No One Will Know You Are Gone
Telecom New Zealand
Issue 10 | March 2009
Agency
RAPP New Zealand
Creative Team
Wayne Pick - Executive Creative Director; Kim Pick - Head of Copy
Production Team
Marcel de Ruiter - Production Manager
Other Credits
James Henson - Account Manager; Cliff Li - Designer; Katie Benge -Senior Designer
Date
July 2008
Background
In 2008, Telecom wanted to pre-launch its new T-Stick to the NZ creative community. This provides Mac-users with broadband wherever they may be. Telecom wanted Mac-loving early-adopters and technology trend influencers (i.e. creatives) to find out about it first - to start creating buzz and word of mouth. Trouble was, agency creatives are cynical and hard to impress, and certainly didn’t expect any cool, ‘must-have’ technology from Telecom.
Idea
The best thing about the T-Stick for a creative was that it lets you work out of the office, but because you are still emailing, googling, blogging and sending through the work, no one knows you are gone. 77 prominent creatives, from all of New Zealand’s leading agencies, were sent a life-size inflatable 'creative body double' to help them escape from the office without anyone realising they were gone. It directed them to noonewillknowyouaregone.com where they could find out more ways to get out of the office – the T-Stick for Macs being most effective.
Results
33% of recipients registered online, but, more importantly, so did their colleagues. 680 creatives and ad industry types, including top ECDs and CDs as well as agency CEOs and MDs, went online to noonewillknowyouaregone.com, with over 70% going on to register to win a T-Stick prize package. Considering the total NZ ad industry numbers fewer than 2,900 people, this equates to almost a quarter of the entire industry. Creative body doubles were inflated and spotted in agencies all over town, acting as ambient billboards. One even attended an ad industry council meeting. The media picked up on it with a national newspaper columnist asking creatives to ‘out’ who the inflatable creative most resembled. Bloggers started talking about the T-Stick – and calls and emails flooded into Telecom.
Our Thoughts
Blakey would have loved this. He had a spare jacket which he kept in the office and which he would drape over the back of his chair before sauntering off to the bookies’. ‘Seen Blakey?’ ‘His jacket’s here. Must be in a meeting…’ Not sure if he would have grasped the concept of being able to work away from the agency. Work you did at your desk. The rest of the universe was there for pleasure.