Thousands of public displays of love were witnessed in the real world– literally millions of contacts were made in the online world. Resulting in 114,000 new listeners being persuaded to tune in to Merrick, Dools and Ricki-Lee. This exceeded the objectives by 192%.

And with no money paid to media owners, listeners acquired an estimated $3.4m in media value through their own media channels.This proves that when you are brave enough to relinquish control of your brand and put it in the hands of your biggest fans you can reap the rewards far beyond any traditional ad campaign.

The Idea: We gave the entire marketing budget of $300,000 to their existing listeners to become advocates and media owners; to help recruit new listeners.

We created an on-air promotion called ‘For Love and Money’ where fans were encouraged to promote the trio in their own personal media channels - targeting their friends, family, neighbours and work colleagues.The listeners were rewarded for being, simultaneously, the medium and the message. The more love they showed (the more reach and cut-through achieved) the more money they earned.The Media channels used: Thousands of public displays of love were witnessed meaning that ‘Love and Money’ became Australia’s biggest ambient, experiential and social media campaign.

Thanks to the listeners; Nova leveraged thousands of ‘money can’t buy’ media channels eg: boats, houses, bodies, workplaces, cars, bikes, trucks were used. Not one cent went to a conventional media owner.

Objective:Sydney’s Nova 96.9 FM station had launched a new breakfast team; Merrick, Dools and Ricki-Lee. After a negative ratings start we were asked to help arrest the decline and acquire 40,000 new listeners by introducing them as a ‘funny and different’ proposition. The challenge:Non-listeners weren’t going to believe that the unproven trio were funny and different just because Nova claimed it on TV or on an outdoor billboard (the well trodden path of radio marketing). Advertising wasn’t the answer. Insight:The new team already had 358,000 loyal listeners – their genuine love for the show (advocacy) would be far more convincing than any ad campaign. So the media opportunity was; mobilize the loyal listeners and leverage their own personal media channels to publically show their love for the show amongst like-minded people – in order to recruit the 40,000 new listeners.