Thread by @unclebernbach

** THREAD **

How Droga5 started the era of viral advertising with one can of spray paint.

1) “We try to do work that can be spread around the internet, that creates movements as opposed to being disposable and disappearing the minute the media budget runs out.” David Droga

2) In 2003, David Droga got his dream job. He was appointed Publicis’ Worldwide Chief Creative Officer, leading all the network’s creative work. However, it rapidly became a nightmare.

3) Droga felt increasingly frustrated that he was only in meetings talking about his creative principles, but not actually influencing Publicis to do work that had impact in society. That went beyond traditional advertising formulas.

4) He decided to leave his dream job to start his own agency. In 2006, Droga5 was up and running.

campaignbrief.com/david-droga-re…

5) David Droga met Marc Ecko that same year. They initially talked about how Marc felt the Ecko brand was becoming too mainstream.

Ecko started as an underground brand, with a heritage in graffiti, and it was slowly losing that appeal.

6) Marc’s brief to David was: how can Droga5 reinforce Ecko’s graffiti heritage and it’s street credit through impactful advertising?

7) Droga’s instinct told him that a TV or print campaign was not right for this audience. In his new position, he was ready to act on this belief.

He wanted to use a different way of earning the audience’s attention. Droga would use the internet to do so.

8) While researching graffiti culture, Droga learned that the most important point to create relevance was where you placed the graffiti.

He then wrote a script about people breaking into St Andrews military base to do the impossible: to tag the Air Force One presidential plane.

9) Droga started the meeting with Ecko and his team saying they would steer away from traditional advertising. Then, he read the script.

He finished saying he wanted to release the film through news agencies in Germany and Brazil. Ecko loved the idea.

10) The production of the film was chaotic. Renting a 747 while keeping a low profile to protect the idea was nearly impossible.

Lawyers were also informing Droga he could go to jail if the government felt they were breaking the Patriot Act by putting the president in danger.

11) With the 747 rented and painted to look the part, Ecko made the decision that they would tag the brand’s line “Still Free” on the side of the presidential airplane.

Marc explains below the decision to create an ad about tagging the Air Force one.

12) “Still Free” was released in April 2006. Droga’s team leaked the film to 20 different news blogs and websites, which instantly started to cover the hoax.

Here’s the ad:

13) The film received 23 million unique views within the first two weeks of its release, a groundbreaking number for 2006.

It was reported by more than 17,000 global news outlets.

14) With a single two-minute video and zero media dollars spent, Droga5 created enough noise to put the Ecko brand into mainstream America, and to kickstart the trend of viral advertising.

15) “Still Free” broke the barriers of the advertising industry. The video was being shared and talked about by everyone, not just ad people.

A day after it went viral, before that was a buzzword, Droga5 claimed responsibility.

16) Most importantly, “Still Free” focused on entertaining its audience. It’s an ad that doesn’t look like an ad by design. It's low production and lightly branded.

It was created to convey a feeling, a body language, an attitude that was irresistible to the audience.

17) “People's attention has to be earned. We can't just assume that we can bombard them into submission any more, which is what it used to be.” David Droga

18) The Pentagon officially denied the video’s authenticity three times.

19) Below is a case study video of the campaign:

20) Here are the main sources for this thread:
campaignlive.co.uk/article/spoof-…
forbes.com/sites/avidan/2…
shots.net/news/view/6636…
edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/eur…
designtaxi.com/news/394381/Wa…
observer.com/2013/09/the-ne…
theglobeandmail.com/report-on-busi…