For this brief, we were tasked to create the big idea that would persuade the public to get off their devices and get a traditional penpal. I wanted to create a campaign aimed at adults, that was humorous and lighthearted, ultimately persuading the audience to take time out of their busy lives to write to a penpal. I created the ‘Get a penpal & Cheat with tradition’ campaign which aimed to give a traditional penpal an edge - almost as ‘the other woman’ to technology.
Playing on this idea of cheating on technology and being ‘the other women’ I decided to advertise the campaign with innuendoeus letter/penpal related puns, such as ‘Would you stick or lick?’ and ‘More than one at a time?’ These aimed to entertain the audience and grab their attention - getting them interested in the campaign.
The attitude of the campaign and advertisements needed the right kind of mature audience to appreciate it. I decided to advertise in 3 popular magazines; Vogue, to appeal to women, Esquire, to appeal to men and Attitude, to appeal to the gay community. The audience type for these magazines are very mature, stylistic and edgy - the right kind of audience for my campaign. I chose magazines also as those who have spare time to read a magazine could easily swap it out to write to a penpal.
Following these 3 advertisements the audience are taken to a website, where they can register with the campaign, be given a penpal and receive a writing kit, including a booklet full of conversational tips to get them started. This acts as a tool for the campaign to get the audience started.
To advertise the campaign more, spread the work and get the public talking and interacting with it, I decided to feature a #hashtag social sharing element. In all 3 magazines, a few pages after the original advertisement there would be a # advertisement, which asked the audience to share their own penpal-related puns to #howwouldyou? - asking the audience to think of innuendous ways they would cheat with tradition. This acts as a humours, viral advertisement to the campaign, aiming to get the audience involved in the campaign before they’ve even signed up.
