Optus are always looking for new ways to stimulate revenue. MMS usage amongst their customers was extremely low, because people didn’t really know how it works. So our task was to encourage Optus customers, particularly the youth segment (16-26 years), to start using MMS. Not an easy task as previous campaigns had failed to generate much response.

Optus sponsored Make Poverty History (MPH). MPH aims to raise poverty awareness. Efforts centred on the date 07-07-07 (‘Zero Seven’) to convince governments to commit to 0.7% Gross National Income in foreign aid. We created FACE UP TO POVERTY in conjunction with MPH to encourage customers to MMS their faces to the world’s largest-ever visual petition. The campaign ran alongside a ‘Zero Seven’ music tour. With a Federal election imminent, timing was ideal. People are cynical of corporations’ involvement in causes, so we donated the cost of every MMS to MPH. We believed once people were familiar with MMS they would continue to use it.

Our previous user-generated campaign generated 2,000 MMS entries, over a 4 week period, the website received a staggering 13,500 entries (an increase of 575%) and 18,854 unique visitors - making it Optus most successful user-generated campaign to date. The Opposition Leader, who subsequently become the Prime Minister, pledged to commit to the 0.7% GNI if elected.

The campaign was so successful that MPH undertook to continue hosting the site so that it truly can become the world’s largest visual petition.