Fifty-four pandemic home detainees from across adland gathered in a virtual pub to shake off cabin fever, match wits and bond over laughs and insults.
The first weekly Backyard Trivia challenge was hosted on Zoom from 4pm Thursday by UnLtd CEO Chris Freel from his backyard, an idea brainstormed by the industry's social purpose organisation to help the industry "band together and unite".
"I don’t know about anybody else, but I am already going mad being cooped up inside so the chance to have 30 minutes out the back with the industry is very exciting," he says
And the 30-minute brain-fest was a hit, with banter and good-natured insults almost overshadowing the main event, the quiz (played on Kahoot.it), whose theme of the day was ... Around The Home.
The lucky winners of a case of Corona beer each were Kate O’Loughlin from PHD, Richie Kenzie (ClearHayes) and Kathryn Furnari (PHD).
Some comments from participants during the live chat:
16:26:56 KPearson: That was fab! Congrats winners!
16:26:56 From Nick Pringle: So fun! Thanks UnLtd team!
16:27:19 From james.bayes@thetradedesk.com: Well done Freelo … you're made for this stuff!
16:27:22 From abraybon: Well done guys - great game!
16:30:24 From rohan @Rubicon Project: AWESOME Chris, thanks all! Good fun.
16:30:29 From Anne-Sophie Herinckx: Thanks team, and well done to the winners!
Freelo pointed out that the winners' booty is one of the few upsides of the pandemic pandemonium.
"There was a Big Kahuna UnLtd event planned at Manly Beach and CUB had donated 1000 cans of Corona," he says. "Then of course all events were canned in the lockdowns.
"But the wonderful folk at CUB said we could keep the Corona for our weekly Backyard trivia as prizes. Thanks, guys!"
Freelo was chuffed how enthusiastically the virtual get-together was embraced: “Loved having everyone check in for our first trivia session. There are some seriously smart folk in our industry and the competition was fierce!
"It was great to see everybody and have some good banter at the same time. It’s so important we stay connected and get a chance to lighten the mood in these tough times.
"Already looking forward to next week and, who knows, maybe we will launch a bingo night as well! Well done to the winners and hope to see more people live from my backyard next week.”
UnLtd, advertising’s social purpose organisation, has also established the #UnLtdGoodNews content series. It challenges the industry to share their good deeds, funny WFH (working from home) moments and isolation hacks on Instagram using the hashtag #UnLtdGoodNews.
The best content will be featured in a weekly newsletter bringing much-needed positive news to the industry.
Subscribe here to the UnLtd GoodNews weekly newsletter and follow UnLtd on Instagram at @unltdaus. For more details on the free UnLtd Backyard Trivia next Thursday, click here.
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