This stunt successfully blended fiction with reality, capturing the audience's attention during a live cultural cornerstone event (Spanish New Year’s Eve countdown) surprising more than 5.6 million viewers with a 'theft' during one of the most-watched broadcasts of the year. To -seconds later- revealed the truth on a TV spot that showed Berlin (Money Heist's famous thief) escaping from the set with the hostess' necklace. An innovative storytelling with a dramatic live act that disrupted traditional advertising norms, creating an engaging and memorable moment that resonated with the audience, hence standing out for its creativity and impact.

This stunt aimed to announce the new Money Heist spin-off focusing on the backstory of the famous Netflix thief Berlin. Given his prominence, we knew that a grand gesture was necessary for promotion: a high-profile theft. That's why we decided to hijack one of Spain's most significant cultural events: the New Year’s Eve ‘Count Down’.

Every December 31st, Spaniards tune in to watch the countdown on TV, making it one of the most-watched events in the country. While many channels broadcast the event live from the ‘Puerta del Sol’ clock in Madrid, one hostess consistently steals the spotlight with her tradition of surprising everyone with her outfits. Her name is Cristina Pedroche, and for the past ten years, she has fueled anticipation around her New Year’s Eve attire, filling newspapers, gossip programs, and social media with rumors and assumptions.

We faced a major challenge: to capture the attention of 5.6 million viewers on one of the most advertising-heavy nights of the year. We chose to innovate by mixing fiction and reality: hijacking the live broadcast by stealing the necklace as the camera shifted away from the hosts and making it impossible for viewers to look away as Cristina found out and panicked during Estrella Galicia’s sponsored toast. The transition to a conventional TV spot revealed the heist's mastermind, with Berlin escaping with the hostess's necklace, filmed on the same set as the live event. Merging the sponsored segment during the chimes and the advertisement during the year's first advertising block.

SITUATION

Every December 31st, Spaniards watch the countdown on live TV, making it one of the most-watched events in the country.

BRIEF

Netflix was releasing Berlin, the spin-off about the famous white-collar thief from Money Heist, one of its most popular non-English shows worldwide. We needed to communicate it in a big way coming up with an original and cultural idea to surprise Spaniards with Berlin's come back during Christmas time.

OBJECTIVES

Take advantage of the collaboration between Estrella Galicia and Netflix to make something different, something never done before that would let people, influencers (and the press) talking about it for weeks to help us build awareness about the show Berlin, but also help Estrella Galicia present their limited edition bottle designed for the occasion.

Every December 31st, Spaniards watch the New Years' Eve countdown on live TV.

Numerous stations provide coverage from la 'Puerta del Sol' clock in Madrid, but just one presenter, Cristina Pedroche, has made it her trademark thanks to her unexpected outfits becoming the indisputable audience leader with close to 6 million viewers.

To announce the launch of Berlin (new "Money Heist" spin-off from Netflix) and Estrella Galicia's limited edition bottle of the show; we used a 10-second sponsored live segment that the beer owns since the past 11 years:

- The first 5 seconds of the segment were used for the traditional toast with Estrella Galicia.

- The remaing 5 seconds were used to make people believe that Cristina was robbed and cut to a commercial break.

- Where a spot revealed the truth: featuring Berlin escaping the set with the lot hidden inside an Estrella Galicia ice bucket.

Cristina Pedroche has become the indisputable audience leader hostess of the New Year's Eve broadcast thanks to her unbelievable outfits; a perfect opportunity to create a surprising -yet believable stunt- to entertain her almost 6 million viewers on live TV creating a media storytellying that mixed fiction and reality. Cristina Pedroche became our victim to announce the launch of Berlin, the series about the famous Netflix thief.

In short, we stole her necklace live on air during the New Year's Eve countdown and let people go crazy on social media during a few minutes, revealing the the mastermind behind the robbery minutes later on a spot in the first ad block of the year: Berlin, who we could see escaping from the set of the chimes disguised as a waiter with the necklace -that seconds before had disappeared live from the hostess's forehead- hidden on an Estrella Galicia cooler.

We surprised 5.6 million viewers covertly hijacking one of the biggest live broadcast of the year; stealing the necklace from Cristina Pedroche (the hostess) while the camera shifted away from her to focus on the 12 chimes.

Back to the set, Cristina was missing the necklace and panicked during the traditional Estrella Galicia’s sponsored toast; abruptly asking to cut to the year's first commercial break.

Seconds later, when everyone was talking about what just happened on TV, a spot featuring Berlin revealed the truth: Berlin was escaping from the set with the hostess' necklace hidden on an iced bucket filled with Estrella Galicia.

Unifying the chimes' sponsored segment with the spot into a cohesive storytelling that merged:

- non-paid live TV

- a sponsored live segment,

- and a traditional TV spot in one big guerrilla stunt that broke the limits of a -until now- traditional format

REACH, ENGAGEMENT & IMPACT

-More than 21 MILLION PEOPLE watched our spot in a week.

-More than 42 MILLION IMPACTS on TV and social media.

-More than 1.7 MILLION third-party interactions.

QUALITY OF EXPERIENCE AND INTERACTION & CHANGE IN BEHAVIOUR

-The stunt became the most talked about piece of news during the most brand-saturated moment of the year.

-Berlín became TOP #1 GLOBALLY non-english TV show.

-Content creators were our main amplifiers, like Itziar Oltra who achieved 5.3 million impressions and more than 3k mentions in national media, including organic posts of influencers with great impact as Ceciarmy (+4M followers).

BRAND PERCEPTION

-Positive brand recognition grew up to +56% .

Achievement against objectives

The action exceeded our expectations, making the premiere of the show and the release of the special edition of Estrella Galicia beer dedicated to the character a complete success.