New Zealand telecom provider Skinny’s guerilla radio campaign wins Radio & Audio Grand Prix

A series of playful customer-read radio spots collected by Colenso BBDO for telecommunications network Skinny took home the Radio & Audio Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on Monday night. “Phone It In” invited New Zealanders to call the “Skinny Radio Ad Recording Service” and read from scripts distributed across unorthodox out-of-home locations to have their recording used as a radio ad for the telecoms company. Each of the nearly three dozen scripts created by Colenso BBDO was tailored to fit the context of their locations, from coffee cups and coasters to billboards and newspaper ads. Cannes Lions coverage Follow our live blog here Sign up here for email updates See all of the Grand Prix winners here For example, the script for one of the three winning radio ads hung outside of a strip club tasked passersby with reading, “To keep prices low, Skinny has printed this radio script on a wall next to an exotic dance club that I definitely wasn’t just visiting… I might be in a questionable part of town making questionable decisions, but there’s no questioning Skinny’s great prices.” Another winning radio spot involved a cheeky, self-referential script posted outside of an ad agency, with the voiceover reading, “Ad people like me used to make big budget TV commercials on tropical islands. Now, we’re gluing up street posters and voicing our own radio ads. This is truly a new low… but it’s not nearly as low as Skinny’s low, low prices.” Skinny: Strip Club ; Skinny: Lawyer ; Skinny: Ad Agency ; Omnicom Media Group's PHD helped secure these locations as the media agency for the campaign. Beyond just being clever, the campaign amassed over 2,500 recordings from consumers while eliminating the costs associated with professionally recording a radio spot in a studio—and this cost-effective approach tied back to the campaign’s core messaging of keeping costs low for consumers, too. “When a brand pays a couple of million bucks for Morgan Freeman, that cost is ultimately passed on to the consumer. That’s not how Skinny rolls,” said Simon Vicars, Colenso BBDO chief creative officer, when the campaign launched. “Instead of expensive celebrity voice talent, we’re open sourcing our radio ads so that anyone in New Zealand can record them on their mobile phones for free.” Gold winners Three campaigns won Gold Lions in the category: Cannes Lions coverage Follow our live blog here Sign up here for email updates See all of the Grand Prix winners here

New Zealand telecom provider Skinny’s guerilla radio campaign wins Radio & Audio Grand Prix

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