DDB Group New Zealand

Client: Lion New Zealand
Product: Steinlager
Title: Black Laundry
Media: Experiential/PR/Direct/
Country: New Zealand
Date Of Campaign: 21/09/19

Background: The All Blacks are New Zealand’s national rugby team. Unsurprisingly, they wear black jerseys. It has become iconic, a symbol of a little country taking on the world. But as the world has gotten smaller other sports have gained a foothold in NZ. Now you’re just as likely to see NBA and English Premier League jerseys on the street as you are the black jersey. With the Rugby World Cup approaching, we needed kiwis to come back to their national team.

Idea: To give all Kiwis the opportunity to come back into the fold we created The Black Laundry. Part laundromat, part bar, fans were challenged to reaffirm their All Blacks loyalty by bringing in any other team’s sports jersey and sacrificing it to be dyed all black. Inside fans discovered an environment that used working washing machines as table leaners, a bar that included a dry-cleaning rack above it to collect patrons’ clothes, and walls of industrial dryers. In 45 minutes their garment was dyed, dried and embroidered ready to put back on for the game.Word of the laundry spread through influencer posts, online and traditional articles, and even live TV crosses until we’d achieved a reach that quadrupled the nation’s population. Each session at the laundry sold out in minutes, so like any good laundry we offered a pick-up service for those who couldn’t make it. We called it Black Mail, and fans could volunteer to send us their clothing, which was given the Black Laundry treatment then sent back in our custom front-loading packaging.By the end of the campaign we’d repatriated an army of fans, who not only wore the team’s colours once more across their chests, but also our logo.

Results: Every session booked out in minutes$1m worth of PR value4x New Zealand’s population reachedAverage of 55 minutes spent in event by visitors