Title | ANTI BURQA-LAW COUP |
Brand | MCSHARK |
Product/Service | MCSHARK FLAGSHIP STORE |
Category |
D04. Live Advertising & Events |
Entrant
|
WARDA NETWORK Vienna, AUSTRIA
|
Idea Creation
|
WARDA NETWORK Vienna, AUSTRIA
|
PR
|
WARDA NETWORK Vienna, AUSTRIA
|
Production
|
WARDA NETWORK Vienna, AUSTRIA
|
Credits
Jakob Kattner |
Warda Network |
Creative Director |
Anna Bonfiglio |
Warda Network |
Key Account Manager |
Eugen Prosquill |
Warda Network |
C.E.O. |
Georg Redl |
Warda Network |
Art Director |
Jürgen Bogner |
Warda Network |
Strategic Planner |
Write a short summary of what happens in the ambient or digital execution or campaign.
McShark, an Austrian premium reseller for Apple products opened its first flagship store in the historic center of Vienna. Next to luxury and high-priced designer shops it is not easy to attract locals and tourists. The shop wanted to get media clippings and press recognition within the Austrian market to generate awareness and to draw attention to their new flagship store.
The brief was to stage activities that result in PR and media attention, covering the brand’s name and their main visual component: the shark.
The goal was to generate awareness within national and international press and media outlets, such as TV, Radio, Web, Magazines, Blogs and Social Media promoting the opening of the new flagship store and the brand itself.
Cultural/Context information for the jury
McShark, an Austrian premium reseller for Apple products opened its first flagship store in the historic center of Vienna. Next to luxury and high-priced designer shops it is not easy to attract locals and tourists. The shop wanted to get media clippings and press recognition within the Austrian market to generate awareness and to draw attention to their new flagship store.
The brief was to stage activities that result in PR and media attention, covering the brand’s name and their main visual component: the shark.
The goal was to generate awareness within national and international press and media outlets, such as TV, Radio, Web, Magazines, Blogs and Social Media promoting the opening of the new flagship store and the brand itself.
The creative idea behind the campaign was to take up a current controversial topic in order to create public awareness. Originally directed towards the clothing worn by some ultra-conservative Muslim women, a different probably not intended scope of application of the new law should be pointed out. By getting a man who was working for the McShark electronic store fined, not only a “socially relevant” point on the implications of the burqa-ban law was made, additionally, huge media coverage of the McShark store opening was generated.
A man was dressed in a shark costume to promote the shop opening and to attract passers-by, tourists and locals. The opening was accompanied by a photo- and video-team and attended by bloggers and social influencers who covered the opening via facebook live stream. Suddenly the police showed up, due to an anonymous complaint, and forced the promoter to remove the head of the costume and fined him €150.
Shortly after, we released a picture of the promoter without his shark-head bearing following statement: “Today we were at the McShark store opening and our shark mascot received a fine from the police due to the new ban on face coverings! Life is not easy!”
The incident was reported in Austria’s biggest newspapers and broadcasted on Austria’s largest news programme. From there the news spread like a wildfire across the world.
Scale:
1.3 billion (Media impressions)
1.2 million Interactions on social media
190 mass media publications
in over 30 countries
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Tier 1:
By gaining a worldwide reach of more than 1.3 billion media impressions the PR stunt not only achieved an unforeseen boost in brand awareness for McShark but also prompted questions about the social relevance of the new anti-burqa law.
Tier2:
The PR stunt not only lead to an increase in brand awareness and press and media coverage of the shop opening but also raised fundamental questions about the controversial new restrictions on wearing face coverings in public places which entered into force just one week before the PR stunt. The law was examined as being either discriminating against those who wear a traditional Islamic dress or simply being a little ridiculous. Additionally, it also fueled up the debate on anti-veil laws in general as only a small number of women (in Austria) actually wear the full-face veil.
1.2 Million Interactions on social media
Tier 3:
increase in sales within the first week: 27.5%
CPT price of 0.0003 Euro in media sales
Media Impressions worldwide / McShark: 1.3 billion
Weadmitted to having dressed a man in a (full body) shark costume to challenge the new burqa-ban law. The 'incident' resulted in one of the biggest and strikingly successful PR stunts in international news outlets creating a massive echo with a relatively low budget.
Timeline:
October 7: PR Stunt & release of the photo
October 8: Austrian media picks up on the story
October 9: spreading photo and video material to international news outlets
October 11: release of press report stating that we wanted to make a "social relevant point"