The creative idea is based on the insight, that it’s a natural behaviour to chew on the end of a pen when people are focussed. We took this insight and combined it with the technology of bone conduction. The result is an undercover radio device inside a regular ballpen that can be connected to mobile phones via bluetooth and allows people to enjoy a live radio broadcast without anybody else noticing. That way, people can sit in meetings and at the same time listen to one of the many live sports broadcasters on radio.net.

The idea is part of the world cup 2018 initiative by radio.net to raise awareness for the many live sport broadcasters in their library. 10 pens were given out to participants in a social media action to promote the radio.net app.

The app is already available in the app store and is with over 30.000 radio stations worldwide one of the biggest online radio hubs on the market.

Once the pen was featured on social media, it caused a massive raise in engagement within the fan base and social media community.

The strategy behind this idea is based on the natural behaviour of working people. We had to come up with a solution that offers them a chance to enjoy the world cup and at the same time make sure that they, at least look like hard working people. Since a pen and a mobile phone are natural items in the work place environment, and therefore are highly relevant to the target audience, we decided to create the idea around these too devices. The approach was to make the whole connection as simple as possible to give the target audience the chance to use the pen in a convenient way.

In summer 2018, the German people face an overwhelming thread to living out their two major passions in life: glorious football and hard work.

Because with the 2018 FIFA World Cup taking place in Russian time zones, play times will massively clash with German working hours.

Now the German people have two options:

Go to work and miss all the great football moments or skip work and miss all the important meetings. Neither option is really satisfying.

The brief was to come up with a solution that gives the German people an opportunity to bring their two passions together.