Leica| Our Small, Magnificent World

The world deserves witnesses. Our minds tend to bias for negative events, a quality often stoked by all the things seeking to stimulate us over the course of the day. But there are millions of tiny miracles occurring around us all the time. When we don't look, we miss them. A whole life could be spent missing the beauty of watching someone you love breathe.

This is what TBWA\Paris conveys, so warmly, in camera maker Leica's "The World Deserves Witnesses."

It begins: "This is it. This is our world. Our small world, where everything happens…"

That voice you hear is American photographer Joel Meyerowitz, who gave us this compelling puzzle of a picture circa 1974 or 1975. In the video, his voice ripples with emotion as he lists all the everythings happening around us: revolution, peace, war, hate, love, tragedy.

Some 30 photographers contributed to the campaign, and their images punctuate each word. The work is so beautiful, the juxtapositions so mindful, that it's helpful to stop and really look at them: Peace is two men mirthfully kissing. Women in the trenches, wearing varied expressions, illustrate war. A stuffed bear sits, as if on a trip, atop the wheels of a tank for "the killing." A bodybuilder, shiny and proud, represents hunger; a nun licking ice cream is "the little sins."

Maybe we are more sensitive to the impact of this ad since the presidential inauguration, whose many images, shared over and over across social media, seemed so replete with promises. But this past year, and its many trials, also reoriented us, forcing people to interrogate what is truly important to them. Some manifested the answer to that question by getting really political on social media. Others quit jobs or left cities, left partners. Still others learned to bake an awful lot of bread.

There is something of that here, too—this sense that we are just more aware of the world itself, not as an abstraction but as a living place where we also live, and that requires as much nurture as we do. Dreams of joining a Musk-powered Mars colony aside, this really is it, as Meyerowitz says at the beginning. This is our world, our small world. Where everything happens.

The video "manifesto" was developed using only existing photos; none were staged to suit the campaign, and nothing was retouched or altered. It will air online, with accompanying visuals to appear in more than 15 countries. Images will rotate and change over time.

"I had goosebumps down my arms and along my ribs when I first saw the video," Meyerowitz, who also contributed an image, says. "It was astonishing! It was more human and inspiring than anything any camera company has ever done! No doubt about it."

Below, check out the gallery of prints.

CREDITS

Brand: Andrea Pacella, Director Global Marketing & Communication Jérôme Auzanneau, Global Director Brand, Partnerships & Accessories 
TBWA\Paris: Renaud Berthe, Matthéo Pressmar, Alexandre Stachowiak Executive Creative Directors: Benjamin Marchal & Faustin Claverie Associate Creative Director: Philippe Rachel 
Associate Creative Director: Carl Härborg 
Art Purchase: Elise Kubler, Isabelle Jaubert 
Legal: Caroline Paillard 
Post-Production: Eléonore Girard 
Sound Production: \Else 
Composer: Niccolò Pacella 
Head of Music and Sound: Olivier Lefebvre 
Sound Director: Fabrice Pouvreau 
Sound Engineer: Alexandre Robieux 
Photographers (print in bold):  
Emily Garthwaite /Institute  
Kai Wiedenhöfer  
Sarah G. Ascough  
Stephen Vanasco  
Chris Suspect  
Véronique De Viguerie  
Justin Mott 
Gabriele Micalizzi 
Eolo Perfido  
Craig Semetko  
Jonathan Eden-Drummond  
Christian Werner  
Godong/ Getty Images 
Hulton-Deutsch Collection/ Getty Images 
Dotan Saguy  
Brian Otieno  
Joel Meyerowitz 
Pierre Belhassen  
Matt Stuart  
Bree Garcia  
Bruce Gilden / Magnum 
Frédéric Lanoizelé  
Richard Tsong-Taatarii  
Damir Sagolj 
Jasper Doest  
Joshua Buana  
Sylvestre Dedise  
Lutz Müller  
Emil Gataullin 

MacBook Pro 16-inch|Apple

Agency: Apple

Client: Apple

Country: United States

The new 16-inch MacBook Pro was going to be the most powerful notebook Apple had ever made. But it knew there would be skepticism about its capabilities from top-tier professionals, who had been disappointed in the past. So Apple wanted to make sure these pros understood that this machine had all the capabilities they needed. 

To do this, it created a site designed around the stories and processes of four world-class pros. Rich reveals, zooms, and cinematic visuals seamlessly executed through WebGL ensured a smooth experience – no matter the platform or device.

Wind Tunnel| Apple

 

Agency: Apple

Client: Apple

Country: United States

The iPhone 11 Pro is rigorously tested to ensure it’s more durable than ever, because you never know what life might throw at it. 

To prove this beyond doubt, Apple built a 30-foot wind tunnel and, using musically timed practical effects, literally threw life at it. Kids’ toys, food, drinks, everything you might find in a handbag, a wedding cake, and a barrage of rubber ducks.

AirPods Pro| Apple

Client: Apple

Country: United States

Design Agency: Apple Design Team



AirPods Pro provide the ability to switch between noise cancellation mode and transparency mode (in which environmental sounds are heard). The challenge was to tell this complex story in a beautiful, simple way that communicates how the technology works, but also how it feels. The website marries product art direction, lifestyle art direction, diagrammatic elements and typography in a graphic design system that is born out of product truth. Light and shadow are used as a metaphor for sound and silence (how it feels) while illustration telegraphs how the tech works.

#HolidaySpam| Three

Three UK has backed an integrated marketing push to support the extension of its ‘Feel at Home’ offering allowing mobile users to use their handsets abroad at no extra cost.

From April, Spain, the UK’s most popular holiday destination, and New Zealand will join the 16 existing ‘Feel at Home’ holiday hotspots.

The campaign, created by Wieden + Kennedy, builds on last year’s #HolidaySpam campaign, apologising for the social media deluge of hot dog legs, plane wings, sunsets, palm trees and cocktails. This time the public is encouraged to ‘prepare themselves’ for even more holiday spam flooding their feeds.

Tom Malleschitz, director of marketing at Three, explained the campaign is based on holidaymakers love of bragging about their breaks.

“The campaign will drive awareness of this unique proposition and now we have added Spain even more of our customers will be bragging abroad to their heart’s content,” he said.

A second TV spot features holiday spammers, Dave and Sherri, discussing their well-documented trip to the Grand Canyon. Both commercials will run with supporting 30 and 10-second cut downs with a suite of executions running across cinema, video-on-demand, press, social and radio.

Out of home and digital out of home sites will be used to make an example of holiday spammers and prepare those left at home for more.

Three’s award-winning ‘Holiday Spam’ campaign promoted the brand’s offering that enabled customers to use their phones abroad at no extra cost.

Tracking the data usage of a group of customers abroad, the teams found that they used 71 times the amount of mobile data they would have used had they been charged as normal – mostly to post holiday snaps on social media.

The creative tapped into this finding, warning UK viewers to expect an onslaught of ‘holiday spam’ photos, thanks to the new offer.

The campaign featured a series of 60-second TV ads showing travellers sending clichéd holiday photos to friends and family members back home.

Using insight to drive awareness of their unique proposition and appeal to the emotions of their target consumers, the campaign led to a 90% increase in Three’s social conversation volume, higher brand metrics, and customers saving a collective £2.7bn on roaming charges.

5G Today

Client: ZainKSA
Agency Network: Leo Burnett MEA (Middle East & Africa)
Published/Aired: U/K
Posted: Dec 3, 2019

Samsung| Celebrity Selfie

Who could forget the star-studded selfie from the 2014 Oscars that received 1 million retweets in 45 minutes? While this isn't technically a campaign, it was a great accidental social marketing by Samsung. 

Vodafone| Sunday Grannies

BRAND:

Vodafone

CATEGORY:

Telecoms/Mobile

REGION:

Romania

DATE:

October 2014 - January 2015

AGENCIES:

McCann Erickson

UM

MEDIA CHANNEL:

Mobile,Online,Out-of-Home,Radio,TV

Insight 

Vodafone is one of the largest mobile phone network providers in Romania, and also one of the oldest. In fact, when it launched into the market in 1997, it was the first 2G provider in the country. 

But in 2015, Vodafone’s market share was under threat. 

German operator Deutsche Telekom had recently entered Romania for the first time, integrating two local mobile networks to form the most powerful group in the category. To ensure immediate success, Deutsche Telekom had launched a massive above-the-line advertising campaign announcing its competitive contract offers. 

This spelled trouble for Vodafone, which was getting ready to launch its new superfast 4G mobile smartphone contracts.  

Without the budget of Deutsche Telekom, regular price-driven campaigns wouldn’t have been effective. Instead, UM needed a more personable message that would trade on Vodafone’s established place as one of Romania’s longest-serving mobile providers. 

The agency's objectives were to:  

• Re-establish Vodafone’s credentials as a customer-friendly mobile provider that empowers Romanians to stay connected with friends and loved ones • Drive sales of new Vodafone 4G phone contracts and increase usage of data. 

Strategy 

Statistics show that more than four million Romanians over 75 live alone. For these lonely senior citizens who live isolated in the small apartments of urban Romania, life often feels challenging. 

However, as the insights revealed, despite living alone, most of these old people – especially grandmothers – still try to make the most of things, by cooking large family meals on a Sunday. They don’t regularly have visitors, but it’s a tradition they just can’t bring themselves to stop – just in case their loved ones come over to visit. 

This contrasts sharply with the habits of university students. For them, a home-cooked meal is a rare delicacy. Unhealthy fast-food and ready-made meals make up most of their diet. This gave UM an idea. 

It would show how technology (and Vodafone’s new superfast 4G service) could fight loneliness and help people ‘Make the most of now’. If Granny’s family couldn’t join her for dinner, it would connect her with someone who could (and would really appreciate a little home-cooking): local students. 

In line with Vodafone’s desire to celebrate ‘Romanian empowerment’ (it only uses real people in its advertising, not actors), the agency would select two real grannies and make them the face of the campaign – and Romania’s first senior citizen internet stars.  

Using the power of Vodafone 4G internet, it would help the grannies put out a call on Vodafone’s social media channels, offering free dinner spots to the first students who responded to her message, and amplify the grannies’ social message with above the line advertising on TV, radio and outdoor.  

In line with Vodafone’s empowerment message, it would show how Vodafone’s new superfast 4G mobile internet services could connect people and help change lives for the better. 

Execution 

Introducing: Sunday Grannies. 

The agency identified Tanti Ani and Marcela, two ladies from Bucharest to be the face of this campaign. 

It showed them the basics of social networks, helped them create profile pages on Facebook, and asked them to post pictures of their latest menus. UM then invited students on Facebook to visit the grannies for a free Sunday lunch.  

As the unusual invitations began generating social buzz, UM activated the next phase of the campaign: full-spectrum ATL (above the line) activity.  

It made a documentary showing how the lives of the two grannies had started to change and put it on TV. Soon their lonely apartment became the hottest lunch place in town. Romanian celebrities, like tennis player Simona Halep booked a seat for lunch. And even a judge from top-rated food TV show Masterchef was invited to see how the grannies’ food compared to the professionals’. 

Asthe grannies’ recipes became more famous, Vodafone took their fame to the next level by launching they own cooking show through a series of segments integrated into Romania’s most successful morning show.  Partnering with Mega Image, the biggest food retailer in Bucharest, it even turned one of the grannies’ most popular recipes – their signature Lemon Pie – into a product consumers could buy in their local supermarket.  

As the message spread among Romanians of all ages, UM launched a Facebook app to help other grannies across Romania organize pop-up Sunday lunches and invite people over.  

Results 

Sunday Grannies connected the nation and turned empty houses into happy homes again. The campaign achieved over 380M media impressions, for a 99% reach. 

The story was reported on all major Romania media outlets. Over 430,000 fans joined their Facebook page – making it the second most-popular Facebook page in Romania (after Coca-Cola).  

The thrilling social outcome was a triple rate of Facebook adoption for seniors, from the launch of the campaign, extending to Q1 of 2015. This drove an impressive 20% increase in the total number of Facebook accounts owned by people over 65 years in Romania. 

Moreover, Vodafone brand KPIs showed significant improvements in Simplicity (+9%) and Customer Service (+7%), attributes which were directly connected to the grannies’ demonstrations. 

And the best bit? Sales of Vodafone’s 4G smartphone sales shot up by 79% in 2014 Q4, compared to 2013 Q4.  

The Facebook community is still growing without paid media support, and the grannies are still cooking.

Intel | Your World

Insight

For Intel, its 18 to 34-year old target audience comprises of major technology consumers. However Intel is an enabling ingredient - it’s the unseen bit inside - and so doesn’t significantly influence their purchase decisions. OMD needed to show the potential Intel had to enrich their lifestyle and passions.

The agency knew that Intel’s audience (like most consumers) love sport and music. Not hugely ground-breaking insights, true, but what it also discovered through further digging was the audiences’ passion for testing the limits and exploring what is possible with their technical devices. 

This empowering consumer insight  gave OMD permission, in tandem with its new communication strategy of “Look Inside” to shift the focus from “showing what Intel make” to “showing what Intel makes possible” – bringing a new richness around the activities the audiences love – music, sport, fashion and the outdoors.

The second media insight was that The Feed is dying a slow death. With Facebook and Twitter at an average engagement rate of 1%, down from 16% last year, anyone who publishes or reads content on Facebook and Twitter has a cluttered and less engaging experience. What does this mean for brands like Intel who have invested heavily, for many years, in this form of publishing and in content creation yet feels let down by The Feed?

Strategy

Working in collaboration with OMD’s sport and entertainment marketing division and partner creative agencies, social analysis identified pioneering influential individuals within the music, sport, fashion and outdoor areas, and negotiated ground-breaking collaborations. The agency invited these Influencers to explore exciting collaborations with Intel’s engineers, providing them with the support and technology to create products that push the creative boundaries.

The first collaboration launched in early 2013 with fashion designer Christian Joy who created her ‘super guitar-licks rock star jacket’ – a wearable tech light-show that responds to the guitarist’s pedal. The programme has since developed to include influencers such as singer-songwriter Imogen Heap who worked with Intel to invent a running app in which the music keeps pace with the runner’s speed, drawing in ambient sound from the runner’s environment; and Olympic & World triathlon champions, the Brownlee brothers who with the help of Ultrabook and Intel engineers, ‘gamified’ their repetitive training routine, enabling them to race against a virtual, hybrid Super Brownlee.

Each influencer has added something unique making the programme bigger and better, culminating with our biggest influencer to date – Ben Saunders who attempted to cover the longest unsupported polar expedition in history – which launched in October 2013 across 13 EMEA markets. Ben worked with Intel engineers to ensure his Ultrabook functioned at minus 50 degrees centigrade to help him communicate with the outside world from the middle of nowhere.

The campaign was extended to Intel.com, with a dedicated hub documenting the progress of each Influencer through video, images and other content. For the media insight, OMD recognised the gap in engagement and sought to find better content partners that could distribute this extraordinary content via a new network of native content partners to reach, engage, and drive consumers to sale.

Execution

The paid media strategy was simple but dogged: The right content. The right place. The right audience. If it could do this with low levels of paid media, earned media would grow exponentially, so OMD focused on three objectives  – engaging advocates; converting interest and creating buzz.

As a result, the planning execution was bespoke to each collaboration – each plan tailored to build on the passion points and the existing equity each Influencer already had, carefully crafting media to allow the paid media to drive further organic growth by embedding it within the social environments both they and the target audience inhabit.

For all campaigns Intel used Facebook, but targeted the passion verticals as well as existing fans. For Christian Joy it targeted Fashion and Technology verticals; for Imogen Heap it targeted Music and Technology verticals; for Brownlee Brothers it targeted Sports and Technology and for Ben Saunders targeted Outdoor activities and Technology.

Intel also used additional channels and media owners specific to their vertical. For Christian Joy it worked with eBuzzing to excite and engage fashion bloggers; for Imogen Heap it worked with Spotify to target listeners through banner advertising; for Brownlee Brothers it used Promoted Tweets and utilised OMD’s RTB tool, targeting sports fans to build a cost efficient long tail hosting content; and for Ben Saunders it partnered with Discovery Channel to share campaign content to an engaged tech influencer audience. Finally the agency worked with Buzzfeed to create bespoke posts and editorial series “#Mindblowing facts” – a media first.

Results

The success in using low levels of paid media to catalyse earned media has seen strong results across the 13 markets, delivering a truly geo-wide campaign delivering against all campaign objectives.
• In one month Buzzfeed delivered 87k engagements (page views), 18k social engagements achieving a 1.3X Social Lift – for every 10 people who saw the content from paid media, an additional three people saw the content as a result of sharing. That's equivalent to 30% earned media
• Facebook delivered over 400m impressions - 21% of which were earned impressions
• 55% of the 1m YouTube videos were earned views
• The Intel.com Shop page, where laptops are bought from, recorded an increase in purchase engagement rate from 25% to 40% and 74,000 visits were driven to Intel.com from Facebook
• Over 1.7M actions have been generated (shares,likes, retweets and comments)
• Over 120,000 new Facebook fans and Twitter followers were acquired organically, creating a 1:3 ratio of earned media to paid media overall.

The past year has been a chance for Intel’s social fans to inspire and be inspired by what is ‘inside’ Intel’s products, and to add to Intel’s ever-growing image as a company that innovates and makes new things possible.

BRAND:

Intel

CATEGORY:

Computer/Software

REGION:

Czech Republic[

France

Germany

Hungary

Italy

The Netherlands

Poland

Romania

Russia

Spain

Sweden

United Arab Emirates

United Kingdom

DATE:

June 2013 - March 2014

AGENCY:

OMD

MEDIA CHANNEL:

Digital,Integrated,Online

Cxense | Cxense boosts hyperlocal targeting capabilities

Insight

Widespread use of centralised web traffic hubs in the Nordic region has traditionally limited the value of advertising geotargeting technologies in the area. Leading ad serving technology provider, Cxense, is now breaking the mould, using an IP geotargeting solution from Digital Element to improve granularity by over 110% and eliminate holes in coverage – resulting in significantly higher revenues for its customers’ ad campaigns.

Online geotargeting in the Nordic region is notoriously difficult due to the common practice of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) routing large numbers of IP addresses through centralised hubs, a practice known as ‘backhauling’. Unsophisticated geolocation methodologies can be misled by this practice, resulting in a disproportionate number of IP address locations being incorrectly geolocated to a centralised hub, rather than the location where the device actually connects to the publicly-routable internet.

For Cxense, ad serving technology provider, the issue of tracing an IP address back from the centralised hub to the ISP end-point was not completely resolved with their previous IP geolocation provider. Cxense, which handles more than 45 billion ad impressions per month, recognised that, with improved data granularity and city-level accuracy, it could serve more relevant ads and generate higher Click-Through Rates (CTRs) and revenue for its advertising clients.

Strategy

After an extensive evaluation process of several IP geolocation solutions, Cxense chose Digital Element’s NetAcuity Edge technology for its hyperlocal targeting capabilities.

Execution

By integrating the NetAcuity Edge technology into its ad serving platform, Cxense is able to address the challenges associated with online ad geotargeting in the Nordics. While less sophisticated IP targeting techniques rely on routing infrastructure analysis and are degraded by backhauled traffic, NetAcuity Edge combines traditional infrastructure analysis with anonymous insight gleaned from a network of global commercial partners to provide a more granular and accurate response at a hyperlocal level (city and postcode), while still maintaining user anonymity and complying with the highest standards of end-user privacy. Now publishers, using EmediateAd from the Cxense Advertising suite, can assure its advertisers that it is utilising the most accurate and granular hyperlocal dataset available and that their ads are reaching users in the right geographic locations throughout the entire Nordic region and beyond.

Results

By deploying Digital Element’s IP geolocation technology, Cxense’s local advertising capabilities have become significantly more precise, and the company now delivers the Nordic region’s most granular and accurate geotargeted ads. With a rate of 100% country-level accuracy, 98% region-level accuracy and 97% city-level accuracy, Cxense’s geotargeting solution delivers fewer blank spots, more impressions, higher CTRs and, ultimately, increased revenues for its customers’ ad campaigns.

To measure the success of the deployment, Cxense compared before and after geotargeting data* across four different countries – Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland – with staggering results: 

Denmark:
- Average increase in cities identified: 114%
- Average decrease in ad impressions served to visitors in unknown locations: 99.6%
- Average decrease in inventory delivered to unknown locations: 99.3%

Sweden:
- Average increase in cities identified: 146%
- Average decrease in ad impressions served to visitors in unknown locations: 99.1%
- Average decrease in inventory delivered to unknown locations: 99.9%

Norway:
- Average increase in cities identified: 131%
- Average decrease in ad impressions served to visitors in unknown locations: 98.1%
- Average decrease in inventory delivered to unknown locations: 97%

Finland:
- Average increase in cities identified: 157%
- Average decrease in ad impressions served to visitors in unknown locations: 97.8%
- Average decrease in inventory delivered to unknown locations: 97.6%

Percentage change in geotargeting data accuracy by country

By deploying Digital Element’s NetAcuity Edge geotargeting technology within its leading-edge advertising platform, Cxense is charting new ground for the future of successful advertising campaigns across the Nordics.   

BRAND:

Cxense

CATEGORY:

Internet

REGION:

Norway

DATE:

1

MEDIA CHANNEL:

Online

Samsung | Oscars Selfie

Insight

In 2014, Samsung partnered with the Oscars to introduce the world to One Samsung: a connected suite of premium products united by incredible innovation and unmatched design. The challenge was to demonstrate Samsung as an innovation leader in screens from the 1.56-inch screen on a Gear to the 110-inch Curved UHD TV screen and everything in between.

72andSunny’s task was to put Samsung front and centre of the cultural conversation during the biggest celebration of on-screen action. When something incredible happens in our lives we use our screens to share it with others.

Strategy

The idea was that incredible things happen on Samsung screens. The agency’s strategy was to show that from big to small, Samsung has the most premium screens on the market. It showed this by surrounding the Oscars event with media opportunities demonstrating the brilliance of Samsung screens.

Execution

Incredible things happened…

On TV: Five minutes of airtime showcased Samsung’s product line.

On the red carpet: “The Oscars Backstage” sponsorship provided exclusive access to the green room, which featured a wall made out of 86 Samsung products. A Samsung Selfie station let celebs take and post pictures via a Samsung tablet. @TheAcademy posted 10 promoted celebrity selfies taken from the green room.

In digital: Display and video ads on Oscars.com and in a companion mobile app.

During the show: The first-ever Oscars product integration within the ceremony. Oscars host Ellen out the Note 3 front and centre by integrating the device into the show as part of the negotiation. Ellen took a selfie with some of Hollywood’s biggest celebrities and the world contributed to its success on the second screen.

Results

The Galaxy Note 3 was front and centre during the ceremony, including the record-breaking “selfie” Ellen snapped in front of 656 million global viewers. The selfie generated 2.3 million+ tweets, crashing Twitter within just 34 minutes, and more than 65 celebrities re-tweeted the selfie.

- 34 million Facebook impressions
- 2.1 billion meme impressions
- 428 million combined online, print and broadcast impressions within the first 10 days
- 18% lift in ‘likelihood to recommend Samsung’ from the week prior to post Oscars
- 16%+ rise in brand sentiment on Twitter during Oscars week climbing to 42% weeks later (23/03). 

BRAND:

Samsung

CATEGORIES:

Electronic Goods

Telecoms/Mobile

REGION:

United States

DATE:

February - April 2014

AGENCY:

72andSunny

MEDIA CHANNEL:

Digital,Events,Online,Sponsorship,TV

MegaFon | Megafaces - Sochi Olympic Pavilion

Insight

MegaFon, the general partner of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, with its Olympic activation needed to reinforce its customers’ loyalty and mobile internet usage as well as to stimulate mobile internet trial by other network customers in the time of Mobile Number Portability (MNP).

In early 2013 the Olympics seemed “very official and unapproachable” for most Russians. MegaFon found a phenomenal business opportunity to encourage everyone to leave their personal mark in the Games history and put its high-speed mobile internet at the core, inviting fans to write a new digital chapter of the Olympics.

Strategy

Megafaces – MegaFon’s Olympic Pavilion – became a pinnacle of the five month Olympic campaign ‘Create Your Own Olympic History’ and gave everyone the opportunity for an epic “I was there” Olympic moment – for THE best selfie ever!

Execution

The 2,000 square metre Pavilion featured the world’s first large scale LEC kinetic façade, becoming a digital Mount Rushmore. Customers from across Russia and visitors to the Olympic Park had their faces photographed and transferred to the Pavilion façade. It was designed to function like a huge pin screen that could extend out to a depth of up to two metres. The façade of the Pavilion was made up of over 11,000 actuators and was capable of rendering 3D images eight metres tall by six metres wide. It morphed every 50 seconds, with three faces featured at any one time, enlarged by 3,500%.

A 3D processing engine ran automatically to algorithmically position, scale and re-light the raw scan data from a virtual photo booth. The effect this created was akin to a digital tromp l'oeil – the first of its kind.

Results

MegaFaces was a runaway success. More than 400 news articles featured in the Russian media and over 600 internationally established the pavilion as one of the iconic symbols of Sochi 2014. More than 140,000 participants’ faces were shown throughout the Games and more than 100,000 posts and tweets.

This impressive campaign was awarded the Innovation Lions Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2014.

BRAND:

MegaFon

CATEGORY:

Telecoms/Mobile

REGION:

Russia

DATE:

February - February 2014

MEDIA CHANNEL:

Experiential,Digital,Events,Sponsorship

Virgin Mobile | Game Of Phones

Insight

Virgin Mobile is the black sheep of the Virgin family of brands. Despite all of the other services with the Virgin name, it is a budget brand in Australia. The average age of its consumer base is 42 years old who are value-driven traditionalists who use Virgin Mobile because it is the cheapest telco in the market. As any marketer will tell you, this is not exactly a prime segment, and on top of that, it isn’t the target Virgin brands are known for catering to.

With only 4% market share, Virgin Mobile is behind its next closest competitor (20% share) by a considerable margin. In order to grow, Virgin Mobile needed more than just a marketing effort; it needed a complete shake up of how it operates. It needed to develop the same brand equity and loyalty amongst young people who admire Virgin for challenging the status quo in other businesses. Instead of just acting like a telco, Virgin Mobile needed to become a way of life.

Strategy

Virgin Mobile slowly fell into the trap that the only value it could provide was in cost, but value can come in any number of forms. Being part of the Virgin family has its benefits, in SMG’s ammunition it had a range of Virgin Family rewards – from Virgin airline velocity points, to crates of wine, to gym membership and Virgin financial services – rewards that sit well outside of the telco remit! 

Rewards work best, though, when people have a way to actively participate in the programme, rather than passively wait to accumulate prizes. Regularly updated, attainable goals lead to an ongoing cycle of positive reinforcement that many brands have capitalised on via gamification. Where many programmes fall short, is when the challenges only pit the user versus brand. When young people participate with friends, reinforcement comes from both the brand and their social circle.

The idea was to get young people involved in Virgin Mobile via gamification, but the game wouldn’t be between them and Virgin. It would be a game between young people and their friends; with real risks and immediate rewards. Introducing the Game of Phones, Australia’s largest ever, location-based mobile app challenge, where consumers are the warriors, their mobile is their weapon and the Virgin Family rewards are the treasure. With their mobile handsets as weapons, SMG endeavoured to turn the media landscape into a battleground like no other.

Execution

It created a mobile that game challenged players to hunt for virtual prizes worth $200,000 in a combined alternative reality and real-world interaction, found on the Game of Phones’ app map screen on their smartphones. When players came within 50 metres of a prize icon, they can tap to claim it, but it could then be stolen by other players located within 100 metres.

It needed to be in constant communication with warriors on the ground, so set out to utilise media that helped to create a real-time self-perpetuating feedback loop with game players. Social media and dynamic online messaging formed the foundation of the campaign, providing live and local tracking of every player and every reward. Radio provided an opportunity to facilitate live updates and voltage around prizes and offers with street teams to engage retail.

Outdoor media was brought into the modern battle age through real-time targeting and messaging, never done before anywhere in the world. Working with Outdoor suppliers SMG created a dashboard that allowed it to control every single Outdoor panel individually, or as a group, so that it could push game messages out to specific game players, anywhere and in real-time. (eg. “warrior Silver, Battleaxe just stole your prize, he is still in the area!”) It drove traffic to retail stores by making them the only “safe houses” for warriors to hide with their virtual prizes, and Virgin mobile lounges and airport areas became places to brag about wins.

Results

In the cut-throat battle of telco’s, Virgin was quickly crowned king. The app quickly secured over 40,000 downloads, pushing it to the top 15 apps on Android within the first week alone. Over three weeks of game play the battlefield was fierce with 39,245 active users playing more than 64,942 sessions. The 531 prizes were stolen 82,395 times; an average of 155 steals per prize. They were visceral in their quests by travelling 239,500 kilometres and cumulating over 5 years of game play and $2.5 million in earned media! When they needed shelter 14,568 players entered a ‘Safe House’ (Virgin Mobile store) to protect their loot for up to an hour at a time. As in all wars there was only one king who played 8 hours a day to win $50,000 and the title Game of Phones Champion!

BRAND:

Virgin Mobile

CATEGORY:

Telecoms/Mobile

REGION:

Australia

DATE:

November - December 2013

AGENCY:

Starcom Mediavest

MEDIA CHANNEL:

Digital,Mobile,Out-of-Home