Title	THE TALKING WONDERS
Brand	FAI - FONDO AMBIENTE ITALIANO
Product/Service	FAIMARATHON - OPEN DOORS DAY
Category	A08. Charities, Public Health & Safety, Public Awareness Messages
Entrant	McCANN WORLDGROUP Milan, ITALY
Idea Creation	McCANN WORLDGROUP Milan, ITALY
Production	MRK PRODUCTIONS MILANO, ITALY
Production 2	ECCETERA Milan, ITALY

Name	Company	Position
Alessandro Sabini	McCann Worldgroup Milan	Chief Creative Officer
Gaetano Del Pizzo	McCann Worldgroup Milan	Creative Excellence Director
Gaston Guetmonovitch	McCann Worldgroup Milan	Creative Director
Paolo Boccardi	MRM - McCann	Creative Director
Niccolò Moronato	McCann Worldgroup Milan	Senior Copywriter
Marco Zilioli	McCann Worldgroup Milan	Art Director
Josè Bagnarelli	Eccetera Produzioni Audio	Executive Creative Producer
Marco Rossi	MRK Productions	Director
Luca Imperato	Eccetera Produzioni Audio	Sound Designer
Marco Vaccaro	Eccetera Produzioni Audio	Sound engineer
Mauro Fazzini	Eccetera Produzioni Audio	Sound engineer
Michele Romani	McCann Worldgroup Milan	Art Director
Marina Tercelan	McCann Worldgroup Milan	Head of Art Direction

The Campaign

Turn the intercoms of Italian buildings into a medium, to advertise the wonders hiding behind their doors to the people walking by, intercepting them and subsequently signing them up to FAIMarathon, on the spot. Then capture all reactions and spread the video for online and media promotion.

Campaign Success

The operation was implemented during the weeks leading up to FAIMarathon (October 18th 2015). A number of locations across Italy (e.g. Milan, Brescia, Padua, etc.) were selected and further studied in depth. Then, one anecdote for every location was developed into a re-enacted script. Every time someone came by, the script would play through a Bluetooth speaker, placed inside the intercom. To make the message more relevant, every story featured a “modular” beginning, fitted to various categories of passersby (“sir” “madam” “boys”, “ladies”, etc.) and executed accordingly. This helped a lot in attracting people. When passersby were curious enough, we opened the door to let them inside, so they’d check out the wonder whose story they had just heard. A FAI volunteer assisted them and subsequently signed them up for FAIMarathon on October 18th.

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

Consumer Awareness: the operation gave enormous visibility to FAIMarathon. In one week of airing, the video of our initiative collected more views and shares than any other initiative by FAI, reaching more than 1 million users. It was even featured on major national and international press, TV, radio, and re-posted by celebrities and influencers. Leads: following the initiative, FAIMarathon’s website registered +180% unique users vs. 2014, with sessions going up 169%. 35% more people vs. 2014 downloaded the event’s app. Event attendance: almost 100’000 signed up at FAIMarathon, +232% vs. 2014. Paying acquisitions: the campaign and the event generated 94% more new paying members of FAI vs. the 2014 campaign. Social change: the initiative pressured the Italian Minister of Culture, Dario Franceschini, to sign a law, jointly with FAI, which will open all of Italy’s hidden wonders by partnering with NGO’s.

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

A large part of Italy’s artistic heritage is found behind closed doors, but Italians have lost interest in the wonders hiding in their cities. “The Talking Wonders” assessed the issue by making Italians interact directly with the places they’d otherwise ignore, right as they walked past them. This promoted FAI and FAIMarathon (FAI’s open doors day) with overwhelming results in terms of awareness, attendees (+232%), new subscribers (+94%), relevance (more views and shares of our video than the entire history of FAI), media exposure, online engagement (+180% users) and even a groundbreaking law.

Target: we targeted all Italians, in the exact moment when they were about to ignore a potentially beautiful, hidden wonder. Acquisition: we re-enacted anecdotes about every location and delivered them through the intercoms, calling on single people as well as groups. Engagement: once people got closer to the intercom, they would listen to the re-enacting of the anecdote and even interact with the voice, which made them all more curious. Call to action: at the end of the speech, the voice invited them to discover a lot more places and stories at FAIMarathon. But the real surprise came when the voice opened the door and buzzed them inside the building, so they could check out the hidden wonder themselves, and meet a FAI volunteer who’d sign them up for FAIMarathon. Amplification: secretly capture the reactions of people and use them for online promotion.