How an innovative marketing campaign managed to achieve a recall rate of 98%!
How an innovative marketing campaign managed to achieve a recall rate of 98%!
November 2023
Advertisement focused on simple savings tips (click on image to watch the video)
In the marketing and advertising world, a recall rate is defined as the percentage of people surveyed who can remember your brand or advertisement. Put in another way, it measures how memorable your advertising is to the audience. Typically a marketer would be pleased with a recall rate of 25%, meaning that one in four people remembered the advertisement that had recently been shown on television, radio or outdoor displays etc.
So how did Good Return’s marketing campaign in the Solomon Islands manage to produce a 98% recall rate especially given it was focused on financial literacy and awareness, usually a fairly unmemorable topic?
The high achieving TV ad campaign was developed to reinforce key themes usually delivered via our face-to-face financial skills training program. Four videos were produced featuring local talent in everyday situations. Each video focused on different financial behaviours; money mindfulness, fraud awareness, the importance of saving and safe borrowing.
Advertisement focused on being mindful of how we spend money (click on image to watch the video)
The advertisements were produced by Good Return and our partner, Central Bank of Solomon Islands (CBSI). We have been working with CBSI for 5 years delivering the Consumer Awareness and Financial Empowerment (CAFE) financial skills training program to people across Solomon Islands. To date, close to 1000 women have completed the multi-week curriculum and are better equipped to make good financial decisions and plan for the future. The CAFE program is generously supported by the Eureka Benevolent Fund.
Despite the strength of the CAFE initiative, the program can only be delivered to 8-10 learners at a time. This TV campaign provided an unique opportunity to reinforce the message of financial awareness to a much wider audience.
Soccer is by-far the most popular sport in Solomon Islands so the team chose to show the ads during the telecast of the FIFA World Cup in November and December last year, a certainty to reach a large scale audience. A total of 176 ad spots were bought and were played at the start and half time of each match over a 4 week period. Viewers watched the ads on a mixture of channels including Facebook, a television mobile app and on TV itself. For those watching the World Cup on TV, the research told us that they were generally watching it together with their family and friends, with an average of around 10 people gathered together watching the game at any one time, further increasing our reach. Overall the campaign was viewed by nearly 300,000 Solomon Islanders, equivalent to around 40% of the country’s population!
A typical crowd gathering to watch the FIFA World Cup games
We conducted recall research 10 weeks after the campaign. Of a total of 232 survey responses, a staggering 228 (98%) recalled the campaign content. An encouraging outcome for the Good Return team was that the survey respondents had a very good memory of the key messages from the campaign with the most common takeaways being; it is good to save money to meet future needs, and being mindful of how money is spent can help you save for the future.
The Good Return and CBSI team believe that the key to the campaign’s success was the simple and clear messaging, and the setting and context was familiar and relevant to the general public. Additionally, the team has gained a deep understanding of the local audience over the years and their barriers to good money practice, and these themes were the focus areas for the campaign.
One video features a young man, sitting with his friends, complaining that he needs a new phone so that his customers can get in touch with him. He doesn’t have the funds available to buy a new phone so his friend suggests that he starts saving for one, a concept he isn’t familiar with. The video then turns to a CBSI banker who explains what saving is and how it is important to have a savings goal that you can work towards. You can watch this video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLweQo0O0sQ.
In another video a man needs to sell his car to repay two loans, one of which he had already spent on a holiday. Unfortunately he was unaware of the high rate of interest he was being charged. The CBSI banker then comes on to explain the importance of understanding the terms and conditions of any loan you take out, and that you need to be certain that you are able to pay back the loan before committing to it. You can watch this video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gypXw_7d_Kk.
Advertisement focused on being careful when borrowing (click on image to watch the video)
The simple filming technique, reminiscent of videos taken on your mobile phone, gives the viewer a sense that these are everyday situations with believable characters. However each video comes with an important and clearly articulated message about financial awareness and the importance of savings and careful borrowing.
Congratulations to Good Return’s Solomon Islands Program Coordinator, Elizabeth Sodu, and Central Bank of Solomon Islands, on this tremendously successful campaign.