CREDIT SMART CONNECTIONS
(2017 – 2021)
THE CHALLENGE
The connection between credit bureau TransUnion and Ebony+Ivory was made in 2016. Our first campaign called for optimisation of a shoestring budget to share “New Features” with consumers that would help them manage their credit better. A series of four showstopper 20” animated pieces was created. The work not only turned consumers’ heads, as KPI call centre volumes for credit reports rose – but those of the TransUnion executive team in Chicago.
After this smart creative-to-media delivery, TransUnion asked Ebony+Ivory to partner with it to launch a new product. On average, every two seconds in the world, someone’s identity is stolen. In 2017 consumers in South Africa revealed to TransUnion that identity theft was a significant concern. TrueIdentity was created to pioneer a new approach to credit management and the agency was challenged to support the launch of this new product category to a crime-cynical South African market.
THE SOLUTION
The campaign comprised a 4-week social media teaser, 12-week Television launch and 24-week Digital Paid Media campaign. The new product category launch hinged around a 30” commercial and four follow-on 20” conversations with a “charming villain”.
Steering clear of any use of fear to address this crime-riddled subject, the creative framed the problem and solution with local humour. When challenged with making a R1.6 million media budget work hardest – a budget that did not allow for extensive TV or Digital flighting – the Paid Media team got creative. The campaign concept was extended using an illustrative style that brought the characters to animation life.
THE HIGHLIGHTS
The launch of TrueIdentity proved the power of partnering Digital and TV platforms in South Africa to drive consumer engagement, while educating around the debilitating impact of identity theft on consumer credit.
Despite the launch timing requiring the introduction of this new product category to coincide with the 2018 World Cup football tournament, during which TV audiences for regular programming declined by approximately 30%, and to align to an historically quiet sales period for TransUnion (mid-year school holidays), the campaign delivered a fighting performance.
+ 99.3% increase in trended daily unit sales during the peak of the campaign. + Website traffic was boosted to just under 100 000 consumers visiting the TrueIdentity page.
+ 1 023 TV adverts were flighted with over 31 million views.
+ Ebony+Ivory’s Media team unlocked an average cost per thousand views of less than R70.
Optimisation of digital paid media delivered:
+ 6.7% average engagement rate
+ 326 240 TVC adaptation video views
+ 4 593 794 impressions
+ Reach of 1 473 792 unique and targeted consumers.
The illustrative style was applied extensively across other platforms, including In-Mobi, Direct Mail and an in-house face swop Activation. The internalisation launch saw staff being hugely interested in the new product category.
B2B TO AFRICA
Ebony+Ivory was the creative partner for a television advertisement for a Business-to- Business product that TransUnion delivered in partnership with First Check, South Africa’s first vehicle valuation App. Our portfolio has further included regular newsletter content development for the Consumer Interactive division and Business as Usual (BAU) social media content and channel management as well as a social media project for the TransUnion Africa team in Kenya.