A Painter/Decorator, a Sex Symbol And 20 Seconds Of Fame
Issue 19 | June 2011
Agency
Proximity Colombia
Creative Team
Creative Director: Alejandro Mesa; Copywriters: Maria Jimena Mesa, Pablo Wills; Art Director: Angela Obando; Web Designer: Daniel Ramirez
Other Credits
Chief Executive Officers: Mario Bertieri, Sandra Piedrahita; Account VP: Juan Fernando Nino; Account Executive: Maria Fernanda Nova
Date
2010
Background
Pintuco is the leading brand of household paint in Colombia and it wanted to build a database and develop relationships with the country’s many painters and decorators. The problem was that these small businesses are all run by people who belong to no union nor to any other organization. The challenge was to get these people to identify themselves. What would get them to give Pintuco any information about themselves?
Idea
On the assumption that like most red-blooded Colombian males, painter/decorators would be interested in women, the idea was to use a sex symbol to coax a response from the target group.
But not just any old sex symbol. Natalia. Such a blonde bombshell, one men’s magazine devoted an entire issue to her alone.
Natalia wasn’t only a stunner to look at, she had a most distinctive voice. The idea, then, was to get her to appear in TV spots saying, “I want the best painter/decorator in the country. Ring me. And if I choose you paint my house, I’ll make a free TV spot for you.”
Suddenly, decorators who didn’t even have so much as a business card could imagine themselves being promoted on TV. So they began ringing Natalia in their thousands.
At the Call Centre, operators were specially chosen to sound like Natalia. And the messages the painter/decorators left for her were beyond the imaginations of any advertising creative.
This allowed Pintuca to air some of the funniest, most authentic radio commercials ever aired in Colombia. And the overall winner finally got given his 20 seconds of fame with Colombia’s hottest model.
Results
So many people wanted to hear Natalia’s voice voice, the Call Centre received more than 68.000 calls in the first week alone. The website, where Natalia herself invited painters to participate, received 23,366 visits. They gave their names and addresses and phone-numbers in the hope that Natalia would call, thus tripling in size the original database.
And for once, the use of ATL media resulted in a large relational plan, not the other way around.
In some ways this campaign could have gone in the Direct Mail section at the beginning of the magazine, even though there isn’t a letter to be seen. It’s a TV campaign supported by radio. But it’s purpose was to build a database of painter/decorators across the country with whom Pintuco could start building one-to-one relationships. And that will almost certainly be mail as well as digital. When the campaign was sent in to us, Julie told me I would love it – and she was right. And not just because Natalia is a bit of a babe but because it’s funny, insightful and direct at its best.Our Thoughts