2"45 Without Breathing
BBVA Bank
Issue 47 | June 2018
Agency
DDB Worldwide Colombia
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer Leo Macias Creative Directors Juan Cardenas, Carlos Agudo Copywriters Natalia Prias, Laura Garrido Art Directors Maria Hernandez, Miguel Van Bommel
Production Team
Agency Producers Dario Lozano, Andres Mejia Production Company Akira Films
Other Credits
Social Media Manager Veronica Lopez Photographer Kalindi Wijsmuller
Date
July 2017
Background
On July 7th, 2017, Sofi´a Go´mez, a Colombian athlete sponsored by BBVA, dived 84 meters down into the sea to establish the new apnea world record, a rarely known and practiced sport in the country.
The bank wanted a press ad that would use this achievement to suggest that nothing is impossible for people with goals and ambition.
Idea
In order to set her record, Sofi´a had to hold her breath for two minutes and forty-five seconds. The idea was to write an ad that would take exactly that time to read it all the way through and then challenge people to hold their breath, read and see how far they got. They were invited to mark where they got to in the text, take a photo of it and share it with their friends, competing to see who could hold their breath the longest.
The ad was published on a Sunday. When readers uploaded their photos, a post was published on their Facebook page encourag- ing their friends to go out and buy the paper too to take part. Many did and, in their turn, challenged their friends. In this way, an entire country got to know about and share the record of an unknown athlete.
Results
1.9 million readers in 24 hours. Over 16 million impressions on social networks in just a weekend. A trending topic for an entire day. Much free PR.
Our Thoughts
Two weeks after this issue of Directory is published, the Cannes Print jury will meet to hand out Lions to some of the most depressing advertising of the year, press ads that are all visual puns and are only explained in the bottom right-hand corner with a line in 9-point type alongside the logo. Among all the winners last year were only two campaigns with body copy. As the great Howard Luck Gossage wrote, “People will read what interests them and occasionally that may even be an advertisement.”
And this ad is interesting. For me, it’s great advertising because it actually manages to get people to do something, other than turn the page. In the buzzword of today, it is engaging. A simple hold-your-breath competition, firstly with Sofia, then your friends.
It tells us about her, about the bank and its values and, on top of that, sold a whole load more of the Sunday papers. Everybody is a winner.
And maybe even the agency as well, if the Cannes jury this year has any sense.