EARWORM BILLBOARDS

Short List
TitleEARWORM BILLBOARDS
Brand3M
Product / Service3M
CategoryG01. Typography
EntrantCHEIL WORLDWIDE Hong Kong, HONG KONG
Idea Creation CHEIL WORLDWIDE Hong Kong, HONG KONG
Idea Creation 2 CHEIL WORLDWIDE Frankfurt, GERMANY
Media Placement CHEIL WORLDWIDE Hong Kong, HONG KONG
Production CHEIL WORLDWIDE Hong Kong, HONG KONG
Production 2 CHEIL WORLDWIDE Frankfurt, GERMANY

Credits

Name Company Position
Paul Chan Cheil Worldwide, Hong Kong Executive Creative Director
Joern Welle Cheil Worldwide, Germany Executive Creative Director
Thomas Schroeder Cheil Worldwide, Germany Executive Creative Director
Arnab Biswas Cheil Worldwide, Germany Creative Director
Ivan Au Cheil Worldwide, Hong Kong Associate Creative Director
Chris Druecks Cheil Worldwide, Germany Senior Copywriter
Rafael Magessi Cheil Worldwide, Germany Senior Art Director
Daniel Baek Cheil Worldwide, Germany Art Director
Trang Le Thu Cheil Worldwide, Germany Junior Art Director
Buff Diss Cheil Worldwide, Germany Illustrator
Jong Bin Lee Cheil Worldwide, Germany Business Director
Michael Chan
 Cheil Worldwide, Hong Kong Senior Account Director
Denise Chan Cheil Worldwide, Hong Kong Creative Service Associate Director
Cindy Steigerwald Cheil Worldwide, Germany Film production
Alexander Odenwalder Cheil Worldwide, Germany Film editing

The Campaign

BILLBOARDS SO ADHESIVE, THEY STICK TO YOUR MIND. When it comes to sheer adhesiveness, nothing sticks with you as immediately and lasting as the melody of a classic pop hit song, or so-called “earworm”. That’s why we took the hooks of three of the catchiest tunes ever, and put them on numerous billboard sites across Hong Kong to show the superior strength of 3M’s Extra Heavy Duty Duct Tape in a completely new and surprising way.

Creative Execution

The billboards went on air during the annual HK Walls street art festival at the end of March 2017. Each poster was hand-lettered with real 3M duct tape by Buff Diss, one of the world’s leading tape-artists. Where possible, the actual tape rolls used for the taping were finally stuck to the billboard as a “live” pack shot. For poster sites where billboards had to be put behind a glass shelter, an alternate visual was used, featuring a printed pack shot. In this case, each individual headline needed to be carefully taped in a way that it precisely matched the position of the printed pack shot.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

The impact of the campaign was threefold: 1) A completely new way of highlighting 3M Heavy Duty Duct Tape. 2) Better “stickiness” compared to average OHH campaigns, e.g. proven by numerous people taking spontaneous selfies in front of the billboards. 3) Most simple yet most effective 3M outdoor campaign to date.

3M Extra Heavy Duty Duct Tape is used by DIY-enthusiasts, professionals, and artists alike. An outdoor campaign with its high-public visibility promised to best fulfil the need to reach the broad target demographic while being very cost efficient at the same time. Integrating the product itself into the visual execution of the campaign offers the opportunity to further strengthen the message and uniqueness of the approach.