Open Book Project
Issue 20 | September 2011
Agency
DDB Melbourne
Creative Team
Group Creative Director: Nick Cummins; Art Director: Daniel Grech; Copywriter: Stefanie DiGianvincenzo
Production Team
Digital Head of Art: Jonathan Yuen; Technical Director: Daniel Hewitt; Account Director: Lina Cabai; Account Executive: Jess Brophy
Other Credits
Mango Melbourne: Elly Hargreaves, Felicity Robertson, Sara Clark; Director/Director’s Group Melbourne: Lucy Schroder
Date
March - April 2011
Background
Reach is an Australian charity that runs workshops in over 500 Australian schools reaching more than 57,000 young Australians a year, helping them make the most of themselves.
Their problem was that not many Australians were aware of them. They wanted an inexpensive campaign that would get them noticed and encourage young people to feel they could trust Reach if they ever needed to talk to anyone about their concerns and their ambitions.
Idea
The Open Book Project was created as an online forum for people to write and share journals about their experiences growing up. The objective was to make visitors realise they were not alone.
The first phase was a call for entries to celebrities, TV and radio personalities, politicians, actors, sports stars, musicians and comedians asking to submit their own intimate diary confessions online at the openbookproject.com.au.
This in turn encouraged other visitors to the site to submit their own teenage diary entries to the site and their Facebook page.
As the celebrity’s stories spread through the media, the public became captivated. The Reach Project generated 59,944 page views, over $1.2 million of editorial coverage, and spread Reach’s message to over 9 million Australians in the month long campaign for a total cost of $30,000.
Results
- Number of Page Views: 59,944 (month duration)
- Average Page impression per visit: 10.65
- Average time spent on site: 5 minutes
- $1,271,440.78 of earned media
- Over 9.1 million people reached.
- 48 entries secured from well-known Australians
Our Thoughts
One marketing director I used to work with flicked through Directory and said, “I suppose it’s all work for charities done by your mates.’
I am unapologetic about showcasing work like this because it shows what agencies can do when they are allowed to.
Here we see planning, account management, the creatives and the digital team sharing a common goal and delivering to it to the best of their abilities.
It is an uncompromised piece of work and that is ridiculously rare in advertising.
That marketing director I mentioned, everything he stuck his oar into ended up botched. Including his career.
Buying great ideas is about leadership and Reach seems clearly to be run by people who know they cannot afford to waste even $30,000 on mediocre work.