The Hero
Issue 14 | March 2010
Agency
DraftFCB Stockholm
Creative Team
Art Director: Andreas Englund, Copywriter: Jesper Eronn
Production Team
Production company: Callboy AB, Post Production: Stopp, Stockholm
Other Credits
Account Director: Per Hellberg
Date
16th November 2009
Background
In Sweden, while 90% of households are content to pay the annual broadcasting fee of nearly €200, younger city-dwellers are more reluctant. These young metropolitans take many things for granted in their “it’s all about me” world.
The challenge was to get these people to start paying up. And the strategy was to let each individual know that he/she has an important role to play in the Swedish public broadcasting system.
Idea
This particular target audience comprises people who are frequent users of the internet, spending more time online than the average citizen. They are sophisticated users of all the latest web-based technologies and tend to appreciate anything that is centred around themselves. 15 minutes of fame was an appealing idea to them.
The idea, then, was a viral movie which thanked them individually and personally for paying the broadcast fee. Either a friend uploaded a photo of you or you uploaded a photo yourself. Either way, this image was worked seamlessly into the short movie, in which you could now see yourself or your friend starring as the hero. At the end, you were thanked for your part in helping to keep free broadcasting alive in Sweden through the public service system.
Results
To date, there have been 20 million hits on the campaign site (approximately six million from Sweden) with over three million unique movies made and 2,500 new broadcasting fee subscribers through the web application alone.
The campaign has also received huge media and PR coverage all over the world and has the potential to be one of the most viral campaigns ever made.
Our Thoughts
In “Tested Advertising Methods’ John Caples wrote that appealing to self-interest is one of the first rules of writing for response. He wrote the famous ad, ‘They laughed when I sat down at the piano, but when I began to play…’ so he also knew a thing or two about self-congratulation. He would have loved this campaign idea even if it uses a technology he could never have dreamed of in 1932. It flatters the viewer and works by appealing directly, but charmingly, to their sense of self-importance.