Scam Spotter
Round 2
The Google team asked for our help in creating meaningful and measurable impact in the fight against gift card scammers. We worked with the Cybercrime Support Network, Mischief @ NFA, Digilant, DVMC and Upperquad to build a cultural impact PSA to help people understand just how sophisticated today’s scammers have become.
The Task.
Having already dove into the world of scams in 2019, Google saw an increasing incidence of gift card scams on the horizon for 2021. Per the FTC “about one in four who lost money to a fraud say they paid with a gift card…since 2018 people reported losing a total of nearly $245 million, with a median individual loss of $840.”
Gift cards are perfect for scammers: untraceable, easy to wipe clear of money in minutes, and can be purchased just about everywhere. While Baby Boomers A65+ have the most to lose, Millennials A25-34 were the most targeted by scammers.
And scammers have gotten really sophisticated - their point of contact more intimate (cellphone, text messages, DMs, or pop up ads) and their message more immediate and intimidating (comply with / trust us, or else). We found that it’s not that people don't believe this could happen to them, it’s that most people aren’t even aware that scammers operate this way. We needed to find a way to help people trust their gut, by training their gut.
Our team partnered with Mischief @NFA, DVMC, and Digilant to create the ‘Unbelievable Stories’ campaign by dramatizing some of the real stories scammers use in an extremely hyperbolic way, proving that if the stories from scammers sound unbelievable, it’s because they are. Designed for generational interplay, PR assets, and outsized talk value all focused on one core message: If someone asks to solve a problem using a gift card, it’s a scam.
The Results.
Despite launching during the crowded holiday timeframe and in a newscycle dominated by the omicron variant of covid-19, the campaign received 100% positive press.
The campaign garnered 4K+ press mentions in all 50 states and 15 countries, across print, digital and broadcast spanning liberal to conservative, and rural to urban outlets with an ad value equivalency of $26.8M. We outperformed our paid media reach goal of 10% of US Adults by 300%. Every single placement in our custom partnership with the New York Times hit or surpassed NYT's benchmarks, some by as much as 193%.
We saw some of the purest and meaningful engagement across a diverse set of influencers that most of us have ever seen - less ‘you’re so pretty’ and more ‘wow, thank you - let me share this with my family.” We surpassed our influencer reach goal of 50M potential impressions, by 4.4 million.
Scam Spotter was a first mover and influencer on our own, kicking off the conversation around gift card scams which ultimately grew by 172% during the campaign. Not too bad for an unknown brand and a taboo topic.
But most importantly, we definitely helped more than one grandma avoid a scam.
The Deliverables.
Executed primary qualitative and secondary research to better understand the sophistication of today’s gift card scams, and understand the scam from a victim’s point of view.
Campaign strategy and messaging
Found, negotiated with, and managed media, creative and PR agencies to create a successful campaign
Managed a digital agency as they revamped the scamspotter.org landing page to tie more cohesively to the campaign
Led the strategic and creative development of a custom New York Times partnership, including an ad post that will live on in perpetuity
With our partners, managed a $2 million media buy targeting the US 18+ population, with a heavy up on Boomers and Millennials and key states, PR pitches, a custom survey, MAT release, PR Newswire Release, Broadcast and Print interviews, 27 influencers, and 32 number of creative assets spanning films to radio to banners, through remote production.
Led reporting for mid campaign optimizations and a final campaign learnings with recommendations and key learnings from the campaign
