The commercial starts with a voice-over telling the audience the length of the commercial: 47 seconds and 80 hundreds. In the background we hear the original footage of the finals of the 100 metres free style swimming in Rio 2016. We hear the starting gun of a race go off and two sports commentators telling us that we’re watching Belgian Swimmer Pieter Timmers start his final race in the 2016 Olympics in Rio. While we hear the excitement of the race in the background, the voiceover continues to explain that the reason this commercial takes exactly 47"80 is because that was the exact time it took Pieter to not only win a silver medal for Belgium, but to inspire a whole new generation of young swimmers. We end the commercial with the message that the Belgian Olympic Team is once again ready to inspire a generation, this time in Tokyo.

Background sfx: sounds of an Olympic swimming stadium

VOICE-OVER: Fortyseven seconds, and eighty hundreds…

Background: (voice of commentator): Timmers will be starting on the left of your screen

VOICE-OVER: …that’s the exact duration of this radio commercial.

Background: (voice of commentator): We’ve seen him start a lot slower in past races! Lane 6, Pieter in 6th…no 7th position, could that be?

VOICE-OVER: The time it took Pieter Timmers to raise the subscriptions in Belgian Swimming Clubs…

Background (voice of commentator): This is looking way better than a 5th spot..

VOICE-OVER: …to unseen heights.

Background (voice of commentator): Timmers is doing great! He has overtaken the guy in lane 8! And now also lane 6!!!

VOICE-OVER: But more importantly the time it took him, in 2016…

Background (voice of commentator): Is he on his way to a medal??? He is swimming the race of his life! This could very well be it… is he going to be on the podium… it’ll down to just milliseconds! Does he do it or not?! Timmers wins second place!!!! SILVER MEDAL!

VOICE-OVER: ..to win a Silver Olympic medal in Rio in the 100m freestyle.

Background (voice of commentator): Fortyseven-point-eighty!!!!

VOICE-OVER: Belgium is ready for the Olympic Games. Don’t miss anything about our athletes and follow Team Belgium on Facebook & Instagram

Background (voice of commentator): Pieter Timmers, Fortyseven-point-eighty!!!!

When Belgian swimmer Pieter Timmers won Silver at the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016, the number of children that joined local swimming clubs in Belgium sky-rocketed. The Belgian Olympic committee wanted to show that winning an Olympic medal isn’t just a personal accomplishment, but motivates and inspires our whole nation. How? By having us relive that memorable moment with a radio commercial of exactly 47 seconds and 80 hundreds of a second. Exactly the time it took Pieter to win silver…and inspire a whole generation of possible future Olympic medalists?

The commercial aired 100 days before the start of the Olympic games in Tokyo, honouring Pieter Timmers and again inspiring young athletes by letting everyone relive the moment. The media agency exceptionally accepted to air this commercial, because of its unusual length. But it’s thanks to the length that we got media exposure, including an interview with Pieter Timmers