Dozens of Spanish cities are currently renewing and remodeling infrastructure and areas critical to daily life. These are complex works that will alter the routine of thousands of people for months or even years. Barcelona is one of them and has addressed the situation with a campaign that tries to appeal to the empathy of its neighbors by focusing on the positive.
With the help of the creative agency Snoop, which in recent years has worked on several occasions for the municipal government, Barcelona City Council has launched a video that highlights the inconvenience caused by the works, giving special prominence to noise. With a friendly and aspirational approach, this is transformed into sound to highlight the advantages of the renovation processes currently open in the city.
Under the claim “Oi que sona bé quan Barcelona millora?” (Doesn’t it sound good when Barcelona improves?), the piece collects images and sounds of works, such as excavators, hammers or saws, which harmonize to give way to the bell of bicycles, the laughter of children or the singing of birds in real locations in Barcelona, such as the Diagonal Avenue bike lane, the facilities of the L’Illa -Les Corts municipal sports center, or the spaces of the Sarrià – JV Foix library. It is produced by Benecé Produccions.
“When Barcelona improves everything sounds better. Work, too! Because you know that they will be better play areas for children, streets where we move more easily, new equipment that we can enjoy and more housing to continue living in the neighborhood.”, they explain from Barcelona City Council through social networks.
The campaign also communicates the website and telephone number where citizens can go to find information about the works that are affecting public space, but also improving the daily life of the neighborhoods, as expressed by the council.
From the Snoop agency they consider that the campaign for municipal works is risky, as they have expressed to reason.Why. It is, they say, a delicate and controversial proposal, since it addresses the works and interventions that have been causing inconvenience in the city for a long time. The challenge, they point out, has been to create a piece capable of explaining these processes from empathy with the citizens who suffer them, but conveying at the same time that they are necessary to build a better Barcelona.
The piece is part of the positioning “Fem la Barcelona de la teva vida”, launched by the municipal government at the end of October last year. Devised by the VML The Cocktail agency after winning the corresponding public competition, the new communication platform invites the residents of the Catalan capital to be part of and build their city in a markedly positive tone.
