Exta no

Background

Spain's most popular music radio station wanted to do a special action for Valentine's Day. But since every other station would be playing love songs all day, what could they do that was different?

Idea

Many couples have songs that are special to them so that when they break up the music acquires a terrible poignancy.

On St. Valentine’s Day, Los40 listeners could have the heartbreak songs they didn’t want to hear banned from the airwaves.

Ads ran on the station saying, “We are turning Valentine’s Day upside down.

Request a song you can’t stand and we’ll be sure not to play it.”

Results

Listeners sent funny voice messages to the radio: “Please don’t play ‘Me with You, You with Me’. I find it unbearable, thinking of my idiot ex. ‘Me with you, you with that cheating tart.” “If I hear ‘Chendelier’ by Sia right now, driving my car, I think I'll drive right off the road”.

Our Thoughts

Innovation is the fine art of doing new things to surprise and delight your customers. It is also usually defined as an idea that has a value for which people will pay. While people don’t pay their favourite radio stations directly, the money comes from advertisers, who are buying an audience. My bet is that the audience for Los40 will have grown significantly on St. Valentine’s Day and if the station then held onto many of those newcomers, so much the better.

This is where agencies like Shackleton can be so much more than the people who craft nice ads for their clients, they can be their creative business partners.