Orcon & Iggy Pop
Issue 16 | September 2010
Agency
Special Group Auckland New Zealand
Creative Team
Creative Director: Tony Bradbourne, Rob Jack, Heath Lowe; Managing Director: Michael Redwood
Production Team
Agency Producer: Sascha Mortimer; Interactive Producer: Hamish Wanhill; Project Manager: Jules Packenham; Director/Director of Photography, Curious Film: Darryl Ward; Executive Producer: Matt Noonan; Editor, Curious Film: Luke Haigh; Producer, Curious Film: Andy Mauger; Flame, Curious Film: Nigel Mortimer; Audio Engineer. (USA), Crescent Moon Miami: Alfred Figueroa; Audio Engineer (NZ) Liquid Studio: John Cooper; Audio Engineer: (NZ) Roundhead Studio: Jordan Stone
Other Credits
Strategic Planner: Claire Beatson; Media Strategist: Sean McCready; Head of Brand and Communication, Orcon: Duncan Blair; Head of Sales and Marketing, Orcon: David Joyce; Chief Executive Officer, Orcon: Scott Bartlett
Date
2010
Background
Orcon offered faster broadband and a superior customer service but was relatively unknown in a market dominated by Vodafone and Telecom. The challenge was to raise awareness by staging a major online event, in effect a mass product demonstration. While they had to attract new customers to the brand, every stage of the campaign began by communicating first with existing Orcon customers.
Idea
The strength and originality of this campaign was that Orcon actually used its broadband service to enable a world-first technical feat – connecting nine Kiwis from their homes across New Zealand to Iggy Pop’s studio in Miami, and re-recording the classic track 'The Passenger', live and online.
The call for auditions went out first to Orcon’s customer base on Facebook and via online advertising. This was then extended by 15” TVC’s and posters calling for people to Play Live with Iggy Pop. Entrants then uploaded auditions directly to a specially built Facebook application, where they could all be viewed.
Results
200 video auditions were uploaded in 10 days. The auditions were viewed more than 100,000 times on Facebook, part of an explosion of interest in the campaign. National press, prime-time current affairs TV shows, websites and blogs all over the world picked it up. 3,500 new Orcon Facebook friends were registered in just 2 weeks. The campaign generated over NZ$650,000 of unpaid media coverage before the TV ad had even run. And Orcon’s sales increased 30% on previous year.