
Speed Camera
Issue 17 | December 2010
Agency
Proximity BBDO Belgium
Creative Team
Proximity BBDO Team
Other Credits
Customer Management Director: Vincent Nolf
Date
October 6th – November 2nd 2010
Background
Makro is a supermarket chain in Belgium with about 1.5 million active customers. In the past they have produced some distinctive promotional ideas that have cut through the clutter.
They asked the agency for another of the same, with the additional objectives that the campaign should (a) build traffic and (b) increase spend in-store.
Idea
Deliberately hoping for an idea that would cause buzz and press coverage, the agency opted to bring a new perspective to the issue of speeding.
They wanted to reward those Makro shoppers who drive thoughtfully and safely to the store by setting up Makro Speed Cameras. These took photographs only of those motorists who obeyed the speed limit.
Cameras were put up in the major streets near Makro supermarkets with suitable warning signs nearby.
Drivers who did not speed were photographed and the photographs uploaded onto a website.
At the store, drivers could look at touch-screens to find if they had been snapped. They could print out their own ‘speeding ticket’ which was in fact a money-off coupon against their shopping or one of the 5,000 prizes on offer.
The campaign was launched with outdoor and radio that looked and sounded like traffic announcements. Regular Twitter feeds reported on where the speed cameras had been relocated.
Did the Police object? Only in one instance when the camera was simply shifted to the Makro car-park.
Results
13.000 drivers were photographed by our speedcams. Half of them collected their ‘speed tickets’ at their nearest Makro.
This campaign got press coverage nationwide. One paper even interviewed a police chief, who was unhappy that Makro were using a serious theme like speeding for commercial purposes. Makro themselves were unapologetic. They only wanted to reward their customers for driving safely…
Our Thoughts
Sales promotion has come a long way, hasn’t? From the days of low-budget campaigns with rather tacky competitions to today, when the campaign idea can be more than just a tactical drive to boost sales but a strategically sound idea designed to build brand awareness and drive preference scores.
Belgium really is a hotbed of creativity at the moment. Perhaps not having had a Government for six months has something to do with it? Or perhaps it is the fact that any advertising idea has to work in two languages, so creatives simply cannot be lazy and have ideas based on puns. They have to have ideas that work across cultural boundaries, appealing not to Flemings or Walloons but to people.