How ADN Turned Bogotá Transit Into a Classroom With Learning on the Way
Learning on the Way is a 2016 audio campaign created by Direktor films for ADN, the Colombian free daily newspaper, designed to transform ordinary public transit commutes in Bogotá into structured educational experiences by broadcasting learning content across radio and public transportation networks.
Published in Colombia in September 2016, the campaign operates on a disarmingly practical insight: millions of Colombians spend significant portions of their day travelling on public transit, time that conventionally produces nothing educationally measurable. ADN, a free daily newspaper circulating in Bogotá, Cali, Medellín, and Barranquilla according to Colombia Mom-Gmr, positioned itself as the bridge between that idle commuting time and accessible higher education content. The single audio asset at the campaign's core was engineered to reach riders precisely where they already were, requiring no additional device, subscription, or cost from the audience.
The campaign's objectives were structural as much as promotional. In Colombia, access to higher education remains unevenly distributed across income levels and geographies, and ADN's intervention reframed the brand not merely as a news product but as a civic educational utility. By occupying the commuting moment — one of the few daily intervals that cuts across socioeconomic lines in a city like Bogotá — Learning on the Way argued that education does not require a campus, a fee, or even a dedicated block of time. The campaign earned a Clapboard Score of 64/100, reflecting strong strategic coherence and notable industry recognition against a production footprint that comprised a single audio execution.
ADN built Learning on the Way on a consumer insight rooted in urban Colombian life. Bogotá is one of Latin America's most congested cities, and its TransMilenio rapid transit system carries a substantial daily ridership that spans working-class and middle-class passengers alike. That captive, time-rich, screen-free audience represented an underutilised channel for educational content delivery, and ADN moved to claim it.
The strategic rationale connected directly to ADN's brand identity. As documented by En Wikipedia, ADN was launched by Casa Editorial El Tiempo in 2008 and 2009 as a free daily newspaper, with advertising as its principal revenue source, meaning its editorial mission and its commercial survival were both served by demonstrating relevance to broad, transit-using urban audiences. Positioning the newspaper as an educational access point — rather than simply a news product — extended that relevance meaningfully into a category where competitors had not yet operated.
In the Colombian education sector, conventional higher education institutions and distance-learning providers represent the primary competitive frame. Neither had at that point colonised the commuting moment as an explicit content delivery channel in the way Learning on the Way proposed. The campaign entered the 2016 One Show under the category of Innovation in Radio, according to The One Club, a classification that signals the degree to which the strategy departed from standard educational advertising norms of the period. By treating audio not as a supplementary medium but as the sole and sufficient vehicle for educational access, Direktor films constructed a campaign that was strategically legible and creatively unusual in equal measure.
Learning on the Way is an audio-only campaign. Its single media asset carries the entire creative and communicative burden, which places extraordinary pressure on the quality of the writing, the direction of sound, and the precision of the editorial voice. That compression is itself a creative statement: the campaign demonstrates that access to education can be reduced to its most portable and affordable form without losing integrity.
The creative team assembled by Direktor films in Bogotá was extensive for a single-asset production. Giovanni Martinez and Hugo Corredor served as vice presidents on the project, providing executive creative oversight. Diego Forero and Cristian Alzate acted as creative directors, with Rodrigo Uribe as copywriter — a role that carries particular weight in a campaign where language is the only medium of persuasion. Art direction was provided by Yenssy Gonzalez, Juan Pablo Correa, and Sebastian Gonzalez, while Alejandro Hernandez directed the final execution. The depth of that roster against a single audio asset suggests a production philosophy that treated radio not as a secondary or economical fallback but as a discipline demanding the same breadth of creative scrutiny applied to film or integrated work.
The campaign is also associated in award records with Sancho BBDO alongside Direktor films, according to oneclub.org, indicating a collaborative creative structure that brought additional strategic and conceptual resources to the execution. The narrative approach — positioning a daily commute as a classroom in real time — required the audio to function simultaneously as instruction and as advertising, a dual obligation that demands copywriting of unusual economy and clarity. Production credits are fully documented in the Clapboard archive.
Learning on the Way accumulated a significant body of industry recognition across multiple international award programmes. The campaign received a Bronze Lion in Radio at Cannes Lions 2015, as recorded in award documentation, alongside recognition from El Ojo de Iberoamérica in 2015 for Radio content, non-conventional formats, and Best Idea at country level. At The One Show 2016, the campaign received a Gold award in Radio — characterised in portfolio documentation as Best in Radio — according to oneclub.org. A D&AD Silver in Radio, a New York Festivals Bronze in Radio, and a Clio Awards Gold in Radio complete the documented award record, establishing Learning on the Way as one of the more decorated Colombian audio campaigns of its production period.
No independently verified audience performance data — reach figures, listener retention rates, or educational engagement metrics — is publicly available for the campaign beyond its award citations. That absence is not atypical for audio campaigns of this scale and era in the Colombian market, where third-party measurement infrastructure for transit-delivered content was limited. The structural effectiveness of the campaign is, however, legible from its awards trajectory: recognition across Cannes, The One Show, D&AD, El Ojo, Clio, and New York Festivals within a compressed window represents a level of peer validation that affirms both the creative rigour and the strategic originality of the work. The Clapboard Score of 64/100 reflects that awards density against the campaign's single-asset footprint, acknowledging strong creative intent while noting the constraints of a narrowly scoped execution.
Learning on the Way is a 2016 audio campaign created by Direktor films for ADN, a Colombian free daily newspaper. It used public transit radio in Bogotá to deliver educational content during commutes, addressing unequal access to higher education in Colombia. The campaign earned Gold at The One Show 2016 and a Cannes Lions Bronze.
Direktor films, based in Bogotá, Colombia, created the campaign, working alongside Sancho BBDO according to oneclub.org. The creative team included vice presidents Giovanni Martinez and Hugo Corredor, creative directors Diego Forero and Cristian Alzate, copywriter Rodrigo Uribe, and director Alejandro Hernandez, making it a deeply staffed single-asset audio production.
Learning on the Way won Gold at The One Show 2016 and a Clio Awards Gold in Radio. It also received a Cannes Lions Bronze in Radio at the 2015 festival, a D&AD Silver in Radio, a New York Festivals Bronze, and El Ojo de Iberoamérica recognition for non-conventional formats and Best Idea at country level.
ADN targeted Bogotá's congested public transit system because it concentrates a large, captive, screen-free audience daily. Colombia's uneven access to higher education made commuting time a practical intervention point. Delivering audio education through existing transit radio required no cost or device from the audience, lowering every barrier to access.
Learning on the Way holds a Clapboard Score of 64 out of 100. The score reflects the campaign's strong strategic rationale and substantial international awards recognition across six major programmes, balanced against the campaign's limited scope as a single audio asset without publicly verified audience performance data.
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