Tipp-Ex The Socialbook
Tipp-Ex
Issue 32 | September 2014
Agency
Buzzman
Creative Team
EO and Creative Director Georges Mohammed-Cherif General Manager Thomas Granger Associate Director Julien Levilain Creatives Santiago Cosme Miguel Dura~o Account Managers Olivier Lopez Loi¨c Coelho Social Media Managers Julien Scaglione Joeffrey Arruyer PR and Communication Cyril Paglino Clara Bascoul-Gauthier Digital Producers Laurent Marcus Lara Jane Lelievre TV Producers Vanessa Barbel Elodie Poupeau Director Adrien Armanet Artistic Direction We are from L.A.
Production Team
TV Production Iconoclast Digital Production We are Anonymous
Date
April 2014
Background
Bic had enjoyed great success with their two previous YouTube appearances, 'A Hunter Shoots a Bear' and 'The Hunter and the Bear Birthday Party'. They wanted to include the viewer in the creative process to create a world first on the internet.
Idea
The idea was to get viewers to become collaborators and participate in writing Pharrell Williams's book 'Inspiration'.
The set-up of the story was that Pharrell fans wanted to steal the book before publication. To protect it, every word had been covered up with Tipp-Ex.
All participants had to do was guess the words. The more they got right, the higher their names rose in the leaderboard and closer to that of Pharrell Williams in the credits. Viewers could see the book taking shape in real time.
The Social Book was available in five languages. The moment a correct word was identified in one, it automatically got translated into the other four.
When readers got stuck, the hunter, the bear and even Pharrell Williams were there to help with hints.
One person even bought a word on Ebay for $1,000 to secure a place in the final credits.
Results
Players from 161 countries took part.
Average dwell-time on the site was over five minutes.
There were 507 000 visits to the website, 13 700 accounts created, 220,700 words found and 1.3m hints used.
There have been 4,3 million views of the video on YouTube, 16 500 shares on social networks and a potential audience of 193,1 million reached.
The buzz created was equivalent to 1,9 million euros in earned media.
Our Thoughts
Following on from a big success can often be the kiss of death for an agency, who discover that being consistently brilliant is close to impossible.
This is a praiseworthy attempt to do the treble. In some ways it is a more ambitious idea than its predecessors in that it connects Tipp-Ex better with the written word than ‘The Hunter and The Bear’ ever did. And the profits from sales of the book will all go to a worthy cause.