SDIA Project
Issue 17 | December 2010
Agency
Shalmor Avnon Amichay/ Y&R Tel Aviv
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer: Gideon Amichay; Executive Creative Director: Tzur Golan; Creative Director: Amit Gal; Copywriter: Geva Kochba; Art Director: Shirley Bahar; Executive Interactive Director: Guy Poreh; Interactive Copywriter: Nadav Raviv; Interactive Account Supervisor: Dana Cogan
Other Credits
Executive Client Director: Adam Avnon; Account Supervisor: Shiran Chen Barazani; Account Managers: Galia Ashri, Esti Smilg
Date
2010
Background
With the number of HIV cases in Israel showing an upward trend, the AIDS Task Force needed to get teenagers, who had had enough of the AIDS issue, talking about it again.
Idea
The challenge was to get people to listen to a message they didn’t want to hear. The medium which seemed best suited to the task was radio, using what radio is all about: music.
A band named SDIA was created and a song released called ‘Going all the way’, which was sent to all the radio stations. Many DJ’s began to give the mystery band playtime, wondering on air who they were.
On World Aids Day it was revealed that the band’s name is AIDS spelled backwards. What had been innocent radio content instantly became a meaningful message.
Results
The song got to No.4 in Israel’s music charts and to No.9 in the Most Downloaded Ringtones list. It was played once every hour in 300 coffee shops and was even used in Israel’s most-watched TV show, Big Brother.
After SDIA’s secret was revealed there was huge media coverage on National TV, radio, newspapers, the internet and MTV Europe. On World Aids Day, media coverage was 75% higher than in 2009.
Our Thoughts
The strength of this campaign is it didn't look like advertising. It was a piece of popular culture and as such it got into people's minds and positioned itself firmly before letting the cat out of the bag. It doesn't disrupt or interrupt. What it does is blend into the lives of the target audience, thus making it relevant, likable and shareable.
This work was chosen as the Grand Prix amongst the hundreds that we looked at in Directory over the last four years because of its simplicity. It got through to people who have become bored and who don’t want to know about AIDS by becoming a topic of conversation among the target audience as well as then creating new dialogue between them and the AIDSTask Force. Truly a memorable piece of communication.