Building a more balanced public image for Rio Tinto

Finessing the nuance and ,,,, to make Rio Tinto

Understanding nuanced attitudes and public image to finesse Rio Tintos strategic approach and create a winning ad campaign

Sorting the signal from the noise and unpacking the ad communication

two-phase approach to building ad communication strategic

validating the strategic approach and helped fine-tune the executions

conflicted perceptions about mining that many people have, considerable subtlety in understanding the nuances

Although mining has been a vital to Australia’s success and economic prosperity it has also attracted some negative press because of environmental and cultural impacts. In the past Rio Tinto had adopted a ‘small target’ approach, whilst at the same time becoming involved in many powerful positive social impact programmes.  

In 2017 with their agency Marcel, Rio Tinto developed a campaign around the proposition of ‘Pioneering Progress’. Jump the Fence conducted research in 2017 validating the strategic approach and helped fine-tune the executions.

The campaign was rolled out in early 2018 and post-launch research confirmed it is helping build trust and favourability.

In 2018/19 Rio Tinto moved into the next phase of the campaign developing a TV execution idea showcasing how the products derived from mining are integral to so much of what we appreciate about our culture and lifestyle in Australia today.

Jump the fence were tasked with helping optimise this ad idea through research. We recommended four focus groups as our research methodology.

Because of the somewhat conflicted perceptions about mining that many people have, considerable subtlety in understanding the nuances was required to understand and help optimise this new campaign phase. Sorting the signal from the noise and unpacking the ad communication and how it impacted on preconceived attitudes towards mining were just a couple of the challenges

We benchmarked people’s perspectives with a waiting room task before they were exposed to any of the new work. Not only did this allowed us to see how the campaign was shifting attitudes, it also gave research participants a chance to reflect on the shift.

With some tweaks inspired by the research, Marcel and Rio Tinto have developed the ad which is currently airing in Australia.