The Unewesual campaign

Background

Yorkshire Building Society wanted to bring the spirit of the Tour de France to the countryside of Yorkshire in order to celebrate their 150th anniversary and their role as an Official Supporter of the Tour de France 2014 Grand De´part.

Idea

In a departure from traditional advertising routes, 150 sheep had their wool dyed yellow in honour of the Tour de France leader's famous yellow jersey.

This particular activity was part of a much wider campaign supporting the first three stages of the race with TV idents, press ads and branch collateral focussing on the glories of Yorkshire and how the region provided a stunning backdrop to the world's most famous bicycle road race.

Results

The yellow sheep appeared across a vast number of national and trade publications, including ITV, The Guardian, Campaign, Econsultancy, Event and Brand Republic.

The campaign was tweeted by many of the general public and the national media, including BBC Breakfast, ITV News and ITV Sport, as well as becoming a trending topic in the UK under '#yellowsheep'

Our Thoughts

Leisa Reichelt is the Head of User Research at the UK Government’s Digital Service. She has written about ‘ambient intimacy’, meaning, I think, that the value of Twitter and other social media is in sharing the minutiae of life. “This makes us feel closer to people we care for but in whose lives we’re not able to participate as closely as we’d like.” When you share, you are actually describing yourself to your followers – your sense of humour, your eye for the odd or the unusual.

Brands do not find it easy to get people to share the stuff they put out. But

this works because it is so daft. What makes it glorious is the haughty/stupid look on the sheep’s faces. What are you looking at? Okay, we’re yellow. So what?

So you become famous. And make Yorkshire Building Society look pretty smart for being local, topical and in touch.