Why is this work relevant for Media?

Broken Surfboard Billboards is an outdoor campaign for sustainable tourism that doesn’t just display a creative use of media – it involved creating a new outdoor media format that was appropriate for the location that was strategically identified to hit all its target audience. The materials used for the billboards reflected its message of sustainability and its art direction reflected the culture of the place where it was installed. Unlike the usual “nuisance billboards”, the Broken Surfboard Billboards were welcomed by the target audience and the local community as an artistic, photo-worthy addition to the destination.

Background

The tropical islands of Siargao, Philippines, is a surfers’ paradise. With its barreling waves, it has been ranked 9th by CNN Travel in its “50 Best World Surf Spots” list. However, its growing popularity resulted in an explosion of tourist arrivals from 61,997 visitors in 2012 to 195,562 visitors in 2018. With the tourists also came the growing problem of trash. As the leading airline which flies the most number of visitors to the island, Cebu Pacific Airlines wanted to remind tourists to help take care for the island.

Describe the creative idea/insights (30% of vote)

To promote responsible tourism in Siargao, the surfing capital of the Philippines, our idea was to create a medium that was also the message. This medium needed to talk about being a responsible traveler while being intrinsically sustainable at the same time. Working with the local government of Siargao, Cebu Pacific Airlines identified where all the target market for its campaign would go when traveling to the island. This was General Luna, the main beach where the world-class surf break called Cloud 9 was located. Through consultation with the local government, it also discovered the challenging limitation on this beach where all tourist go: no traditional advertising was allowed on the beach in any form, including billboards.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

This outdoor campaign targeted the growing number of tourists who fly to Siargao for vacations. This included tourists that it flew there and those flown in by competitive airlines. Because these tourists were there for a holiday, communications had to be organic and not disruptive to their stay on the island. So Cebu Pacific Airlines chose to remind these tourists to help care for the island at a time and a place where all of them would see it and would be most receptive to the message: when they were at General Luna, the main surfing beach where all tourists go. Considering how the local government and the local community didn’t allow traditional advertising on the beach, the strategy for Cebu Pacific Airlines was to invent a media format for the main beach of Siargao that would be eco-friendly and would reflect the surfing culture of the island.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

To promote being a responsible traveler to the surfing island of Siargao, Cebu Pacific Airlines recycled broken surfboards that would have ended up in the dumpsites into surfboard billboards. Using local artists, each broken surfboard became outdoor surf art reminding Siargao visitors to help care for the island like a local. With their truly surf-inspired concept and art direction, the local government and local community of Siargao allowed the installation of the Broken Surfboard Billboards in the main surfing spot a few days before the huge crowds arrived for the biggest international surfing competition held in the Philippines: the World Surf League. By doing this, Cebu Pacific Airlines didn’t just install outdoor ads on an existing placement site. It had created a totally new, sustainable ad format on the beaches of Siargao.

List the results (30% of vote)

Because the Broken Surfboard Billboards are installed where all Siargao tourists go, this translates to an estimated 48,891 tourist eyeballs exposed to Cebu Pacific’s message of sustainable tourism from July to December of 2018 alone based on average monthly tourist arrivals from the Dept of Tourism. The instagrammable nature of the Broken Surfboard Billboards also incited tourists who saw it to pose with it and share their photos on their social media accounts for an estimated additional 34,882 online eyeballs based on a follower count of those who used #JuanEffect and #TheJuanEffect on their Instagram post.