Cannes Contenders: Cummins&Partners Melbourne

How will Australia perform at Cannes this year? In the lead up to the Festival, Campaign Brief will be showcasing the work we hope will impress the judges…

Australian Red Cross Blood Service: Biscuit

Under a new brand platform, ‘Giving Blood Feels Good’, we decided to talk about the part of giving blood that seemed as easy and everyday as possible: the humble biscuit you receive after you donate. To launch the idea, we recruited the world’s leading biscuit expert, the Cookie Monster. We seeded an unbranded teaser video out to the Blood Service’s 160,000+ active Facebook fans, declaring Cookie Monster was heading to Australia for the best biscuits. We then added some of Australia’s best-known celebrity chefs. Unbranded images of them, holding biscuits, were shared across their own social channels, followed by almost 1,000,000 Australians. This activity – garnering tens of thousands of views, likes and comments – came at no media cost. A week later, all 100+ Blood Service centres unveiled biscuit-themed collateral. Specially packaged biscuits were presented to donors. TV, print and digital executions were launched. Each chef then released individual videos talking about the biscuit on their own social channels and PR’d the campaign on TV and radio programs. Facebook and Instagram – using #save3lives – were inundated with positive posts.

VicSuper: Your Future is in Your Hands

In prominent sites across Victoria, our ‘Your Future is in Your Hands’ activation gave people the once-in-a-lifetime chance to see and touch their superannuation balance in real cash. They simply lined up, used a customised VicSuper digital tool to quickly calculate their current super balance, then held it with outstretched arms inside a specially built chamber. It didn’t matter if they were existing VicSuper customers or not – everyone was given the chance to experience ‘your future in your hands’. While holding their super as cash, they were then prompted to pose for a ‘Super Selfie’, a photograph they could take away in a VicSuper information sleeve or immediately share socially via a digital kiosk. VicSuper staff were also on-hand at each activation to provide financial advice to anyone keen to know more.

CGU Insurance: Tropfest

Most brands use their advertising dollars to tell the world how great they are. But what would happen if those dollars were instead put toward a project that actually proved how good they were? In 2016 CGU Insurance found out. Using the platform ‘See It Through’, CGU had built their brand by showing examples of how they stand-by Australian small businesses in times of need. And never had there been one so desperately in need as Tropfest, the world’s largest short film festival. Without immediate assistance, they were finished. Hearing Tropfest’s cancellation, we decided it was time to do more than make ads about CGU helping Australians ‘See It Through’. Instead, we would reach out to Tropfest, a business CGU had no prior relationship with, and use CGU’s advertising budget to help them actually see it through. In doing do, CGU would make their intangible brand promise completely tangible.

John West: Finnish Tuna

John West Australia had spent millions of dollars overhauling their fishing practices to become the most sustainable tuna brand in the world, but Australians still didn’t understand the value of sustainability. People don’t realise what they’ve got until it’s taken away. So we released a new brand of tuna that would change the way people would see tuna forever. The catch? There was nothing in the cans. From supermarkets to train stations, we launched ‘Finnish Tuna’ across the nation with 7-time world surf champion Layne Beachley. Overnight, our message in a can received coverage from major TV stations and newspapers across Australia and globally, reminding people to buy sustainable.