Marc Dorcel | #HandsOff | 2015
If You Want to Watch Porn, Keep Both Hands on the Keyboard / Marc Dorcel "#HandsOff"
If you want to watch porn, keep both hands on the keyboard. I had to laugh at that one. A porn site telling you not to let go of the keyboard — that twisted, mischievous logic is just perfect.
The problem
Marc Dorcel ran a paid adult site charging about $11 a month, but getting people to pay in a world flooded with free porn was incredibly hard. Sex itself sells, but selling sex is another matter.
The insight
Telling people the picture quality was worth paying for didn't mean much if they'd never experienced that quality. So the only option was to let them watch for free first. That's where the brand zeroed in on a slightly sad but universal truth about men watching porn: one hand is always occupied.
The idea
The rule was simple: if you want to keep watching the video, keep your fingers resting on the Q, S, P and L keys the whole time. This forced people to keep both hands free, and the brand challenged people to try it on social media using #HandsOff. The sight of people squirming while trying to keep their fingers in place became the ad itself.
What happened
#HandsOff trended on Twitter, racked up 13 million views, got covered in 1,200 articles, boosted subscriptions 50-fold, and increased traffic to the site 27-fold. Some determined participants even balanced a kiwi on a spoon to fake having a hand free, which only fueled the buzz further. The campaign won a Gold Lion in the Direct category at Cannes 2015, falling just short of the Grand Prix.
Afterthought
When insight, product truth, and humor all come together, an ad becomes unstoppable. Factor in the sheer desperation of people resorting to kiwis just to break the rules, and this campaign was pretty much perfect.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2015
