118 118

You can not deny the impact of the new directory enquiry service and the image of the two '70's "athletes" running the streets of the UK with the chant of ...."I've got your number". Well, £16 million can buy you a lot of TV in the current market.

As you may know I participated in the Great North Run this year and my charity donation would have more than doubled if I had a pound for each time that phrase rang out from the spectators and echoed back from the dozens of "look a likes" sweating under their luxuriant wigs and moustaches.

But why honour them as a case study?

Impact - undeniable success of a creative campaign that intended to get under our skins and did.
Spin off activities and the ability of the agency to move swiftly to capitalise
The litigation from ex- '70's athlete David Bedford, claiming to be the "original" face of the runners which only added to the publicity generated by the campaign.
On the downside - Hundreds of complaints about the level of service and oftels upholding of complaints against the new service provider resulting in significant negative publicity and a £10,000 fine.

They were originally looking to gain 30% of the market and ended up with over 40% and 500,000 calls a day, but have had difficulty coping with their success with poorly trained call centre staff unable to manage the volume of enquiries.

In summary, a roaring creative success but operationally they perhaps needed to consider the potential impact of reaching beyond their targets.

The jury is out on the long term future of 118 118 but it doesn't add up for all 40 operators, for some their number will be up!

"thinking differently and delivering results"