Creative agency The Monkeys took home the Grand Prix award at a glittering Media Federation of Australia awards last night, with its work with Boost Mobile deemed "as good as it gets" by the competition judges.
It lauded the insight The Monkeys had about its target market, and how it executed the message.
The task for The Monkeys was to relaunch from a baseline of zero customers, with pre-paid mobile player Boost Mobile having spent 12 years building a partnership with Optus, which was subsequently severed.
So The Monkeys needed to connect 150,000 customers onto a new SIM program while driving a lazy half a million prospects onto boost.com.au and create more than a million contacts with potential customers.
No pressure then.
When they started brainstorming, they discovered that pre-paid contracts represented freedom to younger customers, who were wary of being locked into longer contracts like mindless zombies.
Feeding off that theme, the agency created three R-rated zombie films where four mates stayed connected in the post-apocalyptic world using their boost mobile pre-paid accounts.
Influential YouTube vloggers were recruited as zombies in the film, leveraging their networks for free.
Following up the films with paid video seeding, keyword strategy and then a social media campaign.
The overall effect of the push was A return on investment of 432% was achieved off an overall investment of $1.9 million.
More than 200,000 customers were connected, which was 22% over target, and the films received 1.34 million unique views.
Judges said the work showed a deep understanding of the target market, with the task, the insight, the strategy and execution all linked seamlessly.
The campaign won a total of three awards on the night, with Initiative also big winners for its "game on" campaign for Kia Motors and MediaCom for its Kiss Debate campaign for Procter & Gamble, which made young men question their current fixation on beards.
There's a full list of winners below, or you can head to the full run-down of winners and finalists on the night [PDF format].
GRAND PRIX
Agency: The Monkeys
Campaign:‘Stay Living’
Client: Boost Mobile
Collaborating Partner: Boom Video
AUTOMOTIVE
Agency: Initiative
Campaign: 'Game On’
Client: Kia Motor Corporation
Collaborating Partners: Innocean Worldwide Creative, Mnet Mobile Partners
FINANCE/INSURANCE/GOVERNMENT/CORPORATE&REAL ESTATE
Agency: UM
Campaign: ‘XTL’
Client: Department of Social Services, Australian Government
Collaborating Partners: Reprise Australia, Quiip
CLOTHING, COSMETIC, AND RETAIL
Agency: Ikon Communications
Campaign: ‘Taking Bookworld into the real world’
Client: Bookworld
Collaborating Partners: Adshel, Subnine, VCCP
FOOD AND GROCERY
Agency: MediaCom
Campaign: 'The Kiss Debate’
Client: Procter & Gamble
Collaborating Partners: Hausmann, Ignite Network Ten
IT AND CONSUMER DURABLES
Agency: The Monkeys
Campaign: ‘Stay Living’
Client: Boost Mobile
Collaborating Partner: Boom Video
BEVERAGES
Agency: Match Media
Campaign: ‘Wild Turkey’s Man of the Moment’
Client: Campari Group
Collaborating Partners: FoxSports, Southern Cross Austereo
MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT/ TRAVEL AND LEISURE
Agency: MediaCom
Campaign: ‘#Vueltaskelta’
Client: Foxtel and Eurosport
Collaborating Partner: Cycling Tips
PARTNERSHIP AWARD
Agency: Seven West Media RED
Campaign: ‘What’s Your Health Age?’
Client: Priceline Pharmacy
Collaborating Partners: Media Merchants, Pacific Magazines
PRO-BONO CAUSE MARKETING
Agency: Starcom MediaVest Group
Campaign: ‘The Van Wright Foundation’
Client: The Van Wright Foundation
Collaborating Partners: APN Outdoor, Australian Radio Network, Channel Nine, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, Gorilla Nation, JCDecaux, Yahoo7, Mi9, Network Seven, Network Ten, Nova Entertainment, Pacific Publications, Southern Cross Austereo
NGEN AWARD
Entrant: John Dawson & Mark Golafshan
Agency: Mindshare
Campaign: ‘The Missing Slice’
BEST STRATEGIC LAUNCH CAMPAIGN
Agency: The Monkeys
Campaign:‘Stay Living: Boost Mobile relaunch’
Client: Boost Mobile
Collaborating Partner: Boom Video
BEST INTEGRATED MEDIA CAMPAIGN
Agency: MediaCom
Campaign:‘The Kiss Debate’
Client: Procter & Gamble
Collaborating Partners: Hausmann, Ignite Network Ten
BEST USE OF SMALL BUDGET (UP TO $300,000)
Agency: MediaCom
Campaign:“#Vueltaskelta’
Client: Foxtel and Eurosport
Collaborating Partner: Cycling Tips
BEST MEDIA INNOVATION
Agency: Initiative
Campaign:‘Kia Game On’
Client: Kia Motor Corporation
Collaborating Partners: Innocean Worldwide Creative, Mnet Mobile Partners
BEST LEVERAGE OF DATA
Agency: Match Media
Campaign:‘Data Matching Love Story’
Client: IKEA
Collaborating Partners: Axciom, Yahoo!7
BEST DEMONSTRATION OF RESULTS
Agency: Mindshare
Campaign:‘Every Day A Different Story’
Client: Tourism New Zealand
Collaborating Partners:Whybin\TBWA, 11PR
MEDIA OWNER OF THE YEAR
Winner: JCDecaux
MARKETING TEAM OF THE YEAR
Campaign:‘Team of the year’
Client: Officeworks
HALL OF FAME
John Grono – GAP Research
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