Yellow Pages: Yellow Tree House

Credits:

Type of Entry: Integrated Campaigns
Category: Best Integrated Campaign Led by Direct Marketing
Title: YELLOW TREEHOUSE
Advertiser/Client: YELLOW PAGES
Product/Service: YELLOW PAGES
Entrant Company: AIM PROXIMITY Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
DM/Advertising Agency: AIM PROXIMITY Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
2nd DM/Advertising Agency: COLENSO BBDO Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Creative Credits
Name Company Position
Nick Worthington Colenso BBDO Executive Creative Director
Steve Cochran Colenso BBDO Creative Director
Dave King AIM Proximity Creative Director
Tony Clewett AIM Proximity Deputy Creative Director
Aaron Goldring AIM Proximity Head Of Interactive Art
Maria Lishman Colenso BBDO Art Director
Anne Boothroyd Colenso BBDO Copywriter
Simon Redwood Colenso BBDO Digital Designer
Ed Hackney AIM Proximity Digital Designer
Shanan Goldring AIM Proximity Senior Digital Designer
Robin Southgate AIM Proximity Web Developer
Cameron Crosby AIM Proximity Web Developer
Bruno Imbrizi AIM Proximity Web Developer
Matt Pickering AIM Proximity Group Account Director
Victoria Pether AIM Proximity Senior Account Manager
Ngaio Pardon Colenso BBDO Account Director
Karen Boulton AIM Proximity Account Manager
Krystel Houghton Colenso BBDO Account Executive
Nigel Sutton Colenso BBDO TV Producer
James Hurman Colenso BBDO Planner
Details
Describe the brief from the client:
In New Zealand, the Yellow Pages was seen as an old fashioned book that was no longer the best place for people to find businesses. New online directories such as Google were gaining dominance. As a result of this perception, Yellow was finding it increasingly difficult to sell listings in their books. Our brief was to show that Yellow is still the best place in New Zealand to find every business you need.
Creative Execution:
This wasn’t a metaphor or a nice warm fuzzy ad with great special effects. This was a single minded product demonstration. Using Yellow and nothing but Yellow was at the core of it. Every business, service and product needed to build the restaurant was found using Yellow. The businesses who helped were featured and there was a link on the site back to their business. It proved to the public that you can get any job done using Yellow and proved to businesses that it pays to be in Yellow. And we got to build something really amazing.
Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.
Show that you can get any job done using nothing but Yellow. But we knew that building a birdbath or a garage wouldn’t make people take notice. We needed a project that would capture people’s imagination and prove that you can complete the toughest job using nothing but Yellow. So what was the job? We decided to build a restaurant. 10 metres up a redwood tree. In just 66 days. And via DR TV, Radio, Print, Billboards, DM, Banners and our website, we got people all over New Zealand and around the world following our progress.
Describe the results in as much detail as possible.
Our yellowtreehouse.co.nz site attracted over 221,000 visitors, each spending an average of five minutes. Over 2,000 people dined at the restaurant. A further 2,000 tried but missed out. Unprompted recall of Yellow increased by 37%. Sales in Regional Yellow Pages Directories increased 6.7% year-on-year, with the highest increasing by 19%. (Across the board, sales in print directories are declining internationally). Yellow online usage increased by 11% to a record 1.02 million per month in November. Yellow book usage increased by 9.2%. The free media coverage this generated in NZ was worth over $3.5 million.