The village where nothing ever happens
Issue 11 | July 2009
Agency
Shackleton, Madrid
Creative Team
General Creative Director: Juan Nonzioli, Executive Creative Director: Juan Silva, Copywriters: Juan Silver, Juan Nonzioli, Carlos Janini, Art Directors: Pablo González de la Peña, Carlos Alvarez, Digital Executive Creative Director: Enric Nel-lo, Digital Copywriters: Xavi de la Cruz, Irene Vidal, Digital Art Directors: Jaume Leis, Digital Creative Supervisor: Oscar Pérez, Creative Director: Alvaro González
Production Team
Agency Producer: Cristina Cortizas, Audiovisual Production Manager: Carlos Wassman, Director: We are Pacheco, Producer: Javier Gálvez, Production Company: Mirinda Films,
Date
Late 2008
Background
The different Pay TV channels in Spain have got together periodically to talk to advertisers about their efficiency as advertising platforms.
In 2008, rather than talk about how powerful Pay TV can be for advertisers, they decided to demonstrate it.
Idea
The agency set out to create a new product and advertise it on Pay TV with a clear call to action at the end of each commercial. Response to the campaign could then be measured, in terms of traffic to the website, sales and awareness, and the data used to make a convincing case for television advertising.
The agency decided to create a tourism campaign for the village of Miravete under the slogan, “Come to the village where nothing ever happens.”
The story was that there are only 12 inhabitants in Miravete, where the biggest event of recent times was when one of the villagers changed his hairstyle.
The four TV commercials took viewers to a website where they could have a virtual tour of the village.
They could book a place to stay – in the priest’s house or in the rural hostel. They could even play a game, milking the village goat.
They could also purchase little dolls of the 12 inhabitants and donate money for new tiles to go on the church roof.
They could also download screensavers and ringtones.
Results
Does TV advertising work? Well, there were 1,000 visits to the website on day one, 7,000 on day two, 29,000 on day 3 and on day four the story was in mainstream media. Eventually, there were over 500,000 visits to the site, ten times the number visiting recognised tourist sites such as bilbao.net or turismosevilla.org.
Awareness of Miravete went up nearly 500% and 54% of respondents remembered the advertising.
The guest rooms in the village were booked four months ahead.
By every measure the campaign was a success. And sales of TV airtime on Pay TV increased, extending Pay TV’s marketshare by 5.05%
Our Thoughts
Show don’t tell is the mantra of the new-style agencies when they talk to clients. But it’s not an easy lesson to learn because, as a client, it means you have to be very trusting. You have to trust the agency when they sell you the concept, you have to trust your own gut-instincts about it; and you have to trust your audience to get what you’re doing and become willing participants in the joke.
Is the reason there’s so much very ordinary advertising across all media because few client/agency relationships are as trusting as that between Shackleton and the Pay TV consortium in Spain?