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Bullets from Gunn

The Gunn Report > Content > Bullets from Gunn

For the last 4 years or so, Emma and I have made it our custom to end off Gunn Report Presentations (at Festivals or other industry Forums or Agency or Client conferences) with a selection of rapid fire mini-cases.
These establish business results for a succession of the most famous campaigns of the moment from anywhere in the world. Their purpose is to provide evidence that virtually all of the work that our industry admires and applauds and awards the most is also highly successful in doing its job in the marketplace.

These mini-case features have come to be known as 'Bullets from Gunn'. This name was coined by Matias Palm-Jensen, co-founder of the renowned Swedish digital Agency, Farfar (top 4 in The Gunn Report's Digital Agencies table for 4 years in a row). And since May this year, Matias has been Chief Innovation Officer, Europe at McCann Erickson.

Matias saw the mini-cases feature in our presentation at the Wave Festival in Rio de Janeiro in May 2008. Liked what he was seeing and thought it was a message that our industry needed. And was waiting on the Copacabana Palace terrace afterwards with a big smile (like the one in the photo), a brace of Caipirinhas and a name for what we're doing.

matthias
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  • The Bullets Story
  • <strong>"Van Gogh BnB"</strong><br /><strong>Art Institute of Chicago - Leo Burnett Chicago</strong> <br />Instead of just looking at a painting, people could book a night inside one. Craftsmen recreated Van Gogh’s 1888 ‘Bedroom In Arles’ and it was posted on AirBnB (purportedly by the artist – “Just to keep myself in paint”). Van Gogh Bedrooms was the Art Institute’s highest-attended exhibit in 15 years. The room cost $31K to build and generated $6m+ in earned media.
  • <strong>"The 2 Litre Towel"</strong><br /><strong>Australian Weaving - M&C Saatchi Melbourne</strong> <br />Australian Weaving towels soak up twice as much water as cheap imports (which were stealing the market). An incredible 2 litres. The towels were re-packaged in 2 litre plastic containers and displayed in refrigerators in 38 David Jones dept. stores at a 100% price premium. Sold out in-store in 3 weeks. Sold out online in 3 days. And the last surviving cotton mill in Australia is thriving again.
  • <strong>"The Boys"</strong><br /><strong>Bonds Mens Underwear - Clemenger BBDO Melbourne</strong> <br />A pair of talking testicles highlight the problem of poor fitting underpants. TV and large format outdoor drove mass awareness: online allowed longer form and more risqué content. Bonds already market leader; but by 4th week campaign sales up 161%; and web traffic to Mens Underwear page on bonds.com.au up 420%.
  • <strong>"McWhopper"</strong><br /><strong>Burger King - Y&R NZ Auckland</strong> <br />In August 2015, Burger King, in an open letter in traditional and social media, invited McDonald’s to collaborate in the creation of a ‘McWhopper’ to celebrate Peace Day. Though McDonald’s demured, this kicked off a media storm, generating $144m. free coverage, and, most interestingly, per McKinsey & Co – a 40% increase in UN Peace Day awareness.
  • <strong>"The Organic Effect"</strong><br /><strong>COOP - Forsman & Bodenfors Gothenburg</strong> <br />Experiment – showing eat organic food and pesticides disappear from body – with Sweden Environmental Research Institute (IVL) and an ordinary family, the Palmbergs. Documented in a scientific report – big news media coverage, and a 90-sec film – went viral. Organic food sales up 50% while film released. Consumers who say prefer shopping at Coop up 14%. Coop’s best financial year in two decades.
  • <strong>"Brewtroleum"</strong><br /><strong>DB Export Beer - Colenso BBDO Auckland</strong> <br />DB Export Brewtroleum, a biofuel created with DB’s surplus yeast flurry (and emitting 8% less carbon), was rolled out to 62 Gull petrol stations across NZ (and made each forecourt an ambient ad). With beer market declining 6% a year, sales of DB Export grew 10%, as up and down the country men rallied to save the planet.
  • <strong>"Shoplifters"</strong><br /><strong>Harvey Nichols - adam&eveDDB London</strong> <br />Harvey Nichs, as in “Walk of Shame” and “Sorry, I Spent It On Myself” (see Gunn TV for both), go for edgy stuff. Here real CCTV footage shows shoplifters (faces obscured by cartoons) stealing from their Knightsbrige store. Tagline: “Love freebies? Get them legally”. The Rewards App download target exceeded by 50% in first 6 months. Mega media buzz, incl. whole ad screened on News At Ten.
  • <strong>"The House of Clicks"</strong><br /><strong>Hemnet - Prime Stockholm</strong> <br />Hemnet is Sweden’s biggest property portal. Data scientists analysed over 200m clicks on Hemnet about what Swedes dream about in a future home. And two of Europe’s foremost architects created “The House of Clicks” – a 1.5 storey home with red wooden façade and private rooftop terrace. 648 people from around the world have signed up to buy the house when it comes onto the market.
  • <strong>"Sugar Detox"</strong><br /><strong>Intermarché - Marcel Paris</strong> <br />Average French consumption of sugar (25 kilos per year) is 3 times the recommended amount. Intermarché created Sugar Detox, a chocolate yoghurt in 6 packs whose colours show the decreasing sugar rates. TV shows and magazines made it a top story. Average in-store traffic increased by 30%: and the product sold out in just 3 days.
  • <strong>"The Man On The Moon"</strong><br /><strong>John Lewis - adam&eveDDB London</strong> <br />With ‘The Long Wait’, ‘The Bear & The Hare’ and ‘Monty’s Christmas; (see Bullets 2011, 2013 and 2014) John Lewis have surpassed their previous ‘best-ever’ year after year. “The Man In The Moon” did it , <i>again</i> in 2015. With record Christmas sales and profits, taking £951m in revenue vs. £596m in 2011. (And raised £183K in collection tins and +£2.5m in new corporate sponsorships for Age Concern UK).
  • <strong>"Tiny Dancer"</strong><br /><strong>John Lewis Insurance - adam&eveDDB London</strong> <br />Home Insurance market is highly competitive with aggregator websites driving the importance of price over quality. John Lewis customers, however, see it the other way round: thus the insight for their TV launch – “If it matters to you, it matters to us”. “Tiny Dancer” ran in August/Sept 2015. In the next 3 months sales were up 144% with new policies sold worth £4 million.
  • <strong>"Justino"</strong><br /><strong>Loterías y Apuestas del Estado - Leo Burnett Madrid</strong> <br />Last year, ‘No Bigger Prize Than Sharing’ (see Bullets 2015 one) sold more lottery tickets than ever before after six years decline. This year the heart-warming tale of ‘Justino’, a night guard in a mannequin factory, told in an animated short film plus social media stuff that won the Cannes Cyber Grand Prix 2016, <i>capped that</i>. Average Christmas lottery spend increased to an amazing $55.48 per Spaniard.
  • <strong>"Beauty Tips By Reshma"</strong><br /><strong>Make Love Not Scars (MLNS) - Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai</strong> <br />In India, almost every day an angry man throws acid in his wife or girlfriend’s face. MLNS mission: to ban over-the-counter acid sales. Reshma, an acid attack survivor, became their spokesperson in a series of beauty vlogs which publicised their petition. It needed 25,000 signatures and got 309,000. In December 2015 the Supreme Court of India directed Indian States to enforce the ban.
  • <strong>"Behind The Leather"</strong><br /><strong>People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals (PETA) - Ogilvy & Mather Bangkok</strong> <br />A new boutique store appeared in the heart of Bangkok’s fashion district. Shoppers admiring the exquisite leather products found what looked and felt like live pulsating internal animal organs inside them. Hidden cameras captured their reactions. The shop was taken online, resulting in 42m views globally ($22m in earned media). As for the wretched shoppers, 87% changed their minds about buying exotic skin products.
  • <strong>"#optoutside"</strong><br /><strong>REI - Venables Bell & Partners San Francisco</strong> <br />Outdoor retailer REI closed all their 143 stores on ‘Black Friday’, the biggest shopping day of the year, inviting the country to #optoutside. 170 other businesses followed suit: scores of parks offered free entry for the day; 1.4m people chose to spend Black Friday outside: REI revenues up double digits YOY (bucking industry trends): applications to work at REI up 92% in Q4 2015.
  • <strong>"The Swedish Number"</strong><br /><strong>Swedish Tourist Association - INGO Stockholm</strong> <br />Celebrating 250 years of freedom of expression in Sweden, campaign gave people round the world a telephone number to put them through to a random person in Sweden who would answer any question. With zero spend on bought media or seeding, generated 128,392 calls from 178 countries to 26,069 Swedish phone ambassadors, with a longest call of 3hr 42min.
  • <strong>"Art Heist For Good"</strong><br /><strong>WATERisLIFE - Deutsch New York</strong> <br />In 2009, French street artist JR placed portraits on the rooftops of Kibera, Kenya – Africa’s largest and most dangerous slum. ‘Art Heist For Good’ took some of this art and sold it to the highest bidder. Providing Kibera with a 5,000 gallon per day water filter and a hand-washing station for schoolchildren. And, without asking for direct donations, WaterIsLife saw a 300% increase.
  • <strong>"The Naked Ute"</strong><br /><strong>Volkwagen Amorok - DDB Sydney</strong> <br />In rural Oz, a Ute (pick-up truck) is a way of life. The Amarok’s sleek design suggested less toughness vs. Toyotal and Mazda. So they stripped it of its cover for the ads. Campaign idea: guess identity of the ‘Naked Ute’. Brought cost per lead (to dealer) down from $225 to $93. Sales up 19% yoy.
  • <strong>"The Reversed Trailer"</strong><br /><strong>Volkwagen Passat Trailer Assist - TRY Oslo</strong> <br />To explain and demonstrate Trailer Assist: a stunt where a trailer tows a Passat through town with all sorts of manoeuvring and at normal traffic speed. Online audience could book a test drive. In following month Passat sales in Norway up 15%.
  • <strong>"Survival Billboard"</strong><br /><strong>X-Box - McCann London</strong> <br />During the biggest game launch period in history (with outdoor preferred medium due to news, impact, target reach), X-Box turned an advertising channel into an entertainment channel. On Survival Billboard in central London, 8 gamers faced blizzards, downpours, harsh winds and searing heat – all controlled by the public via a live stream. The winner lasted 22 hours. Average dwell time was 8 minutes (vs. 8 seconds for a regular billboard).


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