Jingle Hooks Up to the big time

By PAUL PANCKHURST


The old "advertising jingle becomes hit single" trick was part of the Boost Mobile advertising campaign that last week won two top awards for advertising effectiveness.

Saatchi & Saatchi's entry for the EFFIE Awards put a value of more than $2 million on the free air time secured by the song "Hook Up", performed by hip hop group Dawn Raid All Stars.

The agency calculated the "rate card" value - the air time's cost if Telecom had paid official rates without discounts for advertising slots - for more than 1500 plays of the song.

It says the song spent more than 10 weeks in the New Zealand music charts - reaching number eight - hit number one in Samoa and was twice performed live on TV2's Top of the Pops programme.

The centrepiece of the Boost campaign was a national tour by hip hop performers including Scribe, DJ Sir-Vere and the Deceptikonz.

The campaign also featured a series of sponsorships of hip hop shows on radio and television, including The Holla Hour on CanWest's television channel C4.

The EFFIEs are annual awards run by the Communications Agencies Association in partnership with the Association of New Zealand Advertisers and TVNZ.

They are for effective advertising - campaigns that boost sales and profits - rather than creativity.

The Boost campaign won gold awards in the "consumer services" and the "integrated" sections of the EFFIEs.

An "integrated" campaign communicates with consumers across a range of media and methods - rather than just sticking to the most obvious advertising choices.

In this case, the communication vehicles included music television, cinema, light boxes in cinema foyers, magazines, radio and street posters.

Saatchi & Saatchi said the media spending was $500,000 to $1 million but the campaign also picked up free publicity in the shape of editorial coverage - such as a Herald feature article in March headed "Making hip hop history".

The awards night commentary said the judges rated the campaign highly for connecting one of the country's largest corporates with its audience "in such a simple and effective manner".

The commentary also said: "The last thing this sponsorship was about was simply pasting a logo on a poster."

The advertising agency's entry for the awards paints the pre-campaign Boost as a loser desperately in need of a turnaround.

Set up to capture the youth market, Boost was struggling against Vodafone.

"Research shows that youth saw Boost Mobile as small, dying and dodgy," says Saatchi's entry.

Few people in the age 13 to 24 target market were aware of the brand - let alone aspired to own a Boost phone.

"In order to turn slumping sales around, it was imperative to transform perception of the brand."

An initial step was changing the Boost logo from Telecom's traditional blue and yellow to black and silver.

The idea for the campaign came from Saatchi staff members Claire Beatson and Robert Harvey.

Harvey said the aim was to give something to the New Zealand hip hop community and its fans, not just stage "an exercise in logo visibility".

The creative team was Cameron Harris, Dan Moth and Myk Reill.

Chris Graham, of film production company Flying Fish, shot the television advertisements for the campaign and also the "Hook Up" music video, a celebration of the "Hook Up" tour.

Graham is the hip hop specialist known for work including the live-action clip for Scribe's "Stand Up", the winner of the best video award at this year's New Zealand Music Awards.

The television ads featured four elements of hip hop - DJ, Mc, graffiti art, and breakdancing.

The claimed results of the campaign:

* 92 per cent "prompted recall" of the Boost brand in research among 13 to 24-year-olds.

* A change of perception, with more young people regarding Boost as the brand for youth than regarding Vodafone as the brand for youth.

In research after the "Hook Up" tour, 49 per cent of the 13 to 24-year-olds contacted said they had connected with Boost in the previous three months.

That compared with a target of 25 per cent for the first year.

The other major winners in the EFFIEs were:

* DDB and McDonald's for the "Eat Smart Be Active" campaign, named best in show.

* Clemenger BBDO and Mainland Products for the "Good Things Take Time" campaign, winner of an award for "sustained success".

* Saatchi & Saatchi and the Royal Foundation of the Blind, "Guide Dog Appeal 2004", a gold award winner.

* FCB and the Ministry of Justice, "Confiscated Car Club", a gold award winner.

* DDB creative director Paul Catmur, named agency professional of the year.