Скачать или смотреть Bic Champenships | Case Study

Our BIC 4 Colour "Champenships" campaign created 14 new new reasons to use up a BIC pen.

After all, the best thing about the BIC 4 Colour Pen is that it lasts a really long time. The problem for Bic sales was... the pens lasted a really long time. So rather than run an advertising campaign selling a benefit that was ultimately a business problem, the challenge was to run a campaign to get existing owners to use their Bic 4 Colours Pens more, so that their pens would run out and they would have to buy new ones.

BIC needed a way to get existing owners to use their pens more, so they would finally run out and need to buy a new one. The challenge was not to sell a benefit. It was to turn usage into behaviour.

Our idea was to turn BIC pens into sports equipment. The BIC 4 Colour Champenships invited people to compete with their blood, sweat and ink across 14 newly invented pen‑based sports that could only be entered using a BIC 4 Colour Pen.

Events included Clicky‑Clicky Fast Pen, Pen Metre Diving, Rhythmic Penastics, Click Draw, Bic Bocce, Pen Pong, Ice Pen Skating and more. By treating everyday pen use as elite competition, we gave people a reason to keep clicking, drawing and draining their pens dry.

To bring the Champenships to the people, the entire tournament was hosted live on Facebook. Athletes submitted competition entry videos, provided live commentary and tuned in to watch the best of the best compete across five gripping hours of live Penathon.

The platform transformed drawing into a spectator sport, turning everyday pen use into entertainment, participation and cultural performance. BIC was not a sponsor of the Champenships. It was the only way in.

The BIC 4 Colour Champenships drove mass participation and meaningful behaviour change. 549,000 people took part. 1.8 million spectators tuned in. 34% sales growth over the event period.

Above all, instead of advertising how long a pen lasts, we created a reason to use it up. By inventing a sport rather than a campaign, BIC turned a business problem into a cultural event, proving that even the most familiar product can be re‑energised when people are given something worth competing for.