The Project
Beacon Bingo Cricklewood are the largest Bingo venue in Europe. They consistently bring in huge audience numbers for their special big ticket events but they came to us wanting to make their biggest jackpot event even bigger. They were looking for branding and social strategy advice for a digital campaign that ran parallel to more traditional advertising methods like direct mailouts and posters etc. The client wanted to see ideas that were outside of the box and fresh enough to entice new customers through the doors, whilst being mindful not to alienate the regulars. In the end the simple objective was to get more bums on seats.
Challenges/ Approach
We were up against stiff competition in the pitching process but our creative ideas and realistically thought-out strategic direction shone through. We created a concept that was more overtly aspirational than anything Beacon had done before and we wrapped it up in a way that allowed us to really tailor the content so it spoke to a whole range of people within the very broad demographic audience.
Our Solution
The design was a bit of a no-brainer. The jackpot was a choice between a Brand New Range Rover Evoque or £25k in cash (whatever you choose, you’re winning, it’s a win-win…) and whilst historically people had tended to go for the money, we still wanted to paint it as a decision that needed pondering.
This version of the campaign was just the beginning. The big idea was to have a rogue group of Bingo-playing regulars that are slightly upset that Beacon is deciding to advertise the event so extensively and start a social media group and guerrilla campaign to bring down the event and stop it reaching as many people. They would try to achieve this by trolling the Beacon social channels as well as vandalising in-venue advertisements with cheeky but still friendly messages. From Table Talkers up to giant Billboards. The group names themselves The GrandMa-fia and would act as the bridge between the young and old. The things they get up to are quite tongue-in-cheek but ultimately what we wanted was a group that was as entertaining to the younger audience as it was empowering to older members.
We created two social personas for the GrandMa-fia (that we would catfish), Phyllis Biggs – A no-nonsense older lady with a fierce competitiveness and a bit of a soft spot for old gangster movies, and Winnie Moore – A very cheeky Nan who tries to keep herself up to date with her grandkids, she’s also a very sore loser.
The biggest challenge of the project was organising and scheduling the work in to the studio. No one thing was overly complicated but there was a lot of assets that needed creating, proofing and artworking. The tough team kept on top of it though and had everything completed two months prior to the actual event taking place. The client, who were seeing the success of the ads, decided to add another weeks worth of big prize events leading up to the Big Win-Win event itself. This needed a logo, ads, and printed materials, all in the same style as what we were already doing. No problem!
How what we did helped (our solution/ what we achieved)
The GrandMa-fia has been earmarked as something that we can use going forwards too in a more expanded role.
Results, Return on Investment and Future Plans (what we achieved)
Huge engagement across all social channels and in-venue
