The $100m press ad
Issue 13 | December 2009
Agency
Shimoni Finkelstein DraftFCB, Tel Aviv
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director: Kobi Barki, Creative Director: Ori Ganot, Art Director: Ami Raz, Copywriters: Kobi Barki, Ori Ganot
Production Team
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Other Credits
CEO: Mira Finkelstein, Account Supervisor: Shirly Ben-Giat, Account Manager: Einav Meirovich, Strategic Planner: Avishai Kadosh
Date
September 18th 2009
Background
Gindi Holdings is a boutique property developer which won a much talked about government bid to develop land into three residential tower blocks in the most sought-after location in Tel Aviv.
To win the bid, Gindi had to beat off competition from four other purchasing groups. (Purchasing groups are citizens who band together to buy land to develop at a cheaper price.)
The agency’s brief was to create a campaign to sell the apartments in the three towers.
Idea
Instead of taking weeks or months to develop a campaign aimed at the general public, the agency acted fast. Targeting just one audience, the agency got a press ad. out within 72 hours of the brief.
The ad simply communicated that all those disappointed members of purchasing groups who had lost out to Gindi Holdings could, for a limited period only, buy apartments at an exclusive, low price.
The key insight was that the people most interested in the towers were probably the people who had just tried unsuccessfully to buy the right to develop them.
The strategy was to turn their disappointment to satisfaction with an offer too good to miss.
Results
106 apartments, worth over $100m, were sold in just 48 hours. Within a month sales of $224m had been achieved, double the expected number of sales. It usually takes 3 years to sell a project worth this amount.
The single press ad generated huge PR in all TV channels and national press, resulting in a massive increase in awareness for the small developer. Overnight Gindi was transformed, gaining the status of the number 2 property brand in unprompted awareness.
Our Thoughts
Okay, so this won’t trouble the judges at D&AD or any other creative awards show but if I was Mr. Gindi, I’d be thinking how amazingly creative my agency has shown themselves to be.
Creativity does not have to be in the execution. It can be in the thinking, as in this.
Identifying the small but relevant target audience was the first creative leap. Then acting rapidly to talk to them while they were still emotionally sore at losing the bid was a second.