Scam Letter'

Background

Optus wanted to reduce churn amongst its broadband customer base, particularly those who were either off-contract or nearing the end of their contract term.

Idea

The idea was to target these customers with an offer of 12-months free internet security. This would serve as a quasi contract, because customers would be less likely to churn if they were receiving this free service from Optus. In order to highlight the need for the Optus Internet Security Suite, the agency decided to bring it to life by demonstrating how reassuring it would be to have a product like Security Suite alerting them to potential spam in their mail.

Aping one of the most notorious and familiar email spam formats, they created a fake scam letter from Dr Eugene Opjowi of Zamgeria. The letter says that he is very interested in talking to the recipient about a potential investment opportunity in Zamgeria. They even recorded a message from Dr Objowi in case customers called his mobile. Luckily, Optus Security Suite had identified that this mailing might be a scam and was alerting the recipient to that fact.

Results

The campaign saw at least 12,000 customers visit the website within the first month, each spending an average of 2.34 minutes there. 4,065 (4.1%) customers either took up the offer immediately or asked Optus to remind them at a later date. 100 recipients even took the time to call 'Dr Eugene Opjowi of Zamgeria' and listen to his recorded message.

Target Audience

Optus Broadband customers

Our Thoughts

Ever had one of those scam emails from West Africa offering you the chance to share in the gazillions hidden by the President’s brother etc etc? What the agency have done to dramatise an online problem is replicate it offline. Getting a letter from Zamgeria, helpfully marked as spam, becomes funny because it’s unexpected. Yet it’s anything other than irrelevant. Proof M&C in Sydney are getting along without their former CD Dave King.