Colombia is going through one of its best moments: economic growth, cultural and talent wise. But still the brand perception has its black spots due to our heritage, darkened by violence and drug cartels.

The challenge was to sell worldwide the best of our country, making people rediscover the new Colombia.

We chose the biggest landmark to generate buzz in a multicultural audience. We knew that the clutter in this place was huge, therefore we needed to differentiate ourselves by activating a traditional digital billboard with something that would engage the audience.

We activated the Colombian Auction on a digital billboard in Times Square, bidding with tweets instead of money.

The bidders with the most tweets and retweets using #theansweriscolombia, got closer to win the experience of their choice, making the message viral. This mechanism allowed quantification and a great reach.

Consumers have a perception that auctions allow them to get bargains, but the gambling that lies beneath, encourages them to win. When the bidding takes place the good being auctioned earns more value.

We had the idea to launch the campaign by activating a Colombian Auction of experiences in the heart of "The Crossroads of the World”.

We chose Times Square, the biggest global landmark to generate buzz in a multicultural audience. We knew that the clutter in this place was huge, therefore we needed to differentiate by activating a traditional digital billboard with something that would engage the viewers.

We established a pre-launch where we used paid online media by promoting the Colombian Auction and contacting the audience in NYC in places like the New York Times, Tripadvisor and Timeout.

We also incorporated a press release to all the media vendors, opinion leaders in Colombia and released the same information in the US.

Then, we activated the Colombian Auction on a digital billboard in Times Square, bidding with tweets instead of money. This mechanism allowed quantification and a great reach.

-120,000 tweets; with 10,460 people involved from countries as far away as New Zealand, Finland and South Korea. In total we reached 35 countries in only 11 days.

-We were Trending Topic in the United States and in Colombia and our Earned media has been estimated at 69 million dollars.

-We did improve our perception in the Country Brand Index. By the end of 2013, we got the 9th place in the LATAM ranking.

-We achieved our goal to generate buzz in worldwide media (TV, Online, Print, opinion leaders) by having more than USD$ 69 million in earned media.