Title	A SLOW AD FOR FAST PEOPLE
Brand	7-ELEVEN
Product/Service	B2B
Category	C01. Use of Radio & Audio as a Medium
Entrant	ÅKESTAM HOLST Stockholm, SWEDEN
Idea Creation	ÅKESTAM HOLST Stockholm, SWEDEN
Media Placement	ÅKESTAM HOLST Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production	FLICKORNA LARSSON Stockholm, SWEDEN

Name	Company	Position
Andreas Karlsson	Åkestam Holst NoA	Art Director
Noah Bramme	Åkestam Holst NoA	Copywriter
Frida Norén	Åkestam Holst NoA	Planner
John Müllersdorf	Åkestam Holst NoA	Producer
Daniel Smedfors	Åkestam Holst NoA	Client Director
Joakim Khoury	Åkestam Holst NoA	Creative Director
Daniel Kilgren	Flickorna Larsson	Sound Production

View Script

Write a short summary of what happens in the radio or audio work.

Listening to podcasts and audiobooks at rapid speed is the latest trick to devour hours of content in record time. To keep up with the fast listeners, we made "A Slow Ad for Fast People." An unusually slow commercial for 7-Eleven—recorded at half speed—to catch the attention of fast listeners. In the days around Swedish "Cinnamon Bun Day," 7-Eleven sells hundreds of thousands of cinnamon buns. Since a big part of 7-Elevens buns is ordered by companies, we took the opportunity to promote their B2B offers in the spot, which goes under the name "Bun-to-Business." Swedish business people are fond of efficiency and "Fika" (a somewhat simpler and more spontaneous version of the Brits’ afternoon tea tradition). Therefore we direct this spot towards business podcasts, where many listeners are speeding up their content. This way, we targeted the right people with the right offer.

Translation. Provide a full English translation of any audio.

No translation is needed.

Cultural / Context information for the jury

What is Cinnamon Bun Day? Swedes love their cinnamon buns so much they even gave the baked goods their annual day — kanelbullens dag — offering sweet-toothed Swedes something special to celebrate. Every year on October 4th, Swedes celebrate Cinnamon Bun Day. Cafes, restaurants, and convenience stores across the country sell spiced Swedish buns. On cinnamon bun day, no office is without cinnamon buns. And the ones that order the buns are usually the same people that would listen to a business podcast. So, if there is ever a time of the year to highlight 7-Elevens Bun-to-Business offers, it's in the days before October 4th.

Please outline the innovative elements of the work

This spot is an analog hack on the digital phenomena, podfasting. We didn't just want to slow down the ad in the post edit but instead record a voice-over artist that read the spot in extremely slow. We went through a voice bank consisting of hundreds of voices to find the perfect one. After countless hours of listening to casting tapes, we found Christian Hillborg, famous for playing Erik, in the series Vikings. But, more important for this spot, he is also a great musician with a great ear and a feeling for tone and pitch. That made it possible for him to read the script in half the speed without it sounding strange when the speed-listeners played it at double speed. In the end, we did no post edit to slow down the voice or change the pitch. The spot is Chrisitan actually reading it really, really slow.