Title	BUY THE SUMMER TICKET
Brand	SL, STOCKHOLM PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Product/Service	PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Category	B03. CONSUMER SERVICES
Entrant Company	DDB STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
Advertising Agency	DDB STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
Media Agency	CLEAR CHANNEL Stockholm, SWEDEN

Name	Company	Position
Paul Morel	DDB Stockholm	Business Director
Martin Lundgren	DDB Stockholm	Copywriter
Tomas Jonsson	DDB Stockholm	Art Director
Lennart Claesson	Ddb	Art Director
Cattis Söderblom	Ddb Stockholm	Account Manager
Peter Danielsson	DDB Stockholm	Final Art
Tor Westerlund	DDB Stockholm	Graphic Designer
Patrick Wilkorsz	DDB Stockholm	Planner
Jerker Fagerström	DDB Stockholm	Creative Director
Simon Strand	Simon Strand Pr	Pr

The Campaign

Each summer, Stockholm Public Transport (SL) launches a special summer ticket, which is valid from May 1 to August 31. We were asked to promote this ticket to a target audience consisting of young adults that spend their time in the city during this period. With the limitations to only use traditional outdoor media, and the challenge to raise awareness amongst an audience who tend to filter out traditional advertising, we had to spark the conversation in a way that contrasted everything they have seen ever before. Our key insight was to take something niche, but intriguing – and roll it out in traditional media and wait for people’s reaction. We decided to use “Doge”, an Internet meme consisting of a dog and his inner monologue displayed as short phrases in bad English. The campaign quickly created some kind of mass hysteria where approximately 30% of the target audience could relate to the meme, and the remaining 70% was introduced to it in different forms (i.e. friends and media). “Doge” became the #1 topic in the public transport system and inspired people to take pictures and share it on social media, thus allowing the message to spread. People even started to steal the posters and bring them home! Shortly, many of the largest newspapers in Sweden started to write about the campaign explaining the concept, thus spreading the message further. This resulted in massive attention across all types of media, and the reactions among the target audience were immensely positive.

The Brief

The business objective was to create awareness among the target audience to increase summer ticket sales, and to reduce the desire/need of gate crashing the public transport system. The goal of the campaign was to catch the attention of the target audience and give them a reason to engage and share the message, thus challenging their perception of SL. There is an inevitable mutual relationship between SL and the target audience: SL has a mission to make public transport available for everyone, and the target audience has to rely on SL for transport. This is particularly true for young adults.

Results

The campaign quickly made a massive impression, both in the target audience, and worldwide amongst and broader audience: • The campaign was covered and discussed in several articles in some of the largest national news press (Metro, Dagens Nyheter, Nöjesguiden, Nyheter24, Resumé, Dagens Media and Internetworld) reaching over 5.000.000 readers. It even made it's way into national comics during the week. • Blog posts about the campaign were spread among more than 30.000 (!) blogs, where Tumblr alone had more than 80.000 blog posts. • The reach on Twitter during the first week was more than 700.000, an increase of 2400% compared to the previous month. • More than 65 Reddit posts, many on the fist page. • The campaign totaled more than 700 Instagram pictures during the first week, which means that 700 people locally engaged by taking photos of the campaign.

Execution

Execution/solution We let the internet phenomenon and popular culture Doge become the spokesperson for the Summer Travel Card. We created an interest which spread far beyond the traditional channels the campaign was intended for. Consequently, enabling the campaign to reach more within the target audience. Media plan SL where restricted to use communication through their own channels within the public transport, hence giving the campaign a small penetration to reach our target audience. Therefore, we created an idea that was typically based on social media and used traditional media to spread the idea in channels where the target audience is active. The target audience themselves will become the ambassadors of the messaging in social media. The goal is not only to increase the spread but also credibility and interest in the messaging. Media: Outdoor Subway escalator Platform Billboards inside buses and subways Newspaper - Metro

The Situation

SL, the public transport company in Stockholm, is responsible for 700 000 travellers every day. SL has no direct competitors, but face competition from people taking the car instead of the bus or train. Over the years, SL has been forced to increase its ticket prices due to higher operating costs, which has led to some negative publicity and complaints from travellers. The challenge for SL is to finance its operations by selling tickets, and at the same time provide enough value that people are willing to pay for its service. Positive PR plays an important role to achieve that.

The Strategy

To take a hugely successful Internet phenomenon that is only familiar to a limited number of people in the target audience – and run it full scale in traditional outdoor media. The decision to use “Doge” was based on the fact that it’s a proven concept that viewers like, whether they “get it” or not. It has this unique ability to connect with people and evolve over time as it gets funnier each time you see it. By taking a niche internet phenomenon and run it full scale in traditional outdoor media, SL leveraged the possibility to surprise the target audience in an unexpected way, thus creating positive feelings and liking, and showing that SL understands the world of young adults The execution was carefully designed to encourage people to share it on social media. For instance, it was important to not make it feel like an ordinary advertising campaign.