Title	THE ARTISTIC BABYSITTER
Brand	OPERA/BALLET FLANDERS
Product/Service	ARTISTIC BABYSIT SERVICE OF OPERA/BALLET FLANDERS
Category	D02. Costs/Creative Performance PR Campaign
Entrant Company	HAVAS WORLDWIDE BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
Advertising Agency	HAVAS WORLDWIDE BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

Name	Company	Position
Vanessa Hendrickx	Havas Worldwide Brussels	Art Director
Antoine Wellens	Havas Worldwide Brussels	Copywriter
Ellen Sonck	Havas Worldwide Brussels	Account Director
Xavier Mansy	Havas Worldwide Brussels	Animator
Remy Lejeune	Havas Worldwide Brussels	Web design
Pieter Van Leuven	Havas Worldwide Brussels	Copywriter
Tom Loockx, Jorrit Hermans	Havas Worldwide Brussels	ECD
Patrice Bosseaux	Havas Worldwide Brussels	Digital PM
Michel De Graeve	Sloebersit.be	Partner
Yvonne Chan, Stéphane Marchant		Development

The Campaign

Challenge: Attract younger audience (current audience is +45). Budget of 5000 eur. Strategy: Focussing on young parents (age = under the current audience), open to go to opera and ballet, but can't because of their children. Execution: offering a babysit service to facilitate a night out for young parents; but no ordinary babysitters. We launched the Artistic Babysitters, so the kids at home also enjoyed a 'cultural' evening too. (we teamed up with sloebersit.be, an existing babysit platform and recruited 'artistic' talent in their database + recruited new artistic babysitters via schools. All these were labeled as 'artistic' on the platform, and committed to 'art/creative' activities while babysitting. By approaching the parents on a level where we could improve circumstances for them, we changed their perception of Opera/Ballet Flanders. That their children afterwards enjoyed an evening of 'culture' too, was a double win. With this we generated a lot of word of mouth and word of media. This newsworthy idea was immediately picked up by media, giving it an ideal launch. Next we ran a supporting media campaign to give easy access to the service. campaign steps: 1. 3 week recruitment of artistic babysitters with posters in schools, and with dedicated email to babysitters on existing babysitters platform (partner). 2. press conference announcing the service, leading to PR 3. supporting media campaign in banners on owned and partner media. 4. special 'push' banner on ticket page to stimulate using the service while booking a night out.

The Brief

The goal was to rejuvenate the audience. And to get rid of the dusty image. We knew young parents were open for opera&ballet, but couldn't get themselves easily organised because of their kids. So we launched a babysit service. By making it an artistic babysit service, it became a newsworthy idea. An idea that stayed true to the core mission Opera/Ballet Flanders: making art&culture as accessible as possible to a broad audience.

Execution

1. 3 week recruitment of artistic babysitters with posters in schools, and with dedicated email to babysitters on existing babysitters platform (partner). 2. press conference announcing the service, leading to PR 3. supporting media campaign in banners on owned and partner media. 4. special 'push' banner on ticket page to stimulate using the service while booking a night out. (campaign is still running)

Results after 2 months (only measured in those 2 months, campaign is still running) +31% ticket sales compared to last year audience under 40 grew with 1/3 400 babysitters recruited after 1 month 60% babysitters hired by young parents The campaign was a success to the client because they made new with this simple service. At the same time, the service proved their mission very well; bringing culture to people.

The Strategy

Opera/Ballet Flanders has an older audience; +45. We knew younger people had interest to come, but circumstances were holding them back. Our main target just under 45- - young parents- were open for a night of opera or ballet, but couldn't easily get organised because of their little children. By choosing for an service that would help them, we knew we could reach our goal. If we would just facilitate access; like with a babysit service. But not an ordinary one, it had to be a service true to what Opera/Ballet Flanders is about. So we launched the Artistic Babysitters.