How SPECIAL and Trade Me Made a Brand Platform for the New You… and the Next You, and the Next You, and the Next You
LBB> What was the brief for the campaign, and what key messaging did they want to address?
David> Trade Me has been a much-loved New Zealand brand for over two decades now. But, as you might expect, the business has changed over that time. It’s no longer the place to find used goods with weird and wonderful write-ups, like the used washing machine that could open a portal to another dimension, or a stuffed possum driving a pink Barbie convertible. Well, you can find those things on Trade Me, but it’s become so much more than that.
Trade Me now offers a massive range of brand-new items. There are more than 20,000 new jobs listed on the site at the time of writing. Trade Me boasts more property listings than anywhere else. And more than 1,000 brand new goods are listed every day. But, while the business had moved on, perceptions hadn’t. We needed New Zealanders to realise the breadth and possibility Trade Me offers.
LBB> Can you tell us about the concept and strategy behind the Trade Me campaign?
David> The strategy was a simple one – since you can get a new job, new home and new goods all in the one place, it’s like you can get a whole new life on Trade Me. To bring this thought to life, we reimagined Trade Me as the “New Life Store”. A modern, otherworldly space that houses a never-ending selection of dioramas – each one containing a different life you could lead by shopping on Trade Me. Trying on each of these potential lives is as simple as stepping into the next diorama. Florist? Chemist? Truckist? Every job, every home, every new good leads to a different life choice. It’s all about the possibilities.
LBB> What inspired the intriguing magic surrealism approach?
David> We wanted to capture that sense of potential, the excitement of possibilities. And since Trade Me is online only, we were excited to give it a physical presence – one that had the modern vibe of where the business is now. And one that could demonstrate in a tangible way how easy it is to find a whole new life on Trade Me. We were inspired by the dioramas of natural history museums – those little slices of life frozen in time. When you’re observing them it almost feels like you could step inside and be transported to that place and time. We want to recreate that feeling for our audience.
LBB> Do share more about the ideas that went behind the brainstorming of those whimsical and captivating scenes.
David> Diversity was key. We wanted to show a wide range of jobs, a wide range of homes. But just listing the opportunities doesn’t feel that exciting, so we challenged ourselves to bring some life, comedy and even surrealism to the choices on offer. With the jobs on offer we decided it’d be fun to play on the fact that so many jobs end in “-ist”. Dentists, florists, artists, archaeologists, chemists – the examples are everywhere. So, we invented a new profession to join the list – the truckist. Then with our home selection, range was key again, so we opted for “townhouse”, its opposite number, the “out-of-townhouse” and finally as a curveball we threw in “haunted house”. Providing continuity through the quick cut scenes is the pet associated with the home. The townhouse has a pet dog, the out-of-townhouse has a pet log, and the haunted house has a ghost log. It all makes sense when you think about it…
LBB> What were the highlights and challenges of the shoot?
David> One of the greatest challenges of the shoot was that this world simply didn’t exist. It all had to be built from scratch, so there was a large amount of set design and meticulous art direction that went into realising the New Life Store. But that challenge was also a massive highlight. Seeing this new world slowly come to life was hugely rewarding and gives Trade Me such a distinctive, ownable look.
LBB> Could you talk us through some of the creative tech effects that were used and how you did them?
Stefan> For Trade Me, there were some very clever and subtle VFX elements. For the opening scene we built a medieval village and castle in CG which was then printed to be used as a practical backdrop on set.
As the lead actress is shown around her apartment we replaced her entire body with that of a professional bodybuilder. This involved shooting matching plates then seamlessly replacing one actress on to the other. Not to mention the cat scene, which was filmed as several plates and then composited together to allow the cat to move against the laws of nature by walking up the punching bag.
We had a lot of fun with this one.
LBB> What were the key challenges that the agency faced in developing and implementing the campaign, and how did you overcome them?
Matt> A big part of what makes Trade Me fantastic is the breadth of offering (which is what inspired the idea originally) – being able to tell that ‘Total Trade Me’ story in a concise and digestible way was the real unlock. Rather than becoming a big laundry-list of an ad, we pushed the creative representations of Trade Me’s offering to its edges, be that haunted-houses, or truck-ists, which allowed space for the audience to fill in the gaps of everything that exists in-between. That really came through the collaboration that our team had with the wonderful marketers at Trade Me to find what the right representations of the brand’s offering were that allowed us to tell the story in an engaging and concise way.
LBB> How did Special measure the success of the Trade Me campaign, and what metrics did you use to evaluate its effectiveness?
Matt> As always, we try to balance the need to get the platform off to a good start and see the right metrics shift quickly, while also setting the right expectations for what kinds of things will take longer to budge. Pre-testing and good, regular tracking allow us to make sure our assets are being clearly understood and will help us to refine our messaging as we go, in some of our supporting channels like outdoor and online. Given the goal of this work is to both broaden our audience and broaden people’s understanding of us, we’ll be tracking these kinds of things over time to make sure we’re building the types of metrics that put us in the best possible position for long-term success.
LBB> Can you share any insights or data that highlight the impact of the campaign on Trade Me's business?
Matt> It’s still very early days for the platform, but there has been an immediate shift younger in the audience who’s most engaged with the work. This is pleasing, as it’s something the brand has struggled with in the past. Our message out-take has been incredibly strong, and people are responding well to our more modern, fun and slightly off-centre tone.
LBB> How did the campaign resonate with Trade Me's target audience, and what feedback did the agency receive from customers and stakeholders?
Sally> The platform idea of ‘In WIth The New’ and creative execution of ‘find your new on Trade Me’ struck a chord internally. And with the launch being at the start of the year we had a lot of fun introducing the campaign internally with a challenge of #what'syournew for our team.
For us, the campaign ticks all the boxes in regards to the strategic and creative challenges we set. Our challenge was to position Trade Me as a more modern and ambitious brand that is relevant to a younger demographic while showcasing the breadth of our platform - not an easy task. It is still early days to get quantifiable results but our creative testing and anecdotal feedback has been really strong in regards to the humour, creativity and messaging of the AV.
LBB> Finally, Matt, can you discuss any challenges or learnings that SPECIAL gained from working on the Trade Me campaign?
Matt> Just a reinforcement of how great it is to be co-located with our client partners. This campaign was one of the first major ones out of our new Wellington office, which is literally 100 metres down the road from Trade Me’s headquarters.
It was less of a challenge, and more of a learning and reaffirming of why we opened our doors in Wellington in the first place.
