Winners & Shortlists

MARINA, RECLAIM THE NAME OF SHAME

TitleMARINA, RECLAIM THE NAME OF SHAME
BrandEYEWORKS
Product/ServiceMOTION PICTURE
Category D02. COSTS/CREATIVE PERFORMANCE PR CAMPAIGN
Entrant Company THESE DAYS Y&R Antwerp, BELGIUM
Advertising Agency THESE DAYS Y&R Antwerp, BELGIUM
Production Company EYEWORKS Zaventem, BELGIUM
Credits
Name Company Position
Sam De Volder These Days Y&R Executive Creative Director
Mateusz Mroszcak These Days Y&R Creative Director
Annelies Rongé These Days Y&R Art Director
Raf De Smet These Days Y&R Copywriter
Sabrina Jansen These Days Y&R Account Manager
Carla Wauben These Days Y&R Project Manager
Roel Vanderauwera These Days Y&R Project Manager
Jeroen Haijen These Days Y&R Ux Designer
Stijn Van Minnebruggen These Days Y&R Lead Frond/End Developer
Veerle Struyf These Days Y&R Back/End Developer
Michiel Bogaert These Days Y&R Back/End Developer
Olivier Berger These Days Y&R Front/End Developer
Karen Vranken These Days Y&R Senior Designer
Jorian Vanvossel These Days Y&R Content/Social Marketeer
Kathy Van De Gaer These Days Y&R Online Producer
Tim Kaelen These Days Y&R Online Producer
Lieven Eulaers These Days Y&R Online Producer
Gio Canini These Days Y&R Ceo
Peter Bouckaert Eyeworks Ceo
Ans Brugmans Eyeworks Producer

The Campaign

n 1959 Flemish-Italo artist Rocco Granata scored a monster hit with 'Marina'. The song was so popular that many parents called their baby daughter Marina. However, in the nineties,the name Marina was used to define a trashy bimbo. The name was even included in the dictionary, described as 'vulgar girl'. 50 years later, a movie was created based on Rocco's life. Because the song was so crucial for Rocco's career, the movie had to be named Marina. But there were some doubts whether the name would still have that negative connotation. So how do you promote a movie with a name of shame? By clearing that name. For the movie, but also for 6.000 Marina's in Flanders. To do so we composed a team of Marina's as spokeswomen of our campaign who would help us by demonstrating that the prejudice against Marina is completely wrong. To reach out to the big public, Marina Dingemans raised an appeal on Facebook to remove Marina from the dictionary. Together with movie director Stijn Conincx and Rocco, she also sent a personal letter to all Flemish Marina's to ask for their support. 30% of all Marina's responded, supported by friends and family. In the meantime we organized interviews and press opportunities with our Marina's to maximize visibility. We even filled a cinema theatre only with Marina's to enjoy the movie and a private concert with Rocco, which resulted in great press coverage across all media and over half a million people saw the movie.

The Brief

The main objective was to drive ticket sales for a Flemish movie. The target was 200.000 visitors. Negative connotations aside, there was also a real concern that a younger audience would not be interested in a movie about the life of Rocco Granata. They often don't know him or cannot relate to his music and usually prefer blockbusters over Flemish movies. To promote the movie we needed to go beyond the classic promotion for movies and find a way to involve the audience emotionally with a movie that had a name of shame on a budget less than 15.000€.

Results

All national newspapers (both print and online) gave our Marina's a chance to speak, often on full pages which enabled us to reach out to 627.053 readers. Our Marina's could also share their story on radio during a full 8 minutes prime time, where we reached 1.100.000 listeners. The Marina website hit 50.000 unique visitors. We organized a 15 min. debate on prime time television about the name Marina. One out of three Flemish households (790.641 viewers) saw Marina's debating in a confident and intelligent way. In the End, the movie was more popular than its blockbuster competitors with over 500.000 visitors which more than doubled the expected 200.000 visitors. On top of that: 93% of all Marinas declared they found back the proudness of their name!

Execution

We composed a team of Marina's as spokeswomen for our campaign who would help us by demonstrating that the prejudice against Marina is completely wrong. One of them, Marina Dingemans raised an appeal on Facebook to remove the name from the dictionary. We developed an application that enabled the user to erase the name Marina from the dictionary. Together with movie director Stijn Conincx and Rocco, Marina Dingemans also sent a personal letter to all Flemish Marina's to ask for their support. 30% of all Marina's responded, supported by friends and family. In the meantime we organized interviews and press opportunities with our Marina's to maximize visibility. We even filled a cinema theatre only with Marina's to enjoy the movie and a private concert with Rocco, which resulted in great press coverage.

The Situation

In 1959 Flemish-Italo artist Rocco Granata scored a monster hit with 'Marina'. The song was so popular that many parents called their baby daughter Marina. However, in the nineties,the name Marina was used to define a trashy bimbo. The name was even included in the dictionary, described as 'vulgar girl'. 50 years late, a movie was created based on Rocco's life. The song was so crucial for Rocco's caree, so the movie had to be named Marina. But the producers considered it a risk to launch a movie with a title that had a negative connotation.

The Strategy

We targeted all Belgian Marina's as they would have the most involvement and could potentially serve as spokeswomen and create free publicity Almost everyone knows a Marina in their immediate environment (a mother, an aunt, a neighbour). In order reclaim their name, all Marina's would need to involve friends and family as well as their community. While everyone got involved, the movie 'Marina' was freeriding on the PR buzz.