Winners & Shortlists

2014 Promo & Activation

THEATRE COMMERCIALS

Short List
TitleTHEATRE COMMERCIALS
BrandTHEATER AAN DE STROOM
Product/ServiceTHEATRE
Category A01. USE OF PROMOTIONAL STUNTS/ LIVE ADVERTISING/ LIVE SHOWS / CONCERTS & FESTIVALS
Entrant Company FAMOUS BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
Advertising Agency FAMOUS BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
Production Company EARLYBIRDS FILMS Gent, BELGIUM
Credits
Name Company Position
Tim Driesen Famous Brussels Creative Director
Iwein Vandevyver Famous Brussels Associate Creative Director
Laurent Dochy Famous Brussels Digital Creative Director
Pieter Claeys Famous Brussels Creative
Diederik Jeangout Famous Brussels Creative
Charlotte Ghekiere Famous Brussels Project Leader
Laurens Groven Famous Brussels Designer
Stijn Huyberechts Famous Brussels Web Development
Charlotte Mathias Famous Brussels Rtv Producer
René Vermeulen Famous Brussels Rtv Producer
Earlybirds Films Production

The Brief

When the Belgian government reduced its culture budget, ‘Theatre at the Stream’ (TAS), a popular theatre company in Belgium, lost a third of their government grants, together with a host of other theatre companies. Depending for a large part on these grants, the TAS had to find a new way to - generate extra income to be able to continue its work, as not finding any funds would mean the end of the TAS. - get this government grants issue back on the political agenda.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

With an online film, we reached out to Belgian advertisers and presented them to act out a live theatre version of one of their TV-commercials, and in doing so reaching an audience in a completely new way. Lots of Belgium’s biggest advertisers were interested, and we selected 7 of them: A bank. A public transport company. An energy provider. A tour operator. A water brand. A cookie brand. And a car brand. On March 6th, during one of their performances, the actors from the TAS played their TV commercials for a live audience, all paid by the advertisers.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

With one commercial break, Theatre at the Stream won 25% of their lost funds back. Not only advertisers got an unexpected medium to get their story told, also Theatre at the Stream itself got a chance to get their story told, resulting in more than 1,5 million in earned media. (quite a lot for a country with 10 million inhabitants.) As a result, the discussion about public funding was reopened, both on social media ànd by politicians. And most importantly: thanks to our campaign the government re-examined their culture budget, and gave the TAS their grants and their future back.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

As theatre is all about being creative, we wanted to use a creative approach. By doing something that was never done before in Belgium, we ensured that the TAS got - extra income from the advertisers paying for their commercial, ensuring its short term existence. - A lot of attention, resulting in getting back subsidization of theatres on the political agenda.