Montreal residents perplexed and confused by a new campaign running on Virgin Radio 96 need to just wait another second or two.
John St.’s new Montreal office has partnered with Bell Media to create a 30-second radio ad that is being revealed at a rate of one additional second per day for 30 days.
The campaign is promoting an app called 1 Second Everyday, which allows users to film one second of their life every day and stitch the videos together to create a single continuous movie.
“The first few days [of the campaign] is going to be very confusing for people, but around day 15 it should start to make sense,” said John St.’s associate creative director, Cedric Audet.
The campaign debuted Aug. 24 with a one-second spot that said, in its entirety, “1 Second every…” It was followed the next day by a two-second spot that proclaimed, “1 Second Everyday is an app,” followed by 3-second, 4-second, 5-second ads etc. Each ad is sandwiched between standard 30-second spots.
Mylène Savoie, John St. Montreal’s managing director, said while listener confusion is a key element of the campaign, it was also important to quickly convey to audiences that it is promoting an app. The information delivered in the first two ads was enough to prompt people to search online or visit the App Store or Google Play store, she said.
The campaign’s original concept was to record one word per day to create a 30-word spot, but Audet said the commercial’s flow was awkward, requiring the agency to rethink its approach. “The biggest challenge was to come up with a perfect script that builds naturally towards a 30-second spot,” he said.
Audet said the campaign was conceived with radio in mind because it seemed like it would be the most receptive to the idea, but said the app’s characteristics also made it suitable for an immersive aural experience.
The one-second ads were created in different locations throughout Montreal, creating a soundscape that ranges from rushing water, to a noisy club and near total silence. “We wanted to build the radio spot in the same way as when you’re using the app,” said Audet.
While the campaign’s non-traditional approach might not be suitable for every client, Savoie said the app developers were immediately receptive to the idea. “Maybe because of the industry they’re in, they were open to something innovative and risky in terms of the media investment,” she said “The novelty value of the stunt, that’s where we’re going to get our wins.”
It took between two and three weeks to negotiate the unique approach with Bell Media, said Savoie. There are currently no plans to air the complete 30-second spot once the “stunt” element is completed, she said.
The 1 Second Everyday app received $56,959 from 11,281 backers on crowd-funding site Kickstarter, and was a finalist in the interactive category in Fast Company’s 2013 Innovation by Design Awards.
