Case Study Confessions

In light of the Cannes Lions controversy, I must make some sobering admissions about various case studies I’ve been involved with over the years.

1. We did not, in fact, capture the imagination of the nation. The nation’s imagination was captured by Married At First Sight. So was I tbh.
2. Most of the press coverage we got was trade press.
3. The limited edition that ‘completely sold out’ was very limited indeed. There were 5 of them.
4. The concerning statistic that forms the basis of the whole case study? The planner sourced that by sending a SurveyMonkey to his mixed netball team WhatsApp group.
5. We did not achieve more media impressions than the population of Earth.
6. When we say it went viral, we mean the Daily Mail’s bots ingested the press release and farted out an article. A farticle, if you will
7. We did not pay for the rights to use that track by Cinematic Orchestra or M83 or Explosions in the Sky or Jónsi/Sigur Rós.
8. When the editor created that giant cloud of positive social comments, it was like 11 comments step-and-repeated to look like a thousand.
9. We omitted negative comments such as ‘worsst ad campiagn ever!’ and ‘all involved should retire’. Again trade press featured heavily here.

I realise that these confessions might see me stripped of my pride of Lions. But I am at peace with that. They are mostly Bronzes.

Anyone else want to fess up?