Title	EROTIC MASTERPIECES
Brand	HUMO
Product/Service	MAGAZINE
Category	B04. Use of Print
Entrant	MORTIERBRIGADE Brussels, BELGIUM
Idea Creation	MORTIERBRIGADE Brussels, BELGIUM
Media Placement	HUMO Vilvoorde, BELGIUM
Production	HET GELUIDSHUIS Antwerp, BELGIUM

Name	Company	Position
Jens Mortier	mortierbrigade	Creative Director
Joost Berends	mortierbrigade	Creative Director
Philippe De Ceuster	mortierbrigade	Creative Director
Lies Bernaer	mortierbrigade	Agency Producer
Eline Rousseau	mortierbrigade	Agency Producer
Jesse Van Gysel	mortierbrigade	Copywriter
Yana Gestels	mortierbrigade	Art Director
Vito Latorrata	mortierbrigade	Graphic Designer
Hatim Boubakra		Photographer

The Campaign

On one page we see the announcement of the book promotion. On the page next to it, we see an ad for another brand. The combination of both teases the imagination, just like the books do. Several real advertisers participated, such as: The Belgian National Lottery, Lidl supermarkets, and Bicky Burger, and we invented some too. Those who read the magazine got teased even more as the book promo was announced next to pictures of real articles with Sting, R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, and ex-cyclist Thomas Dekker. The idea started to live a life of its own with people and media wondering if it was planned, or just a coincidence. The Erotical Masterpieces even became a global internet hype, with features in every continent. Showing that print is still alive and tickling.

Creative Execution

We started from the insight that in our magazine Humo, there are often 2 full page print ads of different brands placed next to each other. So we used our advertising placement in a creative way. We made full page ads to promote our book series that interacted with the ads for other brands next to them. We did this by working closely with the other advertisers in our magazine, such as Lidl and the Belgian National Lottery. Separately, our and their ads were pretty generic. But put next to each other, they became very suggestive. We continued this concept of creative and suggestive ad placement in the rest of our magazine as well, by cooperating with the editors and placing our ads next to pictures in real articles. Including Sting, R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe and ex-cyclist Thomas Dekker

Through organic shares and media attention, our campaign featured in every continent, resulting in a global conversation on Twitter, more than 70 million media impressions, and more than 1.6 million euro in earned media. This global coverage not only had an impact on our global brand awareness, but also on our national results. Humo’s target audience is young, social media savvy and very active online. So when our campaign featured on foreign websites such as boredpanda.com, heavily frequented by Belgian youngsters, it resulted in more awareness for our campaign in Belgium as well. Furthermore, our book series was completely sold out before the end of the campaign, surpassing the expectations and business target of our client.

We used the medium of print in a way it has never been used before by cleverly cooperating with other advertisers, using their ads in our magazine to make our own ad. On their own, both advertisements were pretty generic, but put next to each other they turned into a suggestive image promoting our series of erotic books. This allowed us to avoid censorship with finesse and humor, and made our readers wonder if the effect was wanted, or a coincidence. Which resulted in them sharing it massively online.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Humo is a Belgian satirical magazine, with a reputation of edgy and surprising advertising. So when we offered our readers a series of erotic books, we wanted our advertisements to be just as suggestive and teasing as the books themselves. Furthermore, we noticed that “bad” advertising placement often resulted in huge media coverage online.