BBH Barn interns launch Social Rehab campaign to fight against poor smartphone etiquette
Whilst one half of the BBH Barn 2012 intern program has been running into Linkedin problems, what have the other half been up to?
The team has gained quite a bit of traction worldwide, organically in fashion/lifestyle blogs for their campaign for Social Rehab.
Social Rehab was created to try and re-engage people with their friends without the constant presence of a smartphone. According to a recent survey, 24% of people have missed out on experiencing important moments because they were too busy documenting it with their smartphones for online sharing. Social Rehab aims to get people to log off their social networks when they are out with friends, and get back into real life friendships.
“We have realised so many people today seem to have a smartphone attached to their hand and ignore their friends for their facebook feeds or instagram uploads,” said intern Sarah Chan. “The art of conversation is dying and I can honestly, one day, see us talking to each other in 140 characters. Its not too far from the truth already, since it seems to be socially acceptable to tweet people who are sitting directly across the table from you!”
The team quickly realised that they couldn’t pontificate or come across as nagging so they decided to do something different and simple. They created a toolkit comprised of everyday digital characteristics and made them tangible. Instagram filter glasses, ‘Twitter’ notecards, Draw Something doodle pads and ‘Like’ stickers. Their message is simple: Connect with life outside of your phone. They want to spark real life social interactions and create enough fun and conversation that people don’t feel the need to awkwardly scroll through their Twitter feeds.
“Our campaign is then rounding off by going one step further and asking people to lock up their phones for an evening at a popular Singapore nightspot. In exchange for doing so, people will receive drinks promotions. An extra 10% for every hour they have their phone locked away, up to 40%. This is a model that organisations in both London and Australia have shown great interest in rolling out in their own markets.
10 Comments
Now that’s a bit of fun. (Better not use Linked in though!!)
Yeah, it’s a nice sentiment. But no one, I mean NO ONE is going to actually use this.
But I do find it funny that the agency keeps Tweeting about it.
You guys should invite the Linkedin management out for drinks!
I say merge the two campaigns…get some prostitutes to the party and call some headhunters too.
More a theme for an office party than a serious campaign.
Very intern-ish.
Take a leaf from the great UK Orange TVC a few years ago that said ‘great things happen when you turn off your phone”. That took a brave client…and guess what…people didn’t stop using Orange!
Doesn’t really sit well with having BlackBerry as a client
Pretty passive aggressive .
Good press.
Bad business.
What’s next?
A barnstormer of an idea to reduce dental decay by reducing lollipop addiction?
A sweat more activation for men to reduce sexism?
Good fun when you let interns loose…
Insiders from google said that they are made aware of this and the other involving Linkedin and are now wondering if they can trust BBH afterall, given how they handled the recent LinkedIn incident as well as the level of creativity involved. BBH is currently one of Google’s AOR.
Reminds you also of the disastrous social break app for Kitkat….an app that would give people a break from the “chore” of social media obligations by automatically liking any crap your friends post on facebook while you can just continue eating donuts or whatever. ….and the agency launched it at exactly the time that Kitkat was trying to play a bigger role in social media and make get more peeps to actively engage with the brand online. Thankfully clients shut it down quick. Is a shame when the guardian agencies dont see how they hurt the brands they supposed to care for.
BBH has been busy lately isn’t it? Just when you thought they couldn’t get any worse, they let loose the Idea for mentos. Who is the creative lead responsible? Credits should be represented for all to see. BBH ought to do better.