Finding your car immobilized due to poor parking can trigger our anger and frustration. However, a comedy festival held in the city of Dublin has chosen to turn the situation into a window for fun by transforming the object into an advertising medium.
With the help of the BBH Dublin agency, the festival has reused the dreaded traps as temporary communication platforms to promote itself during the days leading up to the event, which took place between July 23 and 26 in the Iveagh Gardens park in the Irish capital. The festival is held annually and is now sponsored by the Paddy Power betting platform, which is why it is called the Paddy Power Comedy Festival. Until 2022 it was sponsored by Vodafone.
Thus, it has placed restraints on selected cars throughout the city to invite citizens to enjoy the best comedians in the country. In addition to the festival logo and its celebration dates, the traps included the message “You need a laugh.” In this way, the brand introduces a joke and gives an unexpected twist to an object that is traditionally associated with bad sensations.
The activation, however, was not limited to the message on the support. The festival also raffled off tickets for all those passers-by who saw one of the stocks in the city, took a photo of it and published it on their social networks. All this was communicated on a poster attached to the parked vehicles and passed by the comedians participating in the event. They also included a QR code to access the festival website.
“Car traps have never been known for lifting spirits. Luckily, the Paddy Power Comedy Festival does. If we manage to exchange an unpleasant surprise for some good laughs, we will have achieved our objective”commented Dean Finn, Senior Marketing Manager at Paddy Power, highlighting how the promotional action materializes the brand’s promise.
In addition, he has also collaborated with some of the comedians participating in the festival to distribute free tickets to Dubliners. Placing them in cafes and bars, they have asked passers-by to tell them jokes, and they have given tickets to those who have entertained them the most.
