South Africans don't save. Household debt averages 75% of disposable income. So to encourage consumers to reconsider the way they spend and save, Sanlam - financial institution, created The One Rand Man. A unique social experiment where an ordinary South African lived entirely on R1 coins during National Savings Month.

The integrated campaign followed his journey and captured the imagination of the nation. His story dominated headlines across all major editorial media channels as journalists and bloggers shared his learnings every step of the way. Weekly webisodes were filmed and released online, and Sanlam experts weighed in on his trials and tribulations. Dedicated social media channels allowed consumers to follow, share and engage throughout the month.

From day one, proactive media relations efforts drove massive exposure across all key editorial channels. And a partnership with the biggest financial newspaper provided independent third party content each week, based around themes highlighted in each webisode.

Top tier media created national (and international) awareness around the social experiment and, very importantly, educated South Africans on critical savings lessons through in-depth features and interviews. The experiment created a fresh angle to an old story and generated 21 times more earned media than the total campaign budget.

The avalanche of coverage led to an awareness of a much-needed shift in behaviour. Consumers took to social media expressing the need to refocus and take control of their financial spending habits. The concept of hard earned money, spent and invested sensibly, was suddenly a hot topic nationwide.

Goal: Reconnect consumers with their money and get them to reconsider their financial spending behaviour.

Objectives:

- Create awareness around the importance of saving to prepare for a healthy financial future.

- Drive education around critical savings lessons.

- Build the credibility of Sanlam experts.

Research:

- Existing national research and insights from industry bodies on savings culture, rising debt levels, reliance on credit and financial literacy.

- Consultation with financial coaches and cognitive psychologists on behavioural finance and its impact on money behaviour.

- Review of savings messages in consumer media.

- Analysis of online conversation around savings topics.

Awareness: - 74 million+ (6.2+ million US Dollars | 5.8+ million Euro) earned media impressions. - 203 pieces quality earned media coverage across targeted channels in four weeks - about six pieces a day, valued at R41million (3.4 million US Dollars | 3.2 million Euro) . - Webisodes ranked number one on YouTube SA during July.

Knowledge: - 87% of earned media coverage emphasised Sanlam's commitment to reconnecting consumers with the value of money. - 96% of earned media coverage highlighted savings lessons from the One Rand Man. - 69% of all earned media coverage carried insights from Sanlam experts. - No negative coverage.

Action:

- 1 out of every 10 consumers who engaged with the brand across social media channels expressed their concern about their spending patterns and committed, publicly to changing their financial behaviour.

- Dramatic uptake across Sanlam channels – twitter grew by 96%, Facebook grew by 48%.

In June 2014 we cast the One Rand Man and prepared all collateral. We then shot and released a teaser video to key media and influencers to seed the idea. Then launched it across Sanlam's social channels to spark public interest.

The intense month long campaign ran during July - National Savings Month. The production team followed the One Rand Man for the month and weekly webisodes were filmed and released. Experts weighed in on his trials and tribulations after each episode. Social media posted his day to day spending and learnings, allowing consumers to follow, talk about and share his journey at any time. Proactive media relations secured massive editorial exposure for the entire month and enabled the campaign to dominate headlines across print, broadcast and online channels. Interviews and feature pieces created national awareness and drove education around important savings lessons - through the One Rand Man's story.

South Africa does not have a strong savings culture. And although National Savings Month created a natural media hot button, it has rarely sparked the same interest among consumers as other important dates on the national calendar. We also knew that traditional savings messages often come across as "finger pointing" and have thus had limited impact among the audience.

So in order to successfully create awareness around the importance of saving, we needed to find a novel and engaging way to grab their attention. And to drive education, we needed to make it real and relatable.

We used a content marketing strategy in order to create multiple touch points and drive high levels of engagement. It was purposefully timed around National Savings Month in order to plug into the media agenda. We used a social experiment as a novel vehicle to deliver critically important messages to heighten public interest, and cast an ordinary South African the audience could relate to. They followed his unscripted, real-time experiences across earned; owned and social media, and it worked hard to rekindle the audiences' connection with the Sanlam brand.

Target audience: Young professionals nationwide, primarily between 25 and 35 years of age.

Relationship Sanlam: Sanlam is the second largest financial services institution in the country. Awareness among the target audience is high but their perception of the brand needed to be shifted from it being seen as an old fashioned, traditional corporation to one that is modern, accessible and relevant.