Results and Effectiveness

While business results are still being tabulated, the project was the most buzz-generating effort in the brand’s history, based on PR and social media engagement, and has increased social media engagement, website visits, and time spent on the site.

Creative Execution

The campaign launched with a teaser print ad asking if anyone had seen Time Out’s phone. Social media content further fueled the conversation. And mysterious posters were hung around town each with a single letter and an Instagram hashtag. Once all letters were discovered and unscrambled, they read “Look This Saturday.” That was the day of the Stolen Phone Tour. The day of the tour, hidden cameras captured each activity.It was edited and released online in various social networks, both in English and Chinese.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

In a city crowded with options for people to find things to see and do, Time Out Shanghai was seen as a me-too product. While Time Out goes much deeper than other publications, it find the most hidden gems and exclusive experiences in Shanghai. To demonstrate this difference, we created the Stolen Phone Tour. We purposely “lost” Time Out Shanghai’s cell phone, and placed it on a random street in Shanghai, available for any passerby to pick up. Once someone did, they received a text: “Get in the London cab that just pulled up.” The cab carried the phone snatchers around the city to discover places they would have never found on their own. The only communication was through text messages on the phone. Each stop along the way was captured by hidden camera.