duffy and shanley60 Days
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This is a living/changing/growing site for the clients, partners and friends of Duffy & Shanley. Duffy & Shanley is an advertising, public relations and marketing firm based in Providence, Rhode Island. Providence, Rhode Island, is located 50 minutes south of Boston and is New England’s second largest city. Cities are incorporated municipal centers with high concentrations of residents. The Residents are a seminal performance-art band from San Francisco who made waves with their parody of the Beatles.

The world’s largest office-supply retailer, a diminutive funnyman and 10,000 very happy people.
Staples

When Staples turned to Duffy & Shanley to put some fresh, new thinking around 2008 holiday efforts and a sweepstakes that would award 10,000 customers their holiday purchases for free, we jumped at the opportunity to wow a business with more than 2,000 stores, servicing businesses of all sizes and consumers in 27 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. We knew we had to stand out and make a difference at this very busy and “story crowded” time of year.

The Gift it For Free Holiday Sweepstakes centered around the idea that 10,000 people would win their entire holiday purchase for free. Duffy & Shanley created a character named Coach Tom, who served as the mouthpiece of the program and the “star” of nine videos that were seeded on You Tube and other video sharing sites. Coach Tom was a local youth sports coach who believed so firmly in the concept of one winner that he was baffled by a sweepstakes with 10,000 winners. He effectively believed Staples was ruining the very fabric of American competition and he made it his mission to inform the general public about what Staples was doing.

Our efforts focused on reaching our consumers virally, through video, blogs, Twitter and Facebook. Over the course of the 6-week campaign, Coach was the star, with more than 1,716,050 YouTube views. More than 200 bloggers covered the sweeps, Coach Tom was successful on Twitter, with some very influential followers and the Coach Tom Facebook fan page attracted more than 150 fans in a short period of time. In a tough holiday season, we cut through the clutter and achieved results.