• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, June 17, 2014

McCann Melbourne, which took Cannes by storm last year with its “Dumb Ways to Die” campaign, won the Creative Effectiveness Lions Grand Prix Monday night for its “Guilt Trips” campaign for the V/Line railroad.

With just a $400,000 budget, the shop used the power of guilt to motivate city transplants to return to the country to visit friends and family on the train.

The agency created a new type of train ticket called “The Guilt Trip”, a pre-purchase ticket that people could send to someone who would feel guilty for not visiting.

Traditional media and PR were used to get the word out about the new ticket. Online films, regional media and “Guilt Trip Handbooks” were created to “empower friends and family to ply on the guilt.” And a social media Guilt Trip Platform was designed to allow users to “publicly guilt their family and friends to come home.”

Results: a 12% increase in off-peak sales with an additional 123,000 tickets sold with Guilt Trips generating $4 Million in additional revenue, more than double the expectation. Consideration also increased with call-center inquiries for V/Line travel rising on average 28%, well exceeding the company’s 10% target.