Internode wins real treasure from geek campaigns
Epitomising Big Bang Theory eccentricity, these campaigns, ranging from converting Klingon phrases to English to a Star Wars' Wookie giving birth, have secured strong surges in new customer signups.
Two Internode campaigns, the Klingon campaign and the Bad Things Happen campaign, have won the coveted Sirens radio advertising awards consecutively, in October and December.
In its latest campaign, called Real Geek Treasure, Internode is offering more than $80,000 worth of collectables from iconic sci-fi films including Star Wars, Star Trek, and Terminator. New customers who sign up for an eligible 24-month broadband plan or current customers who add an eligible product to their existing service receive an entry in a contest to win one of the following prizes:
- Halle Berry's Storm costume from the X-Men movie, worth $32,500
- Sulu's chair from the Star Trek bridge, signed by actor George Takei, worth $16,000
- From Star Wars, Chewbacca's fur designed by creative effects artist Stuart Freeborn
- Arnold Schwarzenegger's costume from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, worth $18,000, and
- Neo's boots, worn by Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, worth $15,000.
These great costume collectables are currently on display at Internode's Adelaide office at 150 Grenfell Street.
Digital Marketing Manager Jane Orchard said the Internode campaigns had emerged from a full-day planning session at the end of 2012. "We got together with Simon Hackett and key members of the Node team to really get our heads around what makes the brand special," she said.
"As a result, we came up with the tagline 'No Other Network Compares' and recognised that Internode wears the term 'geek' with pride, so we decided to proclaim it loud and proud through this series of quirky campaigns."
Internode has delivered these campaigns after working with leading agency Marketforce. Besides the current Real Geek Treasure campaign, Internode's catalogue of quirky ads include:
- The Klingon campaign, in which new customers were invited to translate phrases from Klingon (Star Trek), Elvish (Lord of the Rings) or Dothraki (Game of Thrones) in order to gain a $100 discount on signup.
- An NBN radio campaign in Tasmania in which a gifted Wookie from Star Wars gives birth to babies - literally the gift that keeps on giving
- The Bad Things Happen When Geeks Don't Have Internet campaign, for which Internode built a replica Death Ray and Stargate Portal.
Jane Orchard said Internode had discovered that customers loved this unconventional approach as well. "They're showing this by signing up to our services," she said.
"During the Klingon campaign, which ran over July and August, we recorded 32.5 per cent more new subscribers in South Australia than in the same period the previous year."
"What's awesome about this approach is that it's fun and it works."