>> Important note: BNR in Dutch sounds exactly the same as Bay & Air <<

PROBLEM

BNR is the second biggest news radio station in the Netherlands. To attract new listeners we wanted to air a commercial on the biggest news radio station: Radio 1. One little problem: public broadcasting doesn’t allow advertising of commercial competitors. How could we reach our audience anyway?

IDEA

We introduced the TROJAN RADIO COMMERCIAL. First we launched a fake airline: BAY & AIR. Created a website and sent Radio 1 a perfectly good radio commercial for our new fake company. Radio 1 put it on air without hesitation. Only after the commercial aired, they discovered our mischief and immediately pulled the commercial from the remaining slots. But they were already too late.

RESULT

Our TROJAN RADIO COMMERCIAL resulted in a tremendous amount of free publicity. All large Dutch and Belgian news media (80+) covered the story about the TROJAN RADIO COMMERCIAL. Even Radio 1 couldn’t ignore the news. Instead of a news broadcaster, we became the news ourselves.

- We launched a fake airline that in Dutch is pronounced exactly the same as BNR: BAY & AIR.

- We created a complete website for our high-end airline.

- We sent Radio 1 a perfectly good radio commercial for our new fake company. Of course we provided the spot close to deadline.

- The night before the TROJAN RADIO COMMERCIAL went on air we linked bayandair.nl to a special BNR.nl website that explained our PR-stunt.

On Monday morning Radio 1 put our TROJAN RADIO COMMERCIAL on air without hesitation. Only after the commercial aired, they discovered our mischief and immediately pulled the commercial from the remaining slots. But they were already too late.

- We sent a press release to all large news media.

Our simple 25-second radio commercial resulted in a tremendous amount of free publicity.

- All large Dutch and Belgian news media (80+) covered the story about the TROJAN RADIO COMMERCIAL.

- All the newspapers covered the stunt.

- Even the biggest television news channels brought the item.

- For the first time in history BNR became trending topic.

- Even Radio 1 couldn’t ignore it and covered the story, including an interview with BNR’s Chief-Editor.

Our plan worked. Instead of a news broadcaster, we became the news ourselves. But I hear your thoughts; did it do any good for BNR’s listener ratings? It sure did!

- After the PR stunt our listener ratings went up with +26%

- And our market share had an increase of +25%.