The "FeelTheColours" campaign, launched by the Generalitat (Catalan government) along with FC Barcelona, was meant to celebrate the colors of sport in Catalonia. However, it only featured the colors of one club. We, RCD Espanyol de Barcelona, saw this as an opportunity to showcase the region's true chromatic richness and transform what could have been a divisive campaign into one of inclusivity.

How we hacked the opportunity (48 hours of creativity):

Recognizing the limited window during the transfer market closure, we sprang into action. Using creativity and a great team, we launched an inclusive website (www.feelthecolours.com) in under 24 hours, filling the gap left by the original campaign, which had no website. Our platform invited all Catalan sports entities and fans to join.

We also created a campaign video and launched a fun Twitter thread with irony and a mischievous tone, portraying our rebellious personality and a pluralistic outlook on Catalonia and the world, while extending a hand to other clubs and institutions.

Results: More than just numbers (engagement and bridge building)

• Our campaign generated quadruple the engagement of the original.
• It sparked debate and media coverage nationally and internationally.
• Over 40 entities and hundreds of fans joined the movement, alongside our loyal "Pericos" (Espanyol fans).

This campaign paved the way for fostering connections with those who share our passion for sports, beyond team colors. We extended a hand to institutions, showing a proactive and collaborative spirit.

Conclusion: The journey continues (building on success)

We are grateful to everyone who embraced this initiative. The journey continues as we aim to amplify the vibrant colors of Catalan sport!

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What does a dream job look like, and is it even possible to achieve in the real world? Enter Alec Brownstein, an ordinary individual with an extraordinary dream: to land his dream job at a top creative agency. Faced with the challenge of breaking into the industry through conventional means, Alec discovered that the traditional job-seeking route was not only impractical but also nearly impossible. Like many others, he had likely exhausted the usual methods (uploading CVs to different websites, sending countless emails, and submitting spontaneous applications) before reevaluating his approach and pondering if there could be another way to unlock the doors to the creativity heaven.

Undeterred, Alec embraced lateral thinking to indentify a unique way to capture attention of the top creative directors at sought-after agencies: specifically, their egos. The ingenious "Google Job Experiment" unfolded as Alec purchased the names of these directors on Google AdWords, ensuring that his personalized message would be the first thing they saw when Googling themselves. Imagine the surprise of David Droga, Tony Granger, Gerry Graf, Ian Reichenthal, and Scott Vitrone when they stumbled upon a personalized ad addressed to them.

The Results

The unconventional strategy paid off remarkably, with four out of five directors reaching out for interviews. Ultimately, Alec secured a position with the renowned marketing and communication company, Young & Rubicam.

This story serves as a testament to the power of lateral thinking in achieving seemingly unattainable goals. For more exaples of successful lateral thinking, check out this video (in Spanish) where chess player Leontxo García demonstrates the beauty of lateral thinking applied to chess.

What other ingenious examples of lateral thinking can you think of?

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That’s what Sinan Aral, an MIT professor and co-author of a study on how false information spreads on Twitter, concluded in 2018. And his findings could just as easily apply to the entire digital ecosystem we now live in. Fake news spreads effortlessly across the internet, fueled by our own involvement. Beyond bots and coordinated disinformation campaigns, it’s our quick-trigger approach to retweeting, commenting, and sharing other people’s inaccuracies, speculations, and rushed conclusions that allows falsehoods to circulate at lightning speed.

Fake influencers

The battle for influence in the digital era has given rise to a whole new breed of digital players—influencers—who shape the reputations of trendy places and products. To expose the shaky foundation on which the supposed credibility of this recommendation network rests, in 2018 the H2H agency, which specializes in influencer marketing, set out to create a fake influencer from scratch. With just €500 spent on buying followers and meticulously crafting an authentic-looking profile, they created the account @almu_ripamonti, played by an actress. In just three weeks, the account had accumulated nearly 100,000 followers—mostly bots. Nobody noticed, and soon enough, the fake influencer was flooded with party invites, gifts, and all kinds of perks, all in exchange for a positive review. Every brand that approached her did so purely based on her follower count. As Luis Díaz, the director of the agency behind the experiment, explained:

Hacking the system

In today’s digital landscape, there are platforms that aim to democratize the evaluation and ranking of services and businesses by leaving the power in the hands of users. Sounds great in theory, but even these seemingly meritocratic systems have flaws that can be exploited by those who understand their inner workings.

Take Oobah Butler, a 27-year-old journalist at Vice by 2017 (when the experiment was conducted), who managed to turn his garden shed into the number one restaurant in London—without ever serving a single dish. He chronicled how he gamed Tripadvisor’s algorithms and filters, creating fake dishes using detergent, shaving foam, and sponges to simulate gourmet meals. As word spread, people were desperate to book a table, and Butler decided to go one step further by hosting a real (and only) dinner at his shed. With just four chairs, some cheap pre-cooked food, and a bit of flair, he made diners feel like they were experiencing something exclusive at London’s top-rated restaurant. Although The Shed At Dulwich has since been removed from Tripadvisor, the five-star reviews and glowing comments can still be found in the archives. And this wasn’t even the first time such a scam was pulled.
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