THE EARWORM BILLBOARDS

TitleTHE EARWORM BILLBOARDS
Brand3M
Product/Service3M EXTRA HEAVY DUTY DUCT TAPE
Category G02. Typography
Entrant CHEIL WORLDWIDE Frankfurt, GERMANY
Idea Creation CHEIL WORLDWIDE Frankfurt, GERMANY
Media Placement CHEIL WORLDWIDE Hong Kong, HONG KONG
Production CHEIL WORLDWIDE Hong Kong, HONG KONG
Credits
Name Company Position
Roland Rudolf Cheil Worldwide Germany Chief Creative Officer
Joern Welle Cheil Worldwide Germany Executive Creative Director
Paul Chan Cheil Worldwide Hong Kong Executive Creative Director
Thomas Schroeder Cheil Worldwide Germany Executive Creative Director
Arnab Biswas Cheil Worldwide Germany Creative Director
Chris Druecks Cheil Worldwide Germany Senior Copywriter
Daniel Baek Cheil Worldwide Germany Art Director
Trang Le Thu Cheil Worldwide Germany Junior Art Director
Ivan Au Cheil Worldwide Hong Kong Associate Creative Director
Jong Bin Lee Cheil Worldwide Germany Business Director
Denise Chan Cheil Worldwide Hong Kong Creative Service Associate Director
Michael Chan Cheil Worldwide Hong Kong Senior Account Director
Buff Diss Freelance Illustrator
Cindy Steigerwald Cheil Worldwide Germany Senior Producer
Alexander Odenwalder Freelance Editor

The Campaign

When it comes to shere adhesiveness, nothing sticks with you as immediately and lasting as the melody of a classic pop hit song, or so called “earworm”. That’s why we took the hooks of three of the catchiest tunes ever, and put them on numerous billboard sites across Hong Kong. This way, each billboard showed 3M’s sticking power in a unique way that’s as simple as memorable.

Creative Execution

Australian tape artist Buff Diss, one of the world’s leading tape-artists, hand-lettered each billboard on-site, using real 3M duct tape. Where possible, the actual tape rolls used for the taping where finally stuck to the billboard as a “live” pack shot. For poster sites where billboards had to be put behind a glass shelter, an alternate visual was used, that featured a printed pack shot. In this case, each indivudal headline needed to be carefully taped in a way that it precisely matched the position of the printed pack shot.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

The impact of the campaign was threefold: A completely new way of highlighting 3M Heavy Duty Duct Tape. Better “stickiness” compared to average OHH campaigns, e.g. proven by numerous people taking spontaneous selfies in front of the billboards. Most simple yet most effective 3M outdoor campaign to date.

3M Extra Heavy Duty Duct Tape is used by DIY-enthusiasts, professionals, and artists alike. An outdoor campaign with it’s high public visibility promised to fullfill best the need to reach the broad target demographic while being very cost efficient at the same time. Integrating the product itself into the visual execution of the campaign offers the opportunity to further strengthen the message and uniqueness of the approach.