported by Out-of-Home and online video advertising.

2016 Christmas

Aldi’s - Nothing Beats The Perfect Aussie Christmas

Aldi’s TVC, “Nothing Beats The Perfect Aussie Christmas” features ‘The Tinkletons’, an American family that are committed to show Aussies that their Christmas is better than ours.

It’s a shift from the typical supermarket retail ad. The creative heads behind the campaign, BMF illustrated a typical Aussie barbie versus the American family’s idea of Christmas. The ad features Aldi’s Christmas range including seafood, ham and fudge.

The campaign is still running in the lead up to Christmas and includes a combination of brand and retail TVC’s supported by Out-of-Home, Print, Radio, Catalogue and Social Media advertising.

Read more about 2016 Christmas Ads

What was your favourite campaign of 2016?

1 - Based on BigDatr Modelling 2016