Two office supply chains in Norway were to change thier names to Staples. The brief was to make the change of names known and talked about.

The key insight was that a new name in a foreign language will be better known and remembered if the audience has not read or heard the name, but used it themselves - Learning by doing.

The idea was to announce the job of carrying out the official change of names. The job would take only one second but paid half a million Norwegian krones, 60.000 Euros, by far making it Norway's highest salary. To apply, one had to visit the micro-site and prove that one could pronounce Staples correctly under pressure, using the computer microphone or by phone. Voice recognition software instantly approved or disapproved the pronunciation.

Then, one had to collect referances through social media and write a short application letter.

Eight finalists were selected, who had to campaign for their candidacies for a final and decisive vote on the campaign microsite.

The campaign gave the introduction of Staples massive PR in both news media and social media, turning a dull change of names into a fun and engaging activity.

That was easy!

The assignment was given to us mid December 2009, and the change of names was already decided to come into effect from February 1st 2010, so time was short. The campaign ran for only two weeks.

We announced the job in classified ads and press releases. Before that we had set up a Facebook page for "Norway's highest salary" without any other information than that, attracting 6.000 fans in just a couple of days.

After passing the digital pronunciation test, using voice recognition technology, users had to write a short letter of application and collect job references digitally through social media, meaning Twitter or Facebook Connect. The job was given to the finalist that got the most votes after a few days of individual campaigning for their candidacies through local news media and social media.

More than 215.000 visited the micro site in the application period of just seven days, by more than 180.000 unique users.

More than 16.000 applications completed and submitted. More than 65.000 references collected digitally, helping to spread the activity and the campaign message.

In addition, the acitivity got PR in national and/or local media on all stages of the campaign, i.e. the job announcement in itself, the great interest, the finalists and the appointment of the young woman who ended up declaring the official change of names.