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DraftFCB’s trick-turning trickery hits the ORCA sweet spot—UPDATED

Make an ad interesting enough, give something away for free or fool the media into talking about something, and brands can get extra attention for less expense. And DraftFCB’s cheeky stunt to promote the premiere of Prime TV’s Secret Diary of a Call Girl did just that, earning “a free 72 hour ad” for the show and taking February’s ORCA award.

UPDATE: While the original case study video, which has been taken down, featured the phrase “free 72 hour ad”, it was a paid-for ad. Its thought a new awards entry is being created. 

Here’s a statement from TRB: “More FM’s Network PD, Ande Macpherson worked closely with DraftFCB to set-up the Drive Show presenters, ensuring they were completely taken in. And they were, sharing the activities of their naughty neighbour on-air and online with the story quickly going viral here and abroad. Secrecy was so vital to the success of this promotion, that even sales teams were kept in the dark, with Ande ensuring that billing and booking were left until after the prank had taken place.”

And DraftFCB’s Angela Spain says: “Just so you know, the only people that were in on the prank were the station manager and the producer of the drive show. Everyone else at Mediaworks, especially the DJs, were unaware of the prank. The prank then created 72 hours of “talk”. So not all of them were duped.”

Kelly Lovelock and Hywel James picked a bedroom window overlooked by More FM and gave the DJs something to really talk about: one gent, one ‘call-girl’ and three afternoons of ‘performances’. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GizX8E95dpw

More FM, which, adding some zing to the prank, is owned by one of Prime’s rival broadcasters MediaWorks, was completely taken in and shared the activities of their naughty neighbour on-air and online. 

The footage quickly went viral here and abroad and on the last day, with public interest at its peak, the ‘call girl’ took to her window and revealed all with a sign reading ‘Secret diary of a call girl – 9:35 Tonight on Prime’, proving once again that you should never trust anyone, ever. 

This month’s judges were Philip Andrew (Clemenger BBDO), Karl Fleet (Clemenger BBDO Adelaide), Kate Humphries (Media Design School) and Phil Yule (Voice Box) and they said things like “Brilliant”, “Loved this! Finally the pranksters get pranked!” and “Excellent use of the medium”. 

The DraftFCB team now compete at the Grande ORCAs for the trips to the Cannes Lions and cash prizes. They also get to host the ORCA trophy and get $500, certificates and a $5,000 radio schedule for Prime TV. 

Enter and see all the past winners at trb.co.nz

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