The Bumble Queendom for Melbourne Cup Carnival
Problem: The Melbourne Cup's Birdcage was losing relevance with younger audiences, and no social networking company had previously activated in this space.
Solution: Positioned Bumble as the first social networking brand to sponsor the Birdcage, focusing on fashion, fun, and user integration to rejuvenate the event's appeal.
Role: Led the end-to-end campaign concept and execution.
Strategy:
Developed a sophisticated press strategy leveraging the brand, guest list, founder, and product.
Ran a national in-app competition to engage users, flying winners to the event.
Designed the marquee with social media aesthetics in mind, ensuring optimal photo opportunities.
Navigated a crisis at the 2019 MCC with careful strategy.
Results:
Achieved over 1,000 media placements across various platforms.
Bumble ranked among the top three brands for share of voice at the event.
App downloads increased by 32% during the event week.
Daily active users rose by 24% compared to the prior week.
Notable uplift in conversions, especially among women aged 25–34.
Celebrity/Talent Strategy:
Melbourne Cup Carnival is a week long event series attracting over 300,000 guests.
Some days are more competitive than others and the biggest guests steal the top press coverage. Where and how you place guests needs a strategic approach.
Press Strategy:
We rolled out a sophisticated press strategy leveraging our brand, guest list, founder, product and that we were reserving 1 day of festivities purely for our users.
Community Engagement:
We ran a national competition in app to attend the birdcage with Bumble. This was rare as most sponsors don’t integrate their users, they use it for client entertaining purposes. We flew Bumble users from across the country to the event and saw a spike in registrations and MAU from this integration.
Charity Element:
There was a crisis at the 2019 MCC which needed careful navigating. More can be shared on this over the phone.
Content and Social Strategy:
MCC is all about aesthetics and owning social media over that week. The design of the marquee had socials in mind, neutral colours were used to ensure no outfit clashes, huge windows to assist with natural light and branded moments in every corner so any photo from our zone couldn’t be missed that the guest was with Bumble.
Focus Areas
What people said
Any opportunity for a branded photo moment.
The Results:
We received the following earned media around the Melbourne Cup Carnival in 2019 alone :
Coverage in The Australian Financial Review, Vogue Australia, Marie Claire, Herald Sun, The Age, Popsugar, and Broadsheet
National TV appearances on Sunrise and The Morning Show.
Over 1,000 media placements across online, print, and broadcast in the six-week lead-up and during the 2019 Carnival, focused on Bumble.
Bumble consistently ranked among the top three brands for share of voice at the event, alongside Lexus and Myer
Business impact:
Following Bumble’s 2019 Melbourne Cup Carnival activation:
App downloads in increased by 32% during the week of the event
Daily active users in rose by 24% compared to the prior week
There was a marked uplift in conversion from installs to registrations, particularly among women aged 25–34