Campaign: Tossed & Found
Agency: Ryan Partnership, Westport, CT
Client: GE Financial Assurance, Stamford, CT
Are you allowed to get advanced media coverage for a guerrilla marketing campaign?
That philosophical conundrum proved to be irrelevant when confronted by GE Financial Assurance and Ryan Partnership last spring, as they prepared an effort that would serve as the sole launch platform for financial service network gefn.com.
Marketing in the online space was exploding in January 2000. Dot-coms were dominating the Super Bowl breaks and barnstorming in mobile tours by the score. In that climate, GE Financial Assurance needed a plan that could generate awareness for what in the marketplace amounted to “yet another” site launch.
Brainstorming began at an off-site meeting at the Inn at Longshore in Westport, CT. “We spent the day tearing apart what the Internet was all about and dissecting every previous event we could get our hands on,” says Chris Matthews, senior vp-brand marketing for GE Financial Assurance, Stamford, CT. “Then we began mapping out our own ideas. What were the ones most likely to meet objectives, the most unique ones, the most sustainable ones?”
The concept which rose to the top was Tossed & Found, a stunt campaign in which “lost” wallets containing instant-win gamecards would be dropped in high traffic locations to be “found” by passers-by. It “won out as the single biggest idea,” says Matthews.
It also won out because of its potential to draw media attention, which is why a concerted effort to gain exposure before the events was a key to success. The game and its 1,200-odd prizes (which included a pair of $100,000 GE investment accounts, $340,000 in additional account awards, and one thousand-plus T-shirts) were secondary. “There were bigger prize pools out there,” says Matthews. “This was about the impact.”
Among Ryan’s responsibilities was coordination among participating agencies, which included Organic Media for Internet work, Momentum for field recruitment, and Peppercom for p.r. Weekly task force meetings kept everyone on track, and Matthews fostered “a real spirit of teamwork and collaboration,” says Ryan executive vp Dan Sullivan.
The core plan called for field reps to encamp in high-traffic locations — commuter stations, large office buildings — in 12 cities to drop wallets, then accost pedestrians who picked them up. In addition to the scratch-off gamecard, the wallets contained a fake family photo, a $1 bill, and cursory information about gefn.com. Winners were directed to gefn.com to claim their prize (the odds were roughly one in five). More than 5,000 wallets were dispersed over an eight-week period.
The original concept added more legs as planning continued through spring for the July launch. “A lot of times, the big idea gets smaller as you move forward,” says Matthews. “This one got bigger and better.” Add-ons included a radio merchandising component in five markets that let stations give away additional prizes (and had some staging their own drops) and a viral e-mail campaign.
Advanced p.r. scored local news coverage in all 12 cities, along with national placement on CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg Radio, and the ABC/AP Radio Network. Outlets were intrigued not only by the concept itself but by the hook of “Loot Camp,” the training program through which field staffers were instructed in the art of the surreptitious drop: down the pant leg, though holes in shopping bags, from inside a sandal. (Video footage was made available to the media and to consumers online.)
The $5.5 million in media time generated exceeded the campaign’s goal by $4 million. Daily traffic to gefn.com (which had gone live in March) more than doubled during the promotional period. “We got a 20 to one ROI from the media alone,” says Matthews, adding that sales conversion rates were “way beyond direct mail” levels.
The drops proved to be a lesson in human nature. GE and Ryan were pleased to discover that most finders made an effort to locate the rightful owner (although many Dallas residents simply walked off with the wallets). Field personnel were instructed to hang back and not embarrass less-honest citizens. “We lost a few wallets,” notes Sullivan.
But they sure gained a lot of attention.
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