Once Upon A GDPR
What We Did
The brief was to generate coverage, buzz, awareness and traffic for Calm, the meditation and sleep app, and, in particular, for its bedtime stories for grownups known as Sleep Stories.
Among the ways that we responded was by producing the world’s first, and so far only, bedtime story comprising a long and tedious extract from GDPR, the EU’s new privacy legislation – launched in the same week that GDPR came into force.
The story was narrated by Peter Jefferson, the revered announcer who read The Shipping Forecast on BBC radio for nearly 40 years.
We launched it with an 87-second trailer and a poster that paid an affectionate nod to the poster for La La Land.
Outcome
The result was huge, international coverage, in Tier 1 media and every other tier – along with general buzz, amusement and praise.
It was one of many ideas that helped Calm grow from an app with nine staff in a one-bedroom apartment into Apple’s App of the Year, the first mental health unicorn and the world’s top-grossing health and fitness app.
Coverage
The coverage made Calm the “#1 Trending App” on the US app store.
Over 500 pieces of coverage, including:
- Mashable
- The Telegraph
- The Press Association (UK) – and many local media
- Inc.
- The Verge
- Quartz
- MSN – twice/different articles
- Yahoo – multiple times/places
- The New York Observer
- San Francisco Business Times
- iNews (UK national paper)
- BT.com – twice/two different articles
- 30+ U.S. TV stations
