Gandhi Bookstores: HIDDEN PRIZE

Credits & Description:

Category: Best Use of Newspapers

Advertiser: GANDHI BOOKSTORES

Product/Service: BOOKSTORES

Agency: OGILVY MEXICO

Date of First Appearance: Aug 10 2009 12:00AM

Entrant Company: OGILVY MEXICO, MEXICO

Vice President/Creative Services Director: José Montalvo (Ogilvy & Mather)

General Creative Director: Miguel Angel Ruiz (Ogilvy & Mather)

Creative Director: Agustín Velez (Ogilvy & Mather)

Creative Director: Paola Figueroa (Ogilvy & Mather)

Creative Director: Abraham Quintana (Ogilvy & Mather)

Head Art Director: Iván Carrasco (Ogilvy & Mather)

Copywriter/Art Director: Alejandro Gama (Ogilvy & Mather)

Account Director: Paola Mayoral (Ogilvy & Mather)

Account Supervisor: Maria del Pilar Troconis (Ogilvy & Mather)

Media placement: Newspaper - Mexico City - 10/08/2009



Results and Effectiveness

Many people showed up that day to claim the prize, just to discover they weren't the first ones: the winner got there approximately 2 hours after the store opened.



Creative Execution

We wanted to really reward a person who just reads for the pleasure of it, by hiding a prize in a newspaper page full of text; no branding, no nothing; just a fragment of a novel by Gabriel García Márquez.

It had to be such an attractive prize to make the person who read the ad go to a Gandhi Bookstore and claim it: BOOKS FOR A LIFETIME.

It all comes to this: you read, you can win; you don't read, you miss the opportunity.

The use of a free newspaper page was perfect because, by its daily given nature, it made the promo unexpected. Such a big prize, couldn't be that easy to win.



Insights, Strategy & the Idea

Gandhi Bookstores' main objective of communication has always been to encourage people to read more.

Mexican people appreciate Gandhi's messages and are always expecting what the brand has to say: they always read Gandhi's constantly-changing billboards, collect Gandhi's postcards and memorabilia, visit Gandhi's website and participate in Gandhi's promos.

So we wanted to reward a person who just likes to read for the pleasure of it.

For the consumer, the attractive prize was relevant.
For the client was another creative way to make people read and to get those people into the store.