Contagious Insight /
A taste of the good stuff / The campaign is a brilliant, cheeky way to get people sampling the delights of Marc Dorcel’s top-notch content. In a market where it’s so easy to get access to x-rated material for free, that’s no mean feat. The campaign uses a similar approach to HBO and Claro’s (admittedly cleaner) efforts to get people sampling its great, but also paid-for, content. The broadcaster replaced the infuriating ‘Channel not available’ message on premium sites with the content, but only allowed people without a subscription to watch the left half of the screen in focus, while the other side carried a subscription message. The result proved incredibly irritating, but provided watchers with a taste of what they were missing out on. Dorcel’s campaign achieves a similar effect - giving people a glimpse into the quality paying a little more can give you, but ultimately leaving them lusting after the access-all-areas version.
Hacking the system / Predictably, viewers immediately started attempting to fool the system. Efforts ranged from balancing two kiwi fruits on spoons (see below) to, somewhat creepily, roping in a group of pals to help out. The efforts largely ended in failure, but helped to significantly amplify the campaign’s reach, creating a host of wacky online content.
Lusty Lions / The campaign’s smart, perfectly on-brand tone helped it to scoop a much-lusted for Gold Lion in the Cannes Festival of Creativity 2015. It’s also worth noting that #HandsOff came within inches of taking home the top nod, eventually losing the Grand Prix to Volvo after much deliberation by the judges. The jury revealed after the announcement that the campaign’s direct approach had impressed. Judy John, jury chair and CEO and CCO of Leo Burnett, described the work as a highly creative piece that was ‘so direct, you really had to try the product’.
