Inventing a new ad space on digital TV, supporting viewers whenever they pause live or recorded shows, series of movies.

After claiming the "break" moment on radio, print and online advertising, Belgian snack brand Royco challenged us to come up with a new and innovative way to communicate their "take a break" message to a large audience. We saw a gap in the market in the increasing behavior of digital and delayed viewing and an opportunity in the unused "frozen" screen that appears whenever people press the pause button on their remote control. Together with the SBS Broadcasting Group and Telco provider Telenet we turned this commercially unused pause screen into a new way of non-intrusive advertising, and named it ‘Breakvertising’. Whenever viewers pause live or recorded content (shows, series, films, ..), Royco's supportive ad appeared on screen. A world’s first use of digital TV. As a result of the widely debated campaign, Breakvertising became an official new media space of SBS and Telenet, with brands like M&M's, Pizza Hut, Skoda, Mazda, The National Lottery, Danone and Lays among the first brands to add Breakvertising to their media plan. After Telenet opened up the technology to other markets, France, Italy, Spain and Germany soon created their own version of the innovation. Not only the efectiveness of the medium got awarded, but the business idea also received a media lion on the annual International Festival of Creativity in Cannes, France.

Client: SBS Belgium & Telenet Agency: Wunderman Thompson Antwerp Concept: Gertjan De Smet Design: Gertjan De Smet Development: Wunderman Thomspon & Telenet Video Production: Geronimo Director: Manu Vanderjeugd DOP: Piet Deyaert