| Title | BERNIE SPEED TEST |
| Brand | ARCUB |
| Product/Service | BUCHAREST2021 – THE EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE |
| Category |
C04. Response / Real-time Activity |
|
Entrant
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PUBLICIS ROMANIA Bucharest, ROMANIA
|
|
Idea Creation
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PUBLICIS ROMANIA Bucharest, ROMANIA
|
|
PR
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PUBLICIS ROMANIA Bucharest, ROMANIA
|
Credits
| Jorg Riommi |
Publicis Romania |
Chief Creative Officer |
| Mihnea Gheorghiu |
Publicis Romania |
Group Creative Director |
| Roxana Nita |
Publicis Romania |
Art Director |
| Mihnea Gheorghiu |
Publicis Romania |
Group Creative Director |
| Mihai Pocorschi |
Nurun Romania |
Digital Creative |
| Mihai Pocorschi |
Nurun Romania |
Digital Producer |
| Mihai Botarel |
RxM Creative |
Creative Director |
| Bogdan Savonea |
Rage! (App) |
Co-Founder |
The Campaign
In his tweet, Mr. Sanders said that it’s unacceptable for the US to have lower internet speed than in Bucharest, Romania. So we created a fun tool that calculates the internet speed, so that anyone in the world can see how much faster/slower their internet speed really is compared to Bucharest’s average and see what Mr. Sanders’ reaction to that would be. Then, we also linked the site to the portal Bucharest2021 – The European Capital of Culture, so people can see that Bucharest has so much more to offer than just fast internet. In other words, we literally used our internet speed to give Bucharest the positive global exposure it deserves.
Campaign Success
www.berniespeedtest.com was created and launched in under 10 hours. We developed the internet speed test algorithm from scratch and wrote over 30 meme-like reaction from Bernie, 6-7 different ones for each internet speed interval (below 20 Mbps, 20-30 Mbps, 30-40 Mbps, 40-60 Mbps and above 60 Mbps). We launched it on the night between March 3rd and March 4th. Then, we added a link to the Bucharest2021 portal, so people can discover more about our city than just the internet speed.
Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results
In one simple Facebook share, the website went instantly viral: on the first day alone, we had 130.000 unique visitors from 172 countries (out of 193 countries in the world). It was on prime-time news material on EVERY national TV channel and the story got picked up by major international press publications, like CNN, CNN España, NBC, CBS, ABC, getting over $1 million worth of free media. And all of this for just $520 spent on hosting and traffic services.
Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service
Bernie Speed Test was a real-time response to Bernie Sanders’ tweet, offering anyone in the world a fun tool to find out how much slower/faster their internet speed is compared to Bucharest’s average. The site also links to the Bucharest2021 website, so people can discover that Bucharest is so much more than internet speed.
The reactions to Mr. Sanders’ tweet were extreme. Many were offended, while others cracked jokes. Our response saw the positive side of his tweet and, in a fun and non-condescending way, we let everyone check for themselves if their internet speed really is slower than in Bucharest. Since people of the world don’t know many things about a city which is a candidate for the European City of Culture, we literally used its internet speed to give Bucharest the positive global exposure it deserves.