My Life is Yours: Havas Madrid for Sonae Sierra

 

Alberto Lizaralde & Diana Casadiego
Creative Directors Havas Madrid
 

Havas Madrid
Madrid, 西班牙
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Tell us about your role in the creation of this work.

We are Alberto Lizaralde and Diana Casadiego, Creative Directors at Havas Madrid.  We are responsible for the idea, the script and the final quality in any aspect of the campaign. The creative team that developed this campaign also included Jesús Lada, Arturo Benlloch, and Nacho Soria.

 

Give us an overview of the campaign, what is it about?

Teenagers are considered unhappier because of new technologies. 9 out of 10 have between two and five personal digital devices. Also, 80% of teenagers admit that they use their phones “very regularly and intensively”, and 72.4% admit that they “look at it constantly”.

Faced with this situation, we created the campaign “My Life is Yours” for Sonae Sierra in collaboration with the Aprender a Mirar (learning to look) Foundation. It aims to raise awareness about the misuse of new technologies, their consequences, and promote responsible use.

The campaign is still on air with a TVC and a website giving advice and helping teens who struggle with the problem.

 

Tell us about the details creative brief, what did it ask?

The client, Sonae Sierra, each year selects a social problem and decides to support it. It was a very open brief. We worked with different causes in the previous years: bullying, missing people... This year the client gave us the freedom to find a social cause of our choice. They truly want to impact the world in a good way and so do we. The brief was clear: Hello Havas, help us to help people.

 

Which insight led to the creation of this piece of work?

Mobile phone addiction affects millions of teenagers and the number continues to grow. But the biggest problem is that no one sees this addiction as an addiction. We wanted to explain the obsession of a teenager with his particular friend to show how far we are devoting our lives to technology. 

We wanted to show a story of addiction. But we realized that if we showed people addicted to mobile phones, the public would see everyday moments, not something problematic. That’s why we decided to look for a creative twist in the story. If the relationship with a creature seems insane to us, why doesn’t it seem insane to us when we do the same thing with a mobile phone?

The most dangerous thing about an addiction is when nobody sees it as an addiction.

 

Can you share with us any alternative ideas (if any) for this campaign? Why was this idea chosen?

There wasn´t any alternative ideas. When we found this one, we instantly fell in love with it. We called the client and said: "We got it". The client fell in love with the idea also. This is the best part of having a good relationship with your client, they trust you. We showed them some sci-fi references and they said: "Let's do it. We know that you will do a great job at Havas."

 

What was the greatest challenge that you and your team faced bringing this to life?

The agency spent weeks researching luminescent marine creatures to come up with a design that represented the good and bad of mobile phones. Finally, weeks of digital post-production gave shape to the final creature. It was hard, but it was really fun also.

What did you enjoy most about seeing this campaign through? Did you learn anything new from the experience?

We weren´t sure about the final result. We thought that we could have something interesting at the end, but we were doing something new for us. Sometimes we had doubts: Is the story too strange? Is it too dark? Will it connect with the young audience? But the client wasn´t scared so we forgot our doubts and we went for it.

 

Where do you see this campaign going in the future?

We hope it reminds us of how far we are devoting our lives to technology. We are happy if just one teenager leaves their phone in silent mode at home. We personally already do this in our lives.