Duval Guillaume Modem's Head Of Digital On Going Viral

Duval Guillaume Modem's Head Of Digital On Going Viral


Duval Guillaume Modem had a pretty barnstorming 2012. The Belgian agency not only dominated YouTube with their many innovative viral campaigns, but also scooped an entire shelving unit of awards from worldwide ceremonies. We were curious about how they managed to create outdoor experiences that connected so perfectly to the online community, so sat down with Head of Digital and Change Architect Kris Hoet to pick his brain.

Your recent work '6 things you can miss while reading a newspaper' marks the end of a top year for Duval Guillaume Modem. How do you feel 2012 went for you guys?

2012 was a great year for us, no doubt about it. Duval Guillaume Modem is the result of a merger between our Brussels and Antwerp office and was intended to bring all talent in one place so we could focus even harder on what we do best. Looking at the creative that we did this proved to be a good decision. We won a record amount of Lions in Cannes and also became Agency of the Year in the Media category. We won 3 Grand Prix at Eurobest, became Creative Agency of the Year in Belgium, won one of the first Facebook Studio Awards, … and last but not least we gained a few very important happy new clients.

The latest spot puts advertisers in the middle of a topsy-turvy world to which they are largely oblivious. Did you like the fact that you were able to involve the decision-makers themselves rather than the public in this case?

It had to be decision-makers in advertising, it wouldn't have worked otherwise. This spot is created to prove the power of newspapers and is as such a business to business communication. If we want to convince advertisers we need to trick advertisers, not just random bystanders.

How did you put together the series of oddities? Did the police have to be informed (and the fire brigade for one unlucky fella)?

The whole idea including the oddities is the result of the creative thinking of the team. In regards to production you have to think about similar crew and setup as if it were a television shoot. And if police needs to be informed then that is indeed part of the procedure. In cases such as 'Push to add drama' that was definitely the case.
 

A fair share of your 2012 work has been 'stunt' pieces that have gone on to huge success virally. Are you positioning yourselves as the connoisseurs of the form or do you just see that sort of work as part of the output?

We have always believed that it was not about telling people a story but giving people a story to tell. You need to do things that can kickstart conversations, that generate interest bigger than what can be achieved by media. Become part of popular culture. This explains why there's a lot of experiential in our work, it makes it more compelling.

When you're putting together the creative brief for the work, do you initially think how it will work virally or how it would work in the moment? We can think of a few experiential campaigns that probably aren't as fun for the people involved as the people watching, but your films seem to cover both grounds.

We have only one creative brief which is used for all the work, so the first thing you judge on is whether the creative is good and whether it solves the brief. If that's the case you go to work to develop the creative and it's at that stage that you make sure it's interesting for everyone involved. If it's just a TVC it only has to be interesting for the audience, if it's something like TNT you want it to be interesting for the audience on location as well as the video viewers. And that's indeed not an easy one to overcome but if you think about it during development not something that cannot be solved either.
 

Are you ever afraid that people aren't going to react as you would expect? Have you had any hairy moments during the shoot? Do you think that working in advertising has given you a mastery of manipulation?

Yes and yes. It's always a bit scary when you launch campaigns that are intended to go viral. It still remains kind of a lottery so we and our clients know that the outcome is not easy to predict. But we are mostly excited about the ideas and that helps to keep fine-tuning them until we think they have what it takes.

Also during the shoot there can be a lot of stress. TNT 'Push to add drama' has been our most viral ever but I can tell you that we had only 1 day to shoot and that it wasn't until around 2pm that day that things started working out like we wanted them to.

What do you look for in a production company to collaborate on for the spots? Do you go for the normal commercial creators or look for companies whose expertise lies in 'reality' TV and the like?

We don't really work that way, it's clear that some are better than others in certain domains but we work with the same partners for online video as we do for TV. It's more the kind of production, people involved, type of effects, way you see the production etc that makes you chose a specific company.
 

The online responses to the films have been overwhelmingly positive. Is there a secret formula in creating engaging, sharable content? Fancy sharing it with us?

There's no secret formula, and if I knew what it was I would be rich. There are a few things we have learned though about making great advertising. And we've learned that there are key elements necessary in making a piece that needs to go viral. It needs to be provocative, exciting, credible, surprising, entertaining, relevant, … but probably the most of all, it needs to be an absolutely great idea.

'Push To Add Drama' has broken the 40million views mark on YouTube. Are views how you monitor a campaign's success or are you more concerned by the types of people sharing and what's being said?

Views are only one element of what we monitor but there's a lot more that we look at to define success. Together with shares, views are the most visible elements for such campaigns and thus what most people talk about. But the key objective is never views, the key objective could be awareness or trail or branding and we will look at the metrics that prove best whether we've met each objective. With 'Bikers' for Carlsberg we measured if people could recall the ad was for Carlsberg and whether they linked it to what we had in mind for strategy. TNT had to launch a TV channel in Belgium so getting it in all the press thanks to the video, getting it into the news was part of what made it a result for us. The 45 million views are great (don't get me wrong) but it's the overall attention and the 1.2m views in Belgium that mattered most to our client.
 

What viral stunts do you wish you'd had a hand in (brand-related or not)?

The Heineken stunt for the Champions League in Italy was brilliant.

How do you think you'd react if confronted with one of the experiences?

That's difficult to say. There are experiences where in my opinion it's obvious that you're going to be part of a commercial experience but in most of the successful cases you have no idea. Think about Stop The Traffik for instance, there's almost no way you can tell.

What can we expect in 2013?

Hopefully a lot of clients that have the bravery to do exciting things. Hopefully a lot of great work as a result of that. We are producing quite a few very exciting projects right now for existing and new clients and I can't wait to be able to talk about them.

Posted on 23rd January 2013