Title	THE UNDERCOVER OFFER
Brand	BBDO BELGIUM
Product/Service	BBDO BELGIUM
Category	A06. Financial Products & Services, Commercial Public Services, Business Products & Services
Entrant	BBDO BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Idea Creation	BBDO BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM

Name	Company	Position
Nicolas Gaspart	BBDO Belgium	Creative copywriter
Frederic Zouag	BBDO Belgium	Art director
Sebastien De Valck	BBDO Belgium	Creative Director
Arnaud Pitz	BBDO Belgium	Creative Director

The Campaign

The annual (the book which brings together all the best Belgian work of the year) was a good way to reach all creatives. The problem is that there’s no ad space for sale in the book. We needed to find a subtle way of advertising in the book. How? By camouflaging it. Each agency has to submit a piece of explanatory copy about their winning ideas. This copy is included in the printed book a few weeks later. So we slipped our ads into the copy without anyone noticing.

Campaign Success

We placed our message in the Creative Club of Belgium’s annual. The book which brings together the best Belgian work of the year, and which all creatives receive. You’re not usually allowed to advertise in the book. We bypassed this rule. How? It’s simple, each agency has to submit a piece of explanatory copy for each of their winning ideas. This copy is included in the printed book a few weeks later. So we slipped our ads subtly into that copy. That’s how we got into the book without anyone noticing. The copy only appeared once (like the book). But it will stay on the creatives’ desks for a long time.

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

We received more than 20 e-mails. We approached 7 teams seriously. One team and one solo copywriter were hired.

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

This was designed to promote the agency. With a clear aim, BBDO Belgium was looking for a team. It was a call to action to invite creatives to send an e-mail if they thought that they could do better than BBDO Belgium did this year. We clearly motivated creatives to send an e-mail and to come to BBDO Belgium if they thought they could do better.

We knew that all creatives receive the book. So we used it to place our ads there. We targeted our message and spoke directly to creatives with questions like, “Could you do better than a bronze? BBDO is looking for a team. Interested? Send an e-mail to sebastien.devalck@bbdo.be and arnaud.pitz@bbdo.be”.