Would you enter a competition in which you had to write a 395 character url, dictated in a radio ad – perfectly? To win a coffee mug?

Of the hundreds of HBO Silicon Valley fans and die-hard nerds who entered, and despite ad agency, DDB NZ, ensuring a higher fail rate than start-up companies in The Valley, 100 nailed the extra, extra!!! long url codes. The competition was part of DDB’s “insultingly simple, yet ludicrously difficult” promotion, URXXL, for the show’s third season on Sky’s SoHo Channel.

To create a buzz for the show, regular fans were interrupted using the creative radio spots and hardcore fans were rewarded in digital, all at once.

Shane Bradnick, executive creative director of DDB New Zealand, explained that strategy, “In New Zealand we have the most radio stations per capita in the world, mainly due to our shocking infrastructure and traffic congestion. A lot of time is spent in our car with the radio on, travelling. When it comes to on-air ad-time, we’re channel flickers; who can stand the terrible, shouty, retail promo spots offering 50% off beds etc? Radio is so often executed with little care or creativity and that’s why URXXL was able to cut through the clutter, humouring fans and peaking the interest of new audiences too.”

It worked. Viewership was up 26% on the premiere season.

“The judging geeks seem to think the work is good too, with the campaign finding success at D&AD and AWARD to date,” DDB added.