It’s end of financial year ad campaign season – a campaign deluge of sale prices and tax deduction reminders. This year, one campaign stands out. It’s 8.5 hours long in its entirety and all its shows is the printing of single receipt. CHEP’s EOFY Officeworks campaign spends 8 1⁄2 hours watching a single receipt print to show that everything in store could be tax deductible.
The campaign follows the journey of one customer who buys the complete 40,000 plus products from Officeworks and then asks for a tax receipt. Calculated to take approximately eight and half hours to print, CHEP set out to capture the full exchange between an Officeworks employee and customer throughout this lengthy wait.
Because 8.5 hours is longer than anyone will watch an ad in one go, the long, loooong interaction between the shopper and friendly Officeworks store person plays out over a six-week campaign period with more than 30 individual edits of varying lengths.
The hero spot is 9.5 minutes long.
The campaign creative reflects the insight that tax time is important but overwhelming and confusing for many small business owners, and humorously heroes how Officeworks simplifies the period with a wide range, the entirety of which could be tax deductible. By stripping its messaging and creative back, Officeworks has made this EOFY as simple as possible for shoppers with the reminder to always ask for a receipt, printed or electronic to maximise their potential claims.
The campaign was born from Officework’s research that showed the growing impact the rising cost of living is having on spending habits and customers’ priorities at tax time:
Almost half (47%) of Australians are changing their purchasing habits in the lead-up to EOFY to save money or maximise their return, and many are still uncertain about tax time – nearly half (46%) of people are confused about what they can and can’t claim, and 62% of small business leaders find the tax system for small businesses confusing.
Less than half of Australians keep their receipts organised in either a physical (48%) or digital (31%) folder for tax time, and an eighth (12%) – that’s almost two and a half million Australians (2.44 million) – have thrown out their receipts or don’t keep track throughout the year, meaning they will need to forgo potential claims.
Glen Dickson, deputy chief creative officer at CHEP Network, noted, “Unlike every other retail store in Australia, every individual item for sale at Officeworks could be tax deductible, no asterisks or exceptions.
We thought it’d be fun to consider, what would happen if someone actually did buy every single item. Then asked for a receipt so they could claim it all. The receipt would take 8 1⁄2 hours to print. So that’s what we set out to film.
Jessica Richmond, general manager marketing, data & insights at Officeworks, added, “EOFY is a busy retail period and a time we know many of our customers find confusing or overwhelming. We knew we had something unique to say with this campaign and we needed to make it as uncomplicated as possible – EOFYthing at Officeworks, all 40,000-plus items, could be tax deductible.
“By stripping back our approach, we’ve been able to clearly convey to our customers what it means to shop with us at this time of year. We’re confident that this approach will help make this EOFY a strong one for us, and for our customers.”
Credits:
Creative: CHEP
Production: MOFA
Media: Initiative & Reprise
PR & Influencers: alt/shift/ (with research by Lonergan)
Content: Medium Rare Content Agency
Client: Officeworks
General Manager Marketing, Data & Insights at Officeworks: Jessica Richmond
Head of Brand: James Sterling
Head of Marketing: Sophie Smith
Senior Marketing Operations Manager: Melissa Pritchard
