The Campaign

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. Advertising wouldn’t work for us in this space. Our best course of action was to trigger public interest, discourse and discussion around a new word… and then tie the entire discussion back to the continuous evolution of language. Our idea was to find a global problem so recent, it didn’t have a word for it yet. Then invent that word, and show that a single word has the power to change everything. The problem was poor smartphone manners. The word we created was ‘Phubbing: ignoring the person in front of you in favour of your smartphone.’ We launched the word, then used the word to spark a social movement. And then with media and public discussion of Phubbing at its peak, we released a branded short film about the origin of the word, to launch the 6th edition of the Macquarie Dictionary. The entire campaign was designed to trigger, feed and ultimately leverage public discussion.

The Brief

In many ways, this was seen a bit as a lost cause. All the publishers wanted, was to generate a social buzz around their upcoming edition, and create a story that mainstream media (and not just the literary media) may be interested enough in, to give the Macquarie some oxygen. A secondary goal was to remind their parent-publishing house that dictionaries aren’t dead just yet, and prove that they may have a place in the modern world.

Results

The campaign was covered in over 50 countries by over 750 news outlets and over 180+ countries discussed the phenomenon via social media, putting the campaign PR impressions at 435 million. It prompted discussion surrounding smartphone etiquette as well as the evolution of language in not just the English language, but also German, French and Spanish to name a few. This made for a launch unlike any other in the history of Macquarie Dictionary. The editor even spent 10 minutes on breakfast television.

Execution

Branded Campaign Launched: October 7, 2013: Phubbing: A Word is Born film released. July 2013: We realised that a movement with a visible leader gets more media traction. So we convinced an agency intern, Alex Haigh, to take the job. We offered him to the Australian media for comment, which resulted in him conducting over 40 interviews worldwide. May 2012: A workshop at the University of Sydney to create the word. Content Seeded into the World (unbranded): The Stop Phubbing movement was born, via Facebook and a dedicated website. Campaign Development: April 2012: Identify the behaviour we seek to name.

The Situation

Dictionaries have largely become invisible in a world where Google has become the default source of all collective human wisdom. So when the Macquarie Dictionary planned to launch their 6th edition, they did so knowing that reportage and public interest would be minimal. Dictionaries just aren’t really part of the social discussion.

The Strategy

This campaign was 12 months in the making. The strategy was thus: identify a modern, negative behaviour yet to be named. Assemble a team of language experts to name the behavior. Create a movement and a social cause around the new word to attempt to modify that behavior. Film and track everything. If the movement achieved its aim, and created a public discussion around the behavior, then release a branded film about how a single new word can change the world. Release the film 10 days prior to launch, and use the media interest around the new word to open the door for the Macquarie to be a part of the conversation.