Bringing Day V Lately to life for Yell
The challenge
Yell’s brief to Shine was intriguing: “Bring a fictional character that no one has yet heard of to life and add context and longevity to an advertising campaign that no one has yet seen.” Through a creative communications campaign, Shine needed to help show how Yell had modernised its services, while still being as useful as ever.
The solution
Shine placed Yell’s TV advertisement in which ex-DJ Day V Lately hunted for a copy of his early-90s dance hit Pulse & Thunder - a remake of its iconic and much-loved JR Hartley advertisement of the 1980s – at the centre of an integrated, multi-layered communications campaign which added depth to Day V’s character, brought a new character to life and engaged consumers directly and through social media.
Prior to the advertisement being aired, Shine focused activities on Mike Sawdale, a new character and, as we were to subsequently discover, an old mate of Day V Lately, who had decided to sell his collection of vinyl records in his pop-up shop, the Ministry of Found. Mike’s journey was documented on his blog and feature several tutorial videos with small business and retail experts.
When the ad broke, attention turned to Day V lately and his hunt for Pulse & Thunder. Day V came to life in social media, Pulse & Thunder found its way into the iTunes Dance Chart, the ‘original’ video featuring Ulrika Jonsson was discovered by MixMag and the public joined him on the hunt for the record using Yell’s applications.
The campaign culminated with a celebrity launch of Mike’s Ministry of Found pop-up record store, complete with nightclub where dance legends 808 State and Utah Saints entertained the crowd and 90s dance instructors encouraged people to brush up their ‘big fish, little fish, cardboard box’.
The results
In total, the campaign generated more than 400 pieces of coverage in broadcast, national, regional, consumer and online media, with 63% in ‘gold tier’ titles. 80 journalists attended the Ministry of Found launch and more than 3,000 consumers visited during the weekend the pop-up was open. Video content from the campaign attracted 350,000 views, the Ministry of Found blog was visited more than 11,000 times and Day V attracted more than 5,000 fans and followers.
During the campaign, Yell’s brand awareness increased 34%, its website saw an uplift in traffic of 30% and there was a 220% uplift in downloads of Yell’s iPhone application.
What the client thought...
“Shine delivered over and above our expectations in this campaign. Their creativity and understanding of our target audiences and how they interact online allowed us to drive engagement and participation with new audiences and reappraisal with past customers. The campaign helped shift perceptions significantly and has laid solid foundations for the ongoing Yell strategy.”
Zandra Ives, Head of advertising and planning