pago Campaign

Background

When ASB Bank developed pago, a world first technology that allows friends to text cash between mobiles, they didn’t want to use conventional advertising to promote the product. They tasked the agency with finding new ways to promote the service to their target audience of 18 to 24-year-old consumers, early adopters, opinion formers and ‘Mavens’. They needed to establish credibility and give this audience the confidence to use pago as a mainstream payment method.

Idea

A portrait of Sir Edmund Hillary, conqueror of Everest and New Zealand’s most famous living son, sits on every NZ$5 note. In a world first, TBWA\Whybin got permission from both Sir Edmund Hillary and the reserve bank to use the national currency as an advertising medium. In order to show that cash had gone digital, they created a modern rendition of the famous image of Sir Edmund Hillary. They placed 'Pixellated Ed' in sticker form directly over his image on thousands of $5 notes which then entered into circulation. The reverse side of the sticker directs people to the pago website to sign up for their own digital wallet. Shops, bars and restaurants stickered their daily float of $5 notes, which were then handed to customers in their change.

‘Pixellated Ed’ also appeared around town in a teaser flyposter campaign. In another world first, ‘Hypertag’ technology was used to turn bus shelters into cash machines and a three week radio promotion alerted listeners to a time and a place when an adshel would go ‘live’ for just one hour and download digital cash to mobile phones. Inside Britomart Station in downtown Auckland, they created a unique 3D installation out of colour-coded books of post it notes. It was a giant pixellated replica of a $5 note. More than 1,250 books of post it notes were used - a total of 30,000 individual notes. On each note was printed a message to take a look at the pago website and passers-by could peel them off and take them away with them. The installation was decimated within a week.

Results

Two months from launch knowledge of the service amongst the target audience of 18 to 24 year-olds reached 40%, against an awareness objective of 33% in three months. There were 1,200 subscriptions in the first week of launch - delivering a result three times higher than the original goal of 400. pago content has already been delivered to 3,821 mobile handsets via bluetooth /infrared technology - 76.4% of the subscription goal.

Target Audience

18 to 24-year-olds, early adopters, opinion formers and ‘Mavens’

Size

5,000 stickers were used at launch in November 2006, with a further 5,000 being used at the Big Day Out in January 2007.

Our Thoughts

In many ways, the big idea here is the product itself. Fortunately, the communications don’t get in the way. They bring it to life. Getting your target audience to interact with an Adshel takes some doing, but they did it!