The Campaign

In the Australian market, branded entertainment is largely the realm of advertisers with huge budgets, and appears on free to air and pay television in the form of overtly sponsored long format programming. The only real rule is that money buys exposure. We didn’t have a lot of money.

Results

In the age of Google, dictionaries are at risk of becoming obsolete. We were asked by Australia’s national dictionary, the Macquarie, to remind people of the relevancy of the dictionary in an age where such things are getting left behind. Fewer and fewer people are relying on a hard copy dictionary in the digital age. Our objective was to drive awareness and relevance of the dictionary, in order to support the launch of the 6th Edition. There were three planned phases to the campaign. Phase 1: Create a word that the world needs but doesn’t have. Working with language experts and Macquarie Dictionary staff at Sydney University, we filmed the workshop that created the word "phubbing". This was the first time the deliberate birth of a word was captured on film. Phase 2. Global acceptance of the word. Following the workshop, our challenge was to leverage our network and digital assets, to seed the word into general usage around the world, and generate a general acceptance and genuine usage of the word ‘phubbing’ as the word that describes the anti-social use of a mobile phone in the company of others. Phase 3. Reveal the truth behind the word to launch Macquarie’s new dictionary. Following the creation and acceptance of the word, we needed to link the campaign back to the dictionary, and prove to the buying public that dictionaries still have a place because language is always changing.

By introducing the campaign through a movement, we were able to create a groundswell of discussion, interest and even outrage. By creating a simple visual and verbal language around the material, we enabled people across the globe to easily adapt and adopt the campaign theme and create their own Stop Phubbing material, merchandise and content. In some instances, 10-minute films were made. Someone even wrote a book about Phubbing and other new words. Essentially, we made Phubbing a ‘thing’, created a simple visual and written language around the phenomenon, and allowed people to take up the cause for themselves.

The entire campaign was a microcosm of the way language is created, spread and ultimately chronicled. Phubbing became, not a fake ‘forced’ marketing word, but an genuine part of modern language. And as such, ‘Phubbing: A Word is Born’ was a living, breathing demonstration of the power, beauty and importance of words. Dictionaries appeal to people who love language, and this campaign was tailor-made to appeal directly to these people. From a statistical stand-point, the campaign smashed all expectations covered by hundreds of news outlets such as the USA’s ABC network, Time magazine, the BBC, China Daily, Grazia, and every major Australian media outlet. The editor of the dictionary even spent 10 minutes on breakfast television. In addition: • The phenomenon was discussed in over 180 countries via social media • Stop Phubbing attracted +28,000 fans on Facebook • Stop Phubbing website attracted over 290,000 visits • +750 news outlets in 50 countries covered the campaign, generated 435 million PR impressions and reaching 3.6 million Australians.