The Brief

We were asked by Australia’s national dictionary, The Macquarie, to remind people of the relevancy of the dictionary in an age when such things are getting left behind. Specifically, they wanted social media engagement in the lead-up to the launch of their upcoming new edition.

Creative Execution

At the heart of the movement was a website that explained the mission behind “Stop Phubbing” to empower people to take the movement on and make it their own. The site provided materials for restaurants to discourage phubbing like posters and coasters. Branded merchandise like T-Shirts were created. Supporting the site was our Facebook community, encouraging people to post pictures of phubbers to shame the behavior. At the height of interest in the campaign and in time for the launch of Macquarie’s 6th edition, we revealed the origin of the word via a branded short film entitled ‘Phubbing: A Word is Born’. After its release, masses of news outlets covered ‘phubbing’ and were reengaged with the dictionary’s story.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

In the age of Google, dictionaries are at risk of becoming obsolete. Ultimately, for Macquarie to remain relevant in the long term, we needed to inspire people to want to engage with them, not because they needed a dictionary, but because they wanted one. Our key objective was to generate social discussion both online and offline around the launch of the 6th edition of the Macquarie Dictionary. Awareness of dictionaries is universal. Relevance was severely lacking. Our challenge was to get people talking about something they thought was a thing of the past.

Results

The campaign smashed all expectations and the phenomenon was discussed in over 180 countries through social media. Stop Phubbing attracted more than 27,000 fans on Facebook. Stop Phubbing website attracted over 290,000 visits. 750 news outlets in 50 countries covered the campaign, which generated 435 million PR impressions and reached 3.6 million Australians. The campaign received unbelievable traction. Hundreds of news outlets such as the USA’s ABC network, Time magazine, the BBC, China Daily, Grazia, and every major Australian media outlet covered the campaign. The editor of the dictionary even spent 10 minutes on breakfast television.