The Stunt That Never Was

Background

nzgirl is an online youth magazine that celebrates the strong 'don't mess with me' attitude of New Zealand girls. They went to DDB New Zealand in 2004 with a US$5,000 budget and asked them to get 20% more visitors to their website. DDB New Zealand did not disappoint. The 2005 stunt proved even more successful. This year, the aim was to continue the hype around nzgirls that had been caused by the previous two years’ stunts at The Big Day Out. DDB New Zealand were given just US$4,000 to do this and increase memberships and advertising on the site by 5%.

Idea

In 2004, unable to afford conventional media, DDB New Zealand had two light planes fly over The Big Day Out for two hours carrying messages to the 45,000 people gathered there. The first message read, ‘SCOTT KELLY HAS GOT A SMALL DICK’. The second read, ‘DON’T MESS WITH NZ GIRLS – NZGIRLS.CO.NZ’. The response was instantaneous and it became the main talking point of the day. They smuggled in a video camera, recorded the stunt and sent it out virally that night. Before long nzgirl was world famous, not to mention Scott Kelly, and visitors to the site increased by 44%.

They followed this up in 2005 with The Worst Boyfriend in New Zealand Competition. An anonymous email was sent to the nzgirl database titled ‘Want revenge?’ A link clicked through to an interactive site where you entered the name of your ex. A moment later that name appeared being towed behind a plane saying ‘ has a small dick’. Visitors were invited to enter their ex-boyfriend into The Worst Boyfriend Competition to have him publicly humiliated at the 2005 Big Day Out. From thousands of entries a winner was chosen. To announce the winner, two banners were towed across the 45,000 strong crowd. The first read, ‘JOSH SHORT LIKES IT WITH A STRAP-ON’. A second plane followed, saying, ‘DON’T MESS WITH NZ GIRLS – NZGIRL.CO.NZ’. In addition to the plane stunt, they also parked a late model, hotted up ‘guys’ car outside the main gates. As thousands of people waited for the gates to open, a girl (posing as the girlfriend) put out a sign declaring her boyfriend a cheat and encouraged hundreds of women (and even some guys) to smash the car with baseball bats and sledgehammers. The stunt was recorded and sent it out virally.

So in 2006, they had a hard act to follow. Their solution was not to do anything. Instead, they tricked the nation into creating the campaign for them. They sent out a press release telling everyone to look to the skies at the Big Day Out at 3pm, the same time as the previous year’s stunts.

But instead of doing a stunt they employed actors to go through the 40,000 strong crowd spreading a rumour that the stunt had gone horribly wrong. The story was that they had kidnapped a guilty boyfriend, strapped him naked underneath a helicopter to be flown across the crowd. Then a terrible accident had happened, the boyfriend had fallen and was now in hospital.

Only four people in the agency ever knew the truth. Over the next few weeks they quietly fuelled the story, virally releasing fake photos and fake footage of the accident. Before they knew it the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority had begun an official investigation. The more they denied the story, the less they were believed. To add to the campaign they recorded and leaked one of their phone conversations. The more people talked, the more it worked. Finally, three weeks after the initial stunt they came clean with an expose on the website, telling visitors exactly what they had done.

Results

The campaign showed just how powerful word-of-mouth media can be. The effect was massive, with nzgirl being the main topic of conversation for weeks. Memberships increased by 10% as people rushed to hear how nzgirl had fooled the country into spreading an urban myth. Advertising spend increased by a massive 52%.

Target Audience

The Big Day Out crowd (18 to 25-year-olds)