The Brief

Dolmio conducted research that revealed technology has hijacked family dinnertime. So as a brand that believe dinnertime should bring families together, we conducted a social experiment with some real families and a new invention, The Dolmio® Pepper Hacker. It's a pepper cracker that cracks pepper and temporarily powers down TVs, shuts down Wi-Fi and disables non-native mobile apps, providing families with some quality, tech-free time together for dinner. To achieve this, we needed a highly innovative technological solution in order to avoid breaking Australia’s strict signal jamming laws which carry heavy penalties. So we teamed with a production partner to produce a number of Pepper Hacker prototypes to be deployed in the social experiment, aimed at shining a light on the problem and getting people to reassess their use of technology during dinnertime. The mothers of the families were the only family members aware of the experiment and helped us hide cameras in their homes to capture it as it unfolded. We then used the content to create an online video. The technology used was a hybrid build of plug and play X10 home automation technology and Airborn remote device management. Components and cost listed below: Pepper Grinder: Marlux Pepper Grinder xBee Radio Transmitter (2mW PCB Antenna - Series 2) xBee Adapter Kit: Button(s) and connectors Lithium Polymer Battery + charger Control Box: Arduino Uno xBee Radio Transmitter (2mW PCB Antenna - Series 2) xBee Adapter Kit Sparkfun Cellular Shield for Arduino XM10 Computer Interface Project box X10 Home Automation: Wireless Tranceiver Module (AM12) Appliance Module (TM13) Airwatch: Airwatch SMS Gateway Virtual Mobile Number (1 Year) Total production cost for the Hackers was $28,890 which included scoping, project management, mobile device management and the production of 3 working prototypes

The intention of the innovation was to shine a light on the problem that technology has hijacked family dinnertime and to get families reassessing their use of technology at the dinner table. As a brand that believes dinnertime should bring families together this innovation was perfectly on brand. We repurposed existing technologies such as X10 home automation technology and enterprise-level remote device management systems for mobile devices to achieve a unique outcome - a result similar to a power outage and signal jammer executed in a home environment. The scoping, design and production process took approximately 8 weeks and once completed, we used the Hackers in a social experiment capturing the highly engaging reactions of families as their tech turned off and using it in an online film. To achieve the technical execution we worked with the mums in each household to install the control box and X10 units while the rest of the family were out of the house as well as installing remote device management profiles on handheld devices while the children were asleep. The innovation clearly demonstrated that when families disconnect, they connect. The intention of the innovation was always to use in the social experiment. However, due to the success of the campaign we are now looking at possible ways to scale the innovation for a larger market.

The long-term goal of the Pepper Hacker build is to a) further reinforce Dolmios brand belief that dinnertime should bring families together b) look into ways to roll the device out to a larger market. The results of the Pepper Hacker build to date have been phenomenal and to say the campaign exceeded client expectations would be an understatement. The campaign exceeded the KPI’s set for online views of the film by a staggering 16,394% (KPI set at 500,000 views). In just 4 weeks we achieved: - Over 3 billion earned media impressions - Over 82 million views of the online film across YouTube and Facebook - $27.2 million in earned media Social media commentary showed our audience was inspired to ditch the tech and reconnect at dinnertime. Tens of thousands commented, tweets praised the campaign and it’s family-centric messaging and the film achieved over 1.25 million shares on Facebook alone.