CASE STUDY: TVNZ entices soap fans into an online summer fling

Aim

When Shortland street’s 2010 season ended, thousands of fans were left without their ‘daily fix’. The challenge was to keep them entertained until the show returned to their screens a month later.

Execution

AIM Proximity decided to do something no other soap opera had done before: invite fans to start an online relationship with their favourite character. A TV campaign invited fans to start a ‘summer fling’ via a Facebook app where they could ‘hook up’ with a character and set up their friends. Throughout the summer, participants received a stream of flirty messages, pictures, videos and emails, personalised for them as if it were a real-life relationship.

Results

The initiative attracted thousands of Facebook fans who engaged by replying to messages and posting them on their walls. Hundreds of fans replied directly to the emails from their characters as though they were real people. Some fans even created their own photo and video responses.

The campaign recorded the following results:

A 200 per cent increase in fan interaction on the regular Shortland Street Facebook page; a 271 per cent increase in traffic to the page; and most importantly, 50 per cent of 18 to 39 year-olds tuned in to watch the first episode of 2011.

Credits:

Project Summer Fling
Client TVNZ
Agency AIM Proximity
ECD Nick Worthington
CD Michael Barnfield
Art director Tamryn Kerr
Copywriter Rachel Walker
Group account director Paul Wilson
Account director Victoria Pether
Account executives Sarah Devonport, Matt Frost
Planner Ian Hulme
Agency producer Serena Fountain-Jones
PhotographersGreg Hughes, Jacob Slack