Media: Radio
Category: Education
Client: Unisa
Agency: The Studio at SCA
Country: Australia
Executive Creative Director: Matt Dickson
Creative Director: Mena Soliman
Group Head: Tara Bria
DoP: Matt Kuchel
Studio: Josh McFarlane
Studio: Jim Mortimer
Studio: Sean Braithwaite
Project Manager: Sarah Rogers
Account manager: Sean Cameron
Client: Wavemaker - Kirby McDonald
Client: UNISA - Naomi Dallenogare
Synopsis:
Played on their own, alongside no other ad, in premium spots;
Heard directly after the news before returning to programming. A lot of time and consideration went into these carefully manufactured ads. It would have been easy to mash together a cacophony of random sounds, but MOD. is deeper than that. Instead, what you’ll hear in each version is a story wrapped up in a mystery - after all, this is the curiosity we’re encouraging our listener to discover.
As Version 1 begins, it demands the listener’s attention with a vacuum-like crescendo, pulling their ears away from the expected. Once through it, the listener discovers a strange chanting crowd, marching as one; an ethereal choir; classical music hard up against a funk drummer. Then, from nowhere, the words: This is not MOD. As the mind tries to make sense of the meaning, the vacuum crescendo returns - louder than at first - throwing the listener back into their everyday listening.
For us, this was a way to demonstrate the real-world MOD. experience: you may leave with more questions than you started with.
In Version 2, we insist on the listener’s attention with multiple knocks on a plank of wood, glass shattering at the same time. A dark piano chord rings out and a new mystery beckons to be solved. A shaky dial tone hums, but a connection cannot be made. Now it appears that water is flowing through the room, but before you can compute the meaning an old phone rings. The hammering continues, the phone rings again. As the hammer begins to hit an anvil in frustration, the crescendo takes us out of the commercial and back to everyday programming.
This ad embodies the participatory nature of the MOD. experience, in particular the ringing phone beckoning the listener to “pick up”.
Version 3 is packed with hidden surprises that hint to the name and location of MOD. After a static charged dial tone makes its shaky connection, the truly attuned listener may notice the sound of skateboards at a skate park. However, right along these sounds is the very similar sound of a shovel digging new dirt. A familiar yet disembodied bell tolls – it is the sound of an Adelaide tram on North Terrace. A sonar pings repeatedly, asking the user to keep “scanning” for answers. The keenest of explorers may also notice the word MOD. expressed in Morse Code. Just as the ad begins to create a comfortable rhythm, all MOD. breaks loose – flooding the listener’s senses.
Although “This is not MOD.” may seem contradictory on this occasion, there is still some truth in the phrase. After all, we can’t express everything MOD. is in 30 seconds; one needs to experience it in person.