Shit, sorry, just found this on the floor by the fax machine

I was out having my breasts done this afternoon. Soooo sorry bloogers. It came from Mr Gapes at Ad Media and he faxed it out us as a special update. Sorry it is so late. I think a lot of you would have already got it. Sorry.


Heidi

The fax reads:

THE HEAD GIRL WRITES ...

From: Jenene Crossan [mailto:jenenec@xtra.co.nz]
Sent: Friday, 17 February 2006 2:15 p.m.
To: David Gapes
Subject: FW: Fastline update #662

Admittedly, I smiled at the NZ Truth-like headline in the NBR (17/02/06 edition)…“nzgirl’s naked man ad hoax exposed”. I suspect my grin was not the reaction the author was hoping to raise from me. The reality is everyone should have worked out by now that it was a hoax. Surely you didn’t need the paper to tell you that. In all seriousness, if you got sucked into believing that the viral clip portraying the moments after the alleged incident was true, then it may be best that you reconsider the amount of reality TV that you’re ingesting.

There has been much debate over this year’s nzgirl Big Day Out stunt; with more talk than any of the other years combined (is all pr good pr?). I’m not overly surprised by any of this, or that the advertising industry is up in arms about it. When the NBR approached David Walden, he questioned advertiser benefit, wondered why we would do it. While I would never suggest that Devo maybe somewhat miffed that he was seriously taken in by the whole affair (thanks for that phone call mate, I knew I could count on you in the ‘bad’ times), others saying it was the sign of a self indulgent agency.

The industry has been waiting with baited breath for a fall and they got it. It didn’t take much convincing, some of you made up your own version of events. Who was it that saw Paul Catmur ‘visibly shaken’? What a pack of gossips, you couldn’t WAIT to tell anyone who would listen to you about it. I fielded dozens of phone calls from concerned ‘friends’….all after the lowdown. I can assure you that this went much wider than ‘industry only’ (who’s calling who self indulgent?) Look, I know you’re all demure little kittens that don’t get out much – but I know some of you told a few mates outside of work.

And then, exactly how annoyed were you to find out that you were creating the campaign? That every time you opened your mouth or posted on a forum you were making it bigger. What’s the suitable reaction to being sucked in? Bitch. Moan. Slag it off. Tell everyone how much it sucked.

People love gossip. People love to spread vicious rumours about each other. Take down those who are getting a little ahead of their station. And whilst the industry did a stellar job of passing it on – and we are very much indebt to you all for your efforts – we can thank the press coverage, nzgirl’s own 150,000 unique visitors p/month, ZM and George FM that this baby went gone far and wide.

As the advertiser who paid for the campaign, I can say that it has been an interesting experience and admittedly not without its flaws. The challenge to measure pass-on has been hard – we are reliant on forums and emails to keep us in the loop.

At this point, I’d like to pose a question back. How far would you expect a $10k budget to take you? How many marketers would be satisfied that a budget of that size (which wouldn’t pay for the catering on a TVC shoot) managed to make the papers several times, reached two youth targeted radio stations, was the subject of numerous forums and one of the most talked about subjects post the BDO.

My objectives were to reach new members, increase awareness and reach advertisers. Well, we know we covered off agency well and truly and I can report that sales are up. Membership increases around 1500 p/month and our awareness is at an all time high.

Looking at it that simply, I’m pretty satisfied.

I do wish to clarify thought that we were at pains not to waste any official time with this campaign, this was discussed in detail at the planning stage and we have been very clear with the Civil Aviation Authority that it never happened. Also, it pays to keep in mind that we only told a HANDFUL of people that it had gone wrong – we never mentioned any kind of serious injury. Chinese whispers work. The CAA didn’t believe us that we didn’t do anything wrong, because the media KEPT ringing them. Some journalists were just not willing to believe the facts in front of them – that no one saw the helicopter, no one saw the naked man, no one saw the accident, no one saw the injury, there was no air traffic control report, there was no helicopter hired, there was no stunt. Yet, they kept ringing the CAA back. Talk about a dog with a bone

And now we start to get to the bottom of why we did it.
ends



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