Just when you thought that after “never-ending” January a “short” February is coming, and that the end of winter is in sight, every four years you are unpleasantly surprised by that 29th day. One more day of work, one more day until your paycheck, one more day of winter. Even those whose birthday falls on that day forget to celebrate after four years of waiting for it – unless they were born in Ireland, where, according to law, all those who enter the world for the first time on 29 February get 100 Irish pounds from the state. And let’s not go into the problems of those who make calendars, agendas, diaries, plans… even Google repeats the same boring front page every four years.
It’s believed that those born on that day have “a sixth sense”, and special talents. Maybe that’s what inspired the creatives from McCann Tirana to declare this “unexpected” gift that comes every four years as #MeKenLeapDay.
Most of us are always complaining about how we don’t have enough time, but what would you do if you had an “extra day”? That was the starting point for the creatives at McCann Tirana, who asked their employees to come up with ideas of how they would spend 29 February, promising that the best proposal would be implemented through team building.
The whole idea was realized through interesting illustrations created by McCann Tirana’s art director, Flonia Vasia.
“Everything happened very spontaneously. Only once in four years do we have an extra day in our lives, so we thought that it would be beautiful to enjoy it to the utmost. In thinking of this extra day as a gift of time, we came up with the idea to do something creative about it. As it is also a Monday, a working day, we discussed it internally and we were intrigued by the idea of making Monday a beautiful team building experience (unlike what is commonly thought about such experiences).
“Everyone suggested what they thought would be the best way to spend the leap day. We created dedicated Facebook posts for every member of the agency and invited them to repost online in order to get as many likes as possible. The best idea would win in the end and that is how we would actually spend the leap day. Every post regarding this has to be followed by the specific hashtag: #MeKenLeapDay (Me Ken in Albanian means: To Be, but is spelled as McCann, so its meaning is also: To be leap day)” Vasia said.
An additional activation is achieved through voting on the social channels of the agency, Facebook page McCann Tirana https://www.facebook.com/tirana.mccann/. Thus everyone has the opportunity to choose the proposal they like the most by “liking” one of the illustrations.
The proposals were highly innovative and interesting. Account manager Joni (Zhamo) would make an outdoor party with hits from the ’80s, his colleague from finance Lindita (Plequi) would also have singing, but partisan songs with fireworks on a scout trip, while Gazi (Gazmend Pinjoli) would teach his colleagues some dance moves. Jonida (Cela) would spend the day playing Monopoly with her colleagues (probably inspired by the fact that her job is to control the budget), PR manager Sibel (Pipa) would take her colleagues on a picnic, with everyone bringing their favorite dishes, Soni (Irson Aliaj) would do the same thing, only instead of their favorite dishes each would bring their favorite beer, while the general manager Suela (Shtylla) would treat her colleagues to baklava. Some were more inclined to sports activities, such as account manager Elvin (Civici) who would organize a cycling run, or Gita (Energita Cerkezi) who would rather ride horses than bikes. Her colleague Jonida (Zguro) would take her colleagues to a spa, while media planner Besard (Hoxha) would take them all to paintball…
Cakes with the boss: Suela would treat her colleagues to baklava
Gangnam style: Shake it baby or dancing with Gazi
Picnic with your favorite beer… and Soni
Wannabe “Elton Johns
Who owns Fifth Avenue? Monopoly with Jonida
On a partisan hike with Lindita
If they can do it in Finland… Jonida would take her colleagues to a spa…
Besard would take his colleagues to paintball… the survivors will tell the tale…
The voting lasts until the end of February, and the winning proposal on how to spend 29 February will be realized through a team building event.
McCann Tirana invites you also to vote for the proposal you like the best on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/tirana.mccann/ and thus help the staff from McCann Tirana to spend the 29 February not as another ordinary day, but as #MeKenLeapDay!
And where would you take your colleagues on 29 February?
