A journey of Faith – The Return of Ferrorama
Issue 20 | August 2011
Agency
DDB Brazil
Creative Team
Creative Directors: Sergio Valente, Moacyr Netto, Daniel Bottas, Joao Mosterio, Andre Pedroso, Cassiano Saldanha, Pedro Gravena, Rodrigo Almeida; Art Directors: Daniel Bottas, Leo Ehrlich, Marcelo Bruzzesi; Copywriter: Moacyr Netto; Social Media Strategists: Bruno Tozzini, Fabio Seixas, Steve Pereira, Ariane Garcia
Background
Ferrorama is a model train made by Estrela, which was discontinued in the 1980’s. However, a community of over 3,000 Ferrorama fans came together on Orkut (the biggest social network in Brazil) in order to persuade Estrela to relaunch the product.
Idea
The president of Estrela posted a video speaking directly the leader of the Orkut fan-group, Marcos Markora.
If the company was to bring back the Ferrorama, he said, he wanted proof of the fans’ faith. They should get the train to run the last 20 km of the famous pilgrim’s way from Padron to the cathedral of St. James in Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
He would provide them with 100 metres of track but the train was not allowed to stop at any time.
A website was created at www.voltaferrorama.com.br, where the journey could be watched live in videos, photos and tweets.
A blogger in Spain was chosen to look at all the messages on Twitter and read these with a megaphone to cheer the team up as they made their way.
A Facebook page was also created for fans to follow their progress.
After five days, they made it. And the president of Estrela had to honour his pledge to bring back the Ferrorama.
Results
490,000 unique views on the website, with no media budget. The story was taken up by over 100 blogs as well as newspapers and TV.
During the project, #voltaferrorama was the top trending topic of Brazilian Twitter three times. The average time on the website was 6 minutes and 16 seconds.
2,873 people pre-ordered the new Ferrorama. And the team made more than 200 new friends during their trip.