Together with ClearChannel Outdoor and McCann Erickson, Opel had decided to opt in for a viral campaign to kick off the car fair promotion. The teaser campaign existed from a viral spot and a 1/4 page ad in the national press. The clip was seeded on YouTube (obviously) and shows a few buddies who’re stealing a 36m² billboard in Brussels, while the second part of the campaign is in fact a (fake) statement from ClearChannel Outdoor, confirming the theft of the billboard and calling for witnesses to clear up the mystery. Besides the fact the buddies are stealing a billboard that pictures one of Opel’s newest cars, no obvious link has been made to the brand itself.
Even though seeding a viral clip doesn’t end with putting it on YouTube, there’s been quite some buzz about it. Everybody knows by now Opel does something weird around the opening of the national car fair, so on one of Belgium’s most popular leisure sites the link to ‘another viral from Opel’ has been made quite fast in the comments of the seeded post.
I think it’s a funny campaign that tries to make the point that people can’t wait to own the newest car, so they decide to steal the billboard. In another billboard, pictured below, you’ll see a man trying to fit a billboard in his garage. Presumably to see how well the car would fit in that setting. Pretty clever and I think it’s a solid try.
Copy:
“Witnesses Wanted
In the night from December 26th to December 27th a number of our outdoor billboards have disappeared. Looking at the scale of the operation, the billboard measures 36m² and weighs around 100 kg, we’re hoping people would have seen something that could help us recover these valuable billboards.
If you’ve seen something or if you know the perpetrators or if you could provide us with any leads, please contact us at [email]
In the mean time we thank you very much.
ClearChannel Outdoor”
The clip of the thievery:
Second billboard:
Client: General Motors Belgium
Agency: McCann-Erickson
Account team: Yves Bogaerts, Tanguy Binard
Creative Director: Jean-Luc Walraff
Creation: Lennie De Troyer, Tim Vercauteren
Online Strategic Planner: Tanguy De Kelver
Production Company: Videohouse ENG (Pascal Michaud)
Photographer: Kurt Stallaert
Media: Posters
Erlend
January 8, 2007 at 10:33 pm
I enjoyed how people told me I was crazy: “OMG – why did you stole that billboard, Erlend!.
Robin Wauters
January 9, 2007 at 1:35 am
I agree it’s worthy attempt but still, the video was a little too obvious for my taste. I’m specifically referring to the way they tried to simulate how an amateur would film the actual theft. It’s not enough to make the image shake a lot, you also have to avoid shooting from different angles because it’s just too professional (you’d have to edit all recordings back together afterwards, and that takes skill and effort).
Another remark: why on earth are they depicting North Africans so clearly in the second billboard? It has no added value at all, and everyone knows you should carefully consider stuff like that on beforehand in Belgium.
: : metablog v5 : : » youtube y el spam
January 9, 2007 at 9:42 am
[...] veo en coolzor la última campaña de gm bélgica desarrollada por mccann erickson para el lanzamiento de opel gt. ¿donde está la originalidad? si es cierto que han ampliado el ámbito de emisión, sacando anuncios en revistas denunciando el robo, [...]
Kris Hoet
January 9, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Right from the moment seeing the Clearchannel ad in the newspaper, you knew something potentially guerrilla, viral was to be expected. And yes little later someone blogged about the thievery, and today you see the billboard with the guys trying to fit the car in the garage… so what. You and I are in advertising and interested in all this so you look for the missing links, you try and understand. But do you really think a lot of the normal consumers have seen al this, experienced it this way? I really don’t think so.
Ale
January 9, 2007 at 5:05 pm
The idea is really good, but this kind of ads, in which you need to see the full campaign to get it, doesn’t work really well
Pietel
January 9, 2007 at 5:09 pm
@ Kris: My mom went out and bought that car immediately!
Tanguy De Kelver
January 9, 2007 at 7:09 pm
@ Robin: we are not depicting a racial group at all, the second billboard is a 36m2 and maybe it looks confusing when you see it as a small visual online, it’s a belgian couple with dark hair trying to push the billboard
@ Pietel: I heart your mom ;-)
Matt Law
January 10, 2007 at 10:44 am
Is this not just a rip-off of Droga-5’s Ecko ’still free’ graffiti idea, mashed with just a little bit of Audi Art of the Heist?
Scourings… at Beanstalk Talk
January 10, 2007 at 11:12 pm
[...] A Dallas pizza chain is offering pizzas for pesos, according to the Dallas Morning News…Realistic goals — it’s hard to argue with them…protecting the image of Big Beaver corridor…(for the reading list) How personal would you like your advertising…if you’re having a slow day…Guess what’s worth 2.5 beeeelion dollars?…Yup, yup, yup, yup, yup and yup. No, no, no…video homage to an industry classic…interesting Opel marketing…an intriguing excerpt…survey says!(CMOs weigh in)…Bringing back the communication gap… [...]
markofando
October 2, 2007 at 10:09 pm
Want to start your private office arms race right now?
I just got my own USB rocket launcher :-) Awsome thing.
Plug into your computer and you got a remote controlled office missile launcher with 360 degrees horizontal and 45 degree vertival rotation with a range of more than 6 meters – which gives you a coverage of 113 square meters round your workplace.
You can get the gadget here: http://tinyurl.com/2qul3c
Check out the video they have on the page.
Cheers
Marko Fando