Broadcast, Press & Inserts

Groundhog Dates

RSVP

Issue 26 | March 2013

Agency

MercerBell

Creative Team

Executive Creative Director: David Bell Head of Copy: Simon Gaffney Senior Art Director: Paul Critchley

Production Team

Producer: Baz Milas Director: Al Morrow Production: Jungle Boys

Other Credits

RSVP General Manager: Glenis Carroll RSVP Marketing Director: Melanie Dudgeon / Jayne Andrews Group Account Director: Sabrina Antoniou Senior Account Manager: Jessica Rix Strategy Director: Jess Littlewood Strategic Planner: Amy Kousis

Date

November 2012

Background

Online dating has become the norm. Unlike the competition, RSVP gives online daters more control by offering different ways to date depending on the experience they want – via search, matching and compatibility reports. The aim was to get this message across to online daters out there, so they were clear why they should choose RSVP.

Idea

The strategic insight that drove the creative was that 'RSVP lets you be choosy'. This is brought to life in the 'Groundhog Dates' concept that shows the same woman coming back to her sister's house after a variety of instantly recognisable disaster dates. The gentle humour and empathy of the deceptively simple idea is brilliantly brought to life by the talent, who is shown to be putting herself out there, trying to please the wrong people by doing what they want rather than what she wants. Eventually she signs up to RSVP and the resulting date is a huge success. A big part of the client's brief was to make the ad as 'DRTV' as possible. This was met by placing the website and its functionality firmly into the story, rather than using the tried and trusted tick boxes and floating type so popular in the genre. By doing this, the ad flows in a believable, enjoyable way, subtly educating the target audience, rather than shouting at them.

Results

The TV, online and press campaign are still live and results are pending.