An offline promotion for online shopping:Gigantic fictitious construction projects shock Switzerland.www.ricardo.ch is the biggest platform for online shopping in Switzerland. A survey has revealed that the target group substantially underestimates the size and diversity of the product range. This campaign aimed to change that.

The click-through rate on www.ricardo.ch rose rapidly during the promotion: +657%! There worried citizens learned: the biggest shopping centre in Switzerland fortunately still only exists on the internet. And they could start shopping online right away.Several newspapers reported on the “Ricardo” construction projects, which multiplied the advertising impact. With a budget of only 50,000 US dollars, the huge product range on www.ricardo.ch became a topic of discussion.

What if the countless shopping offers from www.ricardo.ch were not sold over the internet? Then giant new shopping centres would have to be built in Switzerland. So fictitious construction projects for real “Ricardo” shopping centres were announced. Such enormous building projects had never before been seen in tiny Switzerland! A baseline told concerned citizens to click through to www.ricardo.ch for further information.

Through the gigantic construction announcements and the explanation on www.ricardo.ch, it became clear to the Swiss: there is an absolutely enormous range of products available on this online platform! In addition the campaign managed to reach new groups of buyers. Online users are often only addressed online. With this promotion, the product range available online was publicised among the wider population.