Spark Play
Spark
Issue 54 | March 2020
Agency
Colenso BBDO
Creative Team
Creative Chairman Nick Worthington Chief Creative Officer Levi Slavin Executive Creative Director Dan Wright Creative Director Mike Davison Head of Digital Matt Barnes Head of Design Dean Pomfrett Senior Art Director Charlie Godinet Senior Copywriter Rob Graves-Morris Art Director Codee MacDonald
Production Team
Head of Integrated Production Scott Chapman TV Producer Payton Cox Integrated Producer Ashlee Harris Head of Digital Production Tennille Barnes Senior Digital Producer Claudio Varoli-Piazza CX Strategist Lizzie McCollum Technical Lead Anna Markova Content Creator Cameron McColl Editor Luke Urquart Head of TV Natasha Gill
Other Credits
Managing Partner Piers Bebbington Group Business Director Renata Gordon Senior Business Directors Ryan Butterfield, Ning Zhu Business Manager Jin Fellet Communications Director Joe Carter Creative Technology Partner Nakatomi Sport Partner Gray-Nicolls Sport (Gilbert) Project Partner Dr Emma Woodward, The Child Psychology Service Client Tribe Lead Brand Experience Sarah Williams Brand Lead Partner Hannah Bay Chapter Lead, Digital Performance & Social Frith Wilson-Hughes
Date
October - ongoing
Background
Now that technology is part of everyone’s everyday lives, it can be tricky managing screen time. A recent study showed that children now spend twice as long playing on screens as they do playing outside.
Idea
Spark, New Zealand’s biggest telco partnered with Gilbert Rugby to develop a smart rugby ball that helped families balance screen time with active playtime, minute for minute.
70 prototype balls were custom built for a nationwide program led by Child Psychologist, Dr Emma Woodward.
Armed with the ball, app and a series of challenges, families attempted to achieve a healthy balance of indoors and outdoors playtime.
The program was supported by a fully integrated campaign that launched with a heartfelt TV advert. Here the nation saw young Toby have a heart to heart with his favourite computer game character, suggesting that they spend less time together.
This drove traffic to Spark’s three-part web series, where parents could learn balance tactics and help shape the future of Play.
Results
After 6 weeks 35% kids were already selfregulating screen time. 59% showed an improvement in behaviour and 68% of the families were spending more time together.
As a result, brand love improved to 25% above the telco average.
Our Thoughts
Baroness Susan Greenfield is a neuroscientist at Oxford University. She believes we are conducting the largest uncontrolled experiment in human behaviour in history. One research study in the UK suggests that 23% of young people have “a dysfunctional relationship with their smartphones”. It’s an addiction which can, and in some cases does, affect behaviour, relationships and learning.
But, as Spark have identified, if technology is the problem then it can also be the solution. The next step is to make more of these balls more available to more families.