Menu
Outdoor & Events
 

Dupé

Yarra Valley Water

Issue 31 | June 2014

Agency

Ogilvy Melbourne

Creative Team

Chief Creative Officer Steve Back Executive Creative Director Brendon Guthrie Creative Director Dave Scott Art Director Sally Hastings Copywriter Michael Punton Senior Designer Jesse Steinfort Designer Karsten Jurkshat

Production Team

Supervising Producer Luke Coulson TV Producer Charlotte Griffiths Editor/Director Olly Sindle D.O.P. Will Horne Editor Billy Browne Sound Flagstaff

Other Credits

Head of Brand Strategy Gavin MacMillan General Manager Nick Muncaster Account Director Carol McDonald Account Manager Sophie Holberton Group Account Director Ewan Thornton Senior Account Manager Jamie McClelland Client Megan Bata

Date

Oct 2013 ongoing

Background

Yarra Valley water was the largest of Melbourne's three water providers, catering for over 1.7 million people.

Melbourne tap water was among the purest in the world yet Australians were spending $600 million each year on bottled water. Not only was this expensive at $3 per one litre bottle, it was a huge strain on the environment. For starters, it took three litres of water to produce one litre of bottled water.

Yarra Valley Water designed their 'Be Smart Choose Tap' programme to highlight the many benefits of water from the tap rather than water from the supermarket.

Idea

A completely fictitious brand was created, selling all the things people could get for free such as tins of Fresh Air, bottles of Good Mood. The idea was that buying bottled water was almost as absurd as buying a carton of Sunshine or a bottle of Moonlight.

A pop-up store was constructed in the centre of Melbourne to stock and sell Dupe´ products for one day only.

The shoppers' reactions to the nonsensical products was captured by hidden cameras and used to create a thought-provoking film.

Dupe´ wares were also made available at dupestore.com.au where the message was delivered as users shopped.

Results

Nearly 207,000 YouTube hits to date, 199,000 more than the original client target.

439,000 total video views (reposted and official).

70% increase in online mentions overnight, with no paid media.

800+ visits (per week) to the DUPE´ e-store.

Message reach to over 175 countries. 19% increase in Facebook likes.

Facebook post reach peaked at 10,873 on the campaign launch on 21 October. Average prior was 200.

Growth of the Choose Tap community by over 1,000.

Nationally and internationally, other water authorities are replicating the campaign.

Our Thoughts

Of the seven basic creative ideas, number five is ‘Inversion’, when you do the opposite of what the brief asks you to do, but with a twist.

Here, those bright folks at Ogilvy have taken how marketers sell bottled water and flipped it to apply the same rules of naming and packaging to Compliments, Good Wishes, Fresh Air and Positivity.

I’d love to have added a row of jars marked Hilarity.

Instead of taking on bottled brands this campaign just takes the piss out of them.

Instead of lecturing people, the idea allows people to see for themselves what dupes they are for spending insane amounts of money on water. The $3 a single litre of branded water costs from the shops would pay for 1,000 litres from the tap.