CELEBRATING THE ORDINARY PEOPLE MAKING AUSTRALIA EXTRAORDINARY

8 MONTHS - 8 PHOTOGRAPHERS - 8 STATES AND TERRITORIES

CommBank, Australia’s biggest bank, has sponsored the Australian of the Year Awards for 36 years. 

The highest honour an Australian can achieve.

To date, leveraging this property had been limited to minor activity around the Award period. This year however, CommBank decided that they needed to extract greater ROI from their investment and leverage the association to demonstrate the ‘CAN’ brand ethos – resulting in greater engagement and understanding of the brand.

We were tasked to engage young Australians under 30. An audience who have close to zero engagement with the AOTY awards – they see the awards as elitist and only for the famous, and have little affinity with the bank.

Almost no people under 30 voted in the 2015 awards.

KEY OBJECTIVES

1. Uplift in CommBank's brand health metrics through this sponsorship. 

2. Increase consumer awareness of the AOTY Awards. 

3. Drive engagement with the Australian youth. 

OPPORTUNITY

For Australia’s biggest bank to sponsor an awards program that only celebrates four Australians, is actually a contradiction of its brand ethos (as well as the essence of being Australian).

The ‘CAN’ brand promise is to enable the forward progress of all Australians. An inclusive positioning that doesn’t discriminate. Additionally, being Australian CommBank should celebrate the battler and the Aussie ‘having a go’, as well as the great Australians achieving the extraordinary.

Whilst acknowledging the great work done by the Australians of the Year, CommBank realised there was a unique, role for it to celebrate the everyday Australians who make the country great.

idea: We turned an annual event for the famous, into a daily celebration for everyone.

Introducing Australian of the Day.

Instead of recognising the few we celebrated the many, and created the Australian of the Day – an online photography platform that democratised the celebration of the Australian people.

After a national call for entries for aspiring young photographers, we commissioned up and coming talent from each of the 8 states and territories, this chosen 8 were to be the creators and curators of the project.

We then sent the photographers on a relay around Australia to discover, capture and celebrate the ordinary people making Australia extraordinary. In the 8 months leading up to the Australian of the Year Awards we crowned a new Australian of the Day, everyday.

Each photographer was chosen for their unique photographic style and point of view on their home state. It also meant we had a monthly refresh of visual look, style and content.

The content from this campaign lived on the Australian of the Day microsite and CommBank Instagram page, where the stories were updated daily. 

Our epic journey covered all 8 states and territories for 8 months, charting a staggering 24,000 km and uncovering 256 uniquely Australian stories - Australia's biggest ever national portrait.

Each portrait and story was supported by two diary shots, these texture shots helped build a deeper understanding of their life, location and role. We carefully curated each page to convey the most meaning in only three shots.

PUBLIC NOMINATIONS 

Nominations for Australian of the Day were open to everyone. After people were asked to give a simple account of why the person deserved to be nominated, they could also then go on to nominate that person for the Australian of the Year Awards. Tying the Yearly Awards and the daily campaign together, and streamlining the entry process for the Australian of the Year.

LOCAL HEROES. NATIONAL COVERAGE.

Imagine walking to your local high street and seeing a huge billboard with your face on it. That was what we treated our Australians of the Day to, some of our more popular stories were featured in a national outdoor campaign, to help showcase the project and drive nominations for future Australians of the Day.

CONTENT FILMS

Each month a longer form content film was made to celebrate one of the most interesting stories from each state, this is the NSW film featuring Adrian Bennett, Mad Max museum owner from Broken Hill, NSW (credit Pedestrian TV).

CHASING & CREATING NEWS

To keep our journey relevant we kept a close eye on stories trending with the youth, and jumped on suitable good Samaritans making them that day's Australian of the Day. This ensured we were always a part of the conversation throughout the year. But more importantly, the Australians of the Day we discovered were making their own daily headlines right throughout the 8 month campaign. 

RESULTS

PR and social reach of over 125 million

Earned media of $1.8 million

22% uplift in CommBank brand sentiment (18-24 YEARS)

24% uplift in Australian of the year awards awareness

Social reach 16 times higher than the CommBank norm

Average dwell time on site 6.1 minutes

Re-comissioned for 2016

Official 2016 Young Australian of the Year discovered through Australian of the Day