Pen mightier than exam stress.

BiC pens, originally uploaded by dwt564650.

Humour and sympathy helped students get the write stuff, explains SMART's chief executive, Ben Lilley.

THE BRIEF Bic is first to admit that the pen category is not just low-interest among youth--it's no-interest. So when Smart was briefed to develop a campaign urging university students to use Bic pens during exams, we realised we needed a creative approach that would generate serious cut-through and talkability.

THE SOLUTION StreetSmart research among secondary and university students aged 16-20 uncovered the emotional hook that would become the basis for the campaign--the dread of exam failure and its potential consequences. But rather than run a serious fear campaign, we used humour, entertainment and fun, while staying sympathetic to the stress our target consumers were about to face during exams.

Smart's channel-planning strategy centred on targeting students in the midst of their study preparation and while travelling to and from school and uni. We complemented our radio activity on Nova throughout "study time" with Nova promotional tie-ins utilising street teams--the Nova Ambos--at university campuses in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, in the lead-up to each uni's exam period. Transport interiors were utilised across trams, buses and trains in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to reach students in transit. Trade activity provided further "pull-through" support for the campaign through retailer-focused advertisements in Stationery News , campaign kits distributed to newsagents, and supporting point-of-sale creative.

The campaign used black humour, exploring the worst-case scenarios for students if their pens failed during final exams. Jobs as chicken inseminators, human guinea pigs and crash-test dummies were brought to life on radio, in print and at crucial points of purchase. Nova Ambos street teams offered students the chance to play the "Wheel of Really Crap Jobs", which was a simple Wheel of Fortune-style game with bad jobs spaced between Bic prizes.

THE RESULTS Research at the end of the campaign showed unprompted recall of the Bic radio campaign was 20%, with unprompted recall of the transit media at 25%. When it came to prompted recall, though, the campaign eclipsed Bic's previous best campaign results, with 65% of respondents recalling the brand campaign on sight. Ninety per cent of respondents identified the key message of "Don't make the wrong pen purchase", and 75% of respondents agreed when asked if the right pen was important in exams.

Ben Lilley, CEO, Smart

Source Citation
"Pen mightier than exam stress." B&T Weekly 0.00 (2006): 24. Popular Magazines. Web. 5 Feb. 2010. .