In this music video, the world’s most obnoxious rock band invades real advertising agencies, during normal business hours, to shock, hype up, and/or embarrass real employees. We open in an agency bathroom, where band members apply makeup, poof their hair, and stuff their crotches. Then they head out to various office buildings around Washington, DC — sneaking past security, and sneaking up on unsuspecting ad geeks. Armed with electric guitars, amplifiers, and a megaphone, the band members make spectacles of themselves, as well as the most vulnerable employees they can find. While they’re at it, they also pause to raid agency refrigerators, snort pool chalk, interrupt client meetings, and chug hollandaise sauce.

Our idea was to make everyone in the DC ad community feel like a rock star — by making each of them a part of the show, and the campaign. We started by creating the most rockin’ advertising awards show ever — The Battle of the Brands — which we hosted at a famous rock club. To promote it, we created an integrated campaign that ran for 3 months before the show, featuring the most over-the-top rock band of all time. In the 2 weeks before that, we sent our band to real ad agencies to rock out with the employees, then created this viral direct film, which we spread through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. We also created a rockin’ website and emails, as well as offline elements. Our band even hosted the event. Again, please note that the button at the end of the film was a live hyperlink.

Direct ticket sales nearly doubled our forecasted total (which was based on previous years’ ticket sales) at 400 tickets. This is a huge number of tickets, at $125 each, for such a small market. And our efforts generated more sponsorship revenue than any other show in the DC Ad Club’s 97-year history — helping our client become the AAF’s Division 1 Club of the Year. Most importantly, we shocked the ad community with a campaign and an event that turned the show’s reputation upside-down. What used to be an event that everyone wanted to weasel their way out of has now become an event nobody wants to miss.