Movie piracy attacked video stores all over the world. In Brazil 9,000 stores closed their doors. Video Hobby, a Brazilian video store, asked the agency for an action to attract new customers to its new Mega Store.

So we thought: What if we created something that used piracy itself to conquer new customers.The first step was choosing movies that were blockbusters in Brazil in the year of 2011. So we re-filmed short versions of the movies with no respect to quality. In the end a message alerted the customer about the low quality of a pirate movie. To watch the original movie all they had to do was take the pirate movie to the new Video Hobby Mega store and register as a new customer.With the re-filmed movies ready we launched a pirate website for free movie downloads called “querofilmesgratis.com” and shared on social networks. People could download movies from their PCs, iPads or mobile phones. On streets near the new Mega Store, promoters were hired to help spread the website distributing DVDs as a website’s courtesy. Posters ad were spread with the QR-CODE films. We also sent a “pirate-kit” to homes near the Mega Store.During the month of the action 1,567 new client entries were made.

The number of followers of Video Hobby’s profiles on social networks and website visitors more than doubled. With no investment in mass media the new Mega Store started its activities with more registered clients than any other Video Hobby store.