JCDecaux: The Mistake
JCDecaux Belgium
Issue 39 | June 2016
Agency
BBDO Belgium
Creative Team
Creative Directors Arnaud Pitz Sebastien De Valck Klaartje Galle Creative Team Toon Vanpoucke Morgane Choppinet
Production Team
Production Manager Sofie Verschaeren
Other Credits
Account Supervisor Isabel Peeters Account Manager Marleen Depreter Advertiser’s Supervisor Veerle Colin
Date
March 2016
Background
JCDecaux is the largest outdoor advertising operator famous, especially in Belgium for its 2m. billboards. It also sells bigger formats, but most marketing directors don't know that.
When they want to book big billboard sizes, they contact its competitors.
Frustrated at having its brand confused with its competitors, Decaux wanted to drive awareness of the range of its formats.
Idea
Working with BBDO Belgium, Decaux mailed marketing directors in March this year.
It wanted to find a way to get under their skin, so the mailshot contained deliberate errors: pictures of their brand with the wrong logo, or vice versa.
Thus a Pepsi can was labelled 'zero', and an Apple poster used the Sony Experia phone.
The accompanying letter explained how irritating clients found it when their brands were mixed up with those of their competitors – which was exactly how Decaux felt about their use of its rivals.
"You must be thinking: 'Why the hell are those imbeciles from JCDecaux mistaking us for our biggest competitor?' ", the letter asked.
The letter continued: "We are sorry we have intentionally mistaken you for a competitor. But we assure you that if you choose our networks, it would not be a mistake."
Decaux gave the recipients time to cool off, before asking to come in and present its formats.
Results
Demand for Decaux's bigger formats increased 15pc, with all sold out for the coming six months.
Our Thoughts
This is fun, starting with the choice of direct mail to promote, er, posters: you couldn't get two media further apart.
Most OOH contractors promote their medium through the medium itself. But Decaux's challenge wasn't to promote the medium so much as to drive awareness of its own estate and correct a lack of knowledge.
That's a complicated task, better undertaken – and more precisely targeted – with mail.
But challenging your customers – in effect labelling them stupid – is risky.
The clever idea and the element of self-deprecation and empathy in the letter meant they got away with it.