DDB NZ's URXXL Campaign For Silicon Valley Attracts Hardcore Nerds & Regular Fans

To launch season three of HBO’s hit show, Silicon Valley on SKY’s SoHo Channel, DDB New Zealand crafted a creative campaign to target it’s two audiences; regular fans and die-hard nerds fans.

The campaign announced the show’s return through an ‘insultingly simple, yet ludicrously difficult’ promotion. Regular fans were interrupted using creative radio spots while hardcore fans were rewarded in digital, all at once. 

“In New Zealand we have the most radio stations per capita in the world, mainly due to our shocking infrastructure and traffic congestion. A lot of time is spent in our car with the radio on, travelling. When it comes to on-air ‘ad-time’, we’re channel flickers; who can stand the terrible, shouty, retail promo spots offering 50% off beds etc? Radio is so often executed with little care or creativity and that’s why URXXL was able to cut through the clutter, humouring fans and peaking the interest of new audiences too,” Shane Bradnick, ECD DDB New Zealand.

And it worked. Viewership was up 26% on the premiere season, and despite ensuring a higher fail rate than start-up companies in The Valley, more than 100 people successfully cracked the URXXL codes.

The judging geeks seem to think the work is good too, with the campaign finding success at D&AD and AWARD to date.