As an antidote to the way most advertising is created within the telecommunications sector we decided it was time to break the mold.

Our creative approach was to let one of the world’s great comedians interpret the message in his own distinct way, by setting minimum script parameters. From this the anti-ad was born – we paid Ricky Gervais to not make an ad.

The Ricky Gervais series for Optus was a four part series run across 2015. Each piece in the series showcased a ‘lazier’ version of Ricky Gervais. We had seen Ricky go from nonchalantly sitting on a chez-lounge (part 1) to worrying about his ‘artistic integrity’ in a similar studio (part 2) to sending in an ad that was filmed on an iPhone while he lied naked in his bath (part 3) to him sitting in his over-the-top bath and saying just one word (part 4).

The series launched as digital only and evolved over time into offline channels.

The 'anti-ad' kicked off the series on digital channels only. There were five pieces of content rolled out over a five-week period. The campaign used re-marketing to target viewers of the launch videos with the next round of creative messaging. The fifth video was saved to target the hottest leads to encourage them through the response funnel.

Following on from the success of the anti-ad, 'Artistic Integrity' launched across digital channels initially and followed through with a TV and out of home (OOH) marketing strategy.

Next in the series was 'Little Bath', which launched across digital channels initially and followed through with a TV marketing strategy to broaden reach.

'Big Bath' was the finale in the series and launched across digital channels initially and followed through with a TV and Cinema marketing strategy.

Over 15 million video views online with an engagement rate of 2.4%.

Cinema and TV reach combined was over 3 million.

The anti-ad broke the record for the fastest branded video to hit 4 Million (Australian) views in Australian Facebook history (from a population of 23 Million)

The anti-ad was the most successful piece of branded content Google have ever seen in Australia – the 2nd most watched ad on YouTube in 2015 and formed the 2015 Google ‘Think’ Global Digital Case Study

Interest level in the anti-ad was 6x higher than any TV campaign Optus had previously run, it resulted in 165% lift in searches for Optus

The Apple iPhone piece (Artistic Integrity) was another world first – being the first ever Apple product launch video not to feature the product

97% positive sentiment across social platforms for the series

Over 200 pieces of positive PR were generated in Australia