Title | BIG BELL |
Brand | TACO BELL |
Product/Service | TACO BELL |
Category |
A05. Music / Sound Design |
Entrant
|
EDELMAN London, UNITED KINGDOM
|
Idea Creation
|
EDELMAN London, UNITED KINGDOM
|
PR
|
EDELMAN London, UNITED KINGDOM
|
Production
|
UNIT9 London, UNITED KINGDOM
|
Production 2
|
PRIORY POST London, UNITED KINGDOM
|
Production 3
|
OFFSET AUDIO London, UNITED KINGDOM
|
Credits
Mattias Ronge |
Edelman UK |
Chief Communication Officer |
Stefan Ronge |
Edelman UK |
Chief Communication Officer |
Anders Hallén |
Edelman UK |
Chief Innovation Officer |
Jamie Cordwell |
Edelman UK |
Creative Director |
Annabelle Bould |
Edelman UK |
Account Manager |
Guen Murroni |
Edelman UK |
Agency Producer |
Lucy Melling |
Edelman UK |
Managing Director |
Jordan Atlas |
Edelman US |
Executive Creative Director |
Julie Blakely |
Edelman US |
Associate Creative Director |
Gabe Duran |
Edelman US |
Senior Copywriter |
Anna Schultz |
Edelman US |
Junior Designer |
Jill Knisley |
Edelman US |
Global Client Lead |
Katie Brownstein |
Edelman US |
Account Supervisor |
Describe the creative idea
Big Ben – probably London’s most iconic landmark – was down for repairs. For four years, London would be missing the classic hourly chimes (known as The Westminster Quarters) which offer a soundtrack to the city. What a fantastic time for the world’s other great bell – Taco Bell – to make their first appearance in the capital. What if we could make Londoners believe – just for a moment – that their beloved Bell had sprung back to life?... If we could convincingly mimic the sound of Big Ben, capture the public’s bewilderment and create playful, sharable online content to reveal that is was in fact Taco Bell who had offered up their bell, we could have Londoners eating out of our, well, taco restaurants…
Describe the execution
Authenticity of the Big Ben bell sound was paramount. Our sound designer speaks on the executional craft: “The original Taco Bell chime was made with a Yamaha DX7 is an 80’s FM synth, which is a specific type of technology that was very new in the 80’s to kind of create sounds - recreate sounds.
Taco Bell used the internal voice number 26, Tubular Bell, for their sonic identity - the Taco Bell gong sound. We mixed it with recordings of Big Ben to create a new version of The Westminster Quarters on the original Yamaha synthesizer. We tested five or six different speaker designs - outside. We tried military grade speakers, really flat panel speakers and hyper directional speakers, amongst others. Some were damaging to hearing and others could be perceived as weapons…both hazardous when activating on Westminster Bridge, next to the Parliament. The challenge was to create the impression of one thing happening, on three different speaker systems that would be moving around. We had to sync these up perfectly, while avoiding radio interference, or the illusion would be ruined.
The event team had to make sure that the wireless frequencies did not get interrupted and that we could stay anonymous to law enforcement. We gave Londoners the illusion of that Big Ben had resurrected, but with a Taco Bell accent. They didn’t see the hours put into it in the studio, in real life testing of different speakers and systems, in methods of hiding them, to eventually make the Taco Bell chime appear to come from Big Ben itself.”
The stunt ran for an entire day in London, with the bells chiming every hour, on the hour. Embargoed releases of the stunt increased the activation’s impact, and amplification via influencers and media gave the stunt global reach.