In 2018, Ireland prepared itself to welcome The Pope for the first time since 1979. Back then, education, health, justice, law, politics and social policy were all under the absolute dominion of the institutional Roman Catholic Church. In 2018, Ireland had changed dramatically. Scandal after scandal (paedophile priests, mass graves of babies) had broken the infallibility of the Catholic Church. Divorce, same sex marriage, and abortion had all been legalised in the years in between, and a more liberal, less devout country had emerged. Let's just say that Ireland's favourite hobby, 'the Church', had changed.

Sensing the symbolic enormity of the visit, and well aware of the country’s more lax attitude toward Catholicism, the betmaker Paddy Power wanted to steal some of the spotlight around the visit, making a statement that grabbed headlines by reflecting the new Ireland.

We knew directly slagging the Pope and the Church was an easy target. Too easy. Instead, we wanted to poke fun at our own relationship with the Church, guided by research showing that the majority of Catholics no longer attend confession.

So we created the Paddy Power Drive Thru Confession Box. Helping repent decades of sins in seconds, a stone’s throw from the site of the Papal Mass.

It took the form of a branded 40 foot high drive-thru confessional (completely redressing a car wash) and providing a chance for the Irish to offload any guilt built up over the decades.

A Paddy Power-approved clergyman was there to hear years of backlogged confessions, with a variety of penances given. Cars queued up to take part in the experience.

Messages like “repent decades of sins in seconds” and “prep for the pope” adorned the sides of the massive build.

Paddy Power is a brand that has built itself on being part of the sports banter, primarily targeting 18-34 year old males, but they are increasingly looking to engage a broader audience. The Irish Papal visit marked a rare non-sports cultural touchpoint in Ireland - and an ideal opportunity for Paddy Power to engage a broader audience.

We set out to identify a way to engage a nation who increasingly identified as lapsed Catholics. Rather than brash sacrilege, we wanted a smarter way in, reflecting modern attitudes and indifference toward the Church, something that the average Irish person could have a relatable laugh at.

A specially commissioned survey revealed that more than a quarter of Irish people hadn’t attended confession in a decade or more. And so we exploited this fact. An icon of the traditional Catholicism, the confession box, crossed paths with a more expedited modern institution, the Drive-Thru.

We constructed the large confession box with a team of 20 people and a lot of scaffolding over a weekend with a large police presence around. The scaffolding made it look like a large TV tower (The perfect decoy). On the morning of the arrival, the confession box graphics were lowered and the unit became the most talked about 'new build' in Dublin very quickly.

The 40ft box towered over the Pheonix Park where the Pope could technically view it. Inside the Drive Thru box was an actual confession box where people could wind down their window and confess everything to our Priest. He was actually a comedian who took advantage of the situation and made sure that each and every confession was administered with all the seriousness it deserved.

Each Confessor was then given a bumper sticker and a pat on the boot and waved on quickly.

Business impact is unknown - but the priority metric for the client was talkability, and the level of news coverage was unprecedented for a Paddy Power activation, and delivered on our business objective of gaining relevance beyond sports fans.

Coverage came from all over the world, with press coverage in broadsheets that included The Washington Post, The Times, Sydney Morning Herald, Newsweek, USA Today and The Guardian. Additional coverage followed in The Mirror, The Sun, Metro UK, The Irish Post, MSN, etc.

The story was featured on BBC1's The One Show, a show which attracts more than 5 million viewers every day. There was not a single penny of paid media investment in this initiative - our budget solely focused on the experiential build. Upwards of 70 news publications featured our activation as a news item - across Ireland, UK, Italy, USA and Canada.