#PRISMAwards2021: Campaign of the Year - #MyKreepyTeacher
Congrats on winning Campaign of the Year! How do you feel?
The last week has been euphoric. We produced some of the most innovative and imaginative creative during lockdown for our clients, based on the necessity to operate in a brave new world. We pride ourselves on our creative solution-making, and it's mind-blowing, receiving both Campaign of the Year and multiple awards for multiple ideas at our best PRISM showing ever.
Retroviral made it a perfect 10 at the 2021 PRISA Prism Awards.
Briefly tell us more about the process of the campaign
#MyKreepyTeacher, a collaboration between the agency and production company Panther Punch, also starred and was directed by the award-winning Glen Biderman-Pam. The campaign claimed an additional two Golds in the category PR on a shoestring, and Consumer PR for an existing product or service categories.
We had been working with Kreepy Krauly at the start of 2020 where we were refining a Paralympian swimmer idea. Covid-19's impact on sport and the subsequent delay to the Paralympics resulted in the idea being placed on hold.
Fast-forward to hard lockdown and a tumultuous year for most people around the globe, a glimmer of positivity appeared in the form of Netflix's My Octopus Teacher.
Glen and I worked on a spoof script, bounced voice notes between each other, pitched Kreepy Krauly via Whatsapp and from concept, shoot day, edit, to true virality we were involved in an insane 96-hour period - seeding the content, pitching media, appearing on interviews - where we ended up dominating the news cycle for an entire week. We were featured on every major news show, and website in the country.
It's fair to say our idea broke the internet. It was shared across the globe, generated millions worth of earned media, (most importantly led to measurable Kreepy Krauly sales) and we are definitely taking credit for driving more traffic and eyeballs to the original documentary
What makes this campaign unique?
We pride ourselves on our ability to story tell and seed - idea generation, execution and dissemination. We launched Retroviral as a hybrid agency in 2010, with a focus on digital / PR / activation.
#MyKreepyTeacher is the ultimate flex in terms of our positioning - The challenger brand for challenger brands.
What is the key message?
Kreepy Krauly is the original, majestic creature of the deep ... end (spoken in the Craig Foster voice, of course)
What was the initial objective, and what has the response been so far?
We set some fairly ambitious KPIs ito awareness, reach, and PR achievements. Retroviral, however, is obsessed with overlaying comms data on top of sales data. If viral doesn't equal conversions from a commercial perspective, we aren't doing our job. We smashed all metrics.
Is there anything that you would change about the campaign?
This campaign is agency Wabi Sabi; perfect imperfection - considering the challenges faced during lockdown, the execution, the customer response, the full 360 experience - it's a real highlight and a personal, career case study. Sometimes the viral gods offer us opportunities and it is our responsibility to work with brave clients to create and unleash these insights in the form of branded content.
(Glen Biderman-Pam and) Panther Punch was the perfect production company to make this with us.
What can we expect in the coming months?
Expected the unexpected. And as always - Life is Short. Play naked!
