16.7.09

Microsoft:::Agent IT attack

Microsoft turned its technological skills to become problem solver for the German government. As part of its Citizenship programme, demonstrating commitment to supporting IT education, it created Agent Attack IT – Germany’s first multiplayer learning game.
Businesses in Germany are crying out to see tangible evidence of IT skills in graduates, but with school kids overloaded with exams, there was little leeway for the government to add in extra class-time. Microsoft’s solution - take learning into the kids’ world.
Agent attack IT takes the format of a secret agent game, where the player has to sort out IT problems without blowing their cover. Once players have successfully completed the first stage they are allowed to compete against each other. A high-score table was designed to encourage repeat plays.
The results were positive. 21,000 users registered in the first 6 weeks. Overall there was a 71% reach. 2 user-groups on Facebook and SchulerVZ were set up and various requests for school accounts came afterwards. Each player learnt everything they would have done in a conventional IT module, but in a fun, interactive way.


BRAND:Microsoft

CATEGORY:Electronic Goods

REGION:Germany

DATE:Feb 2009 - Mar 2009

AGENCY:Universal McCann

MEDIA CHANNEL

Mobile or Internet

Pfizer:::Combating conterfeits

Drug Company Pfizer decided to take the lead in fighting against the availability of counterfeit drugs over the internet. As well as costing Pfizer money every year, the counterfeit drugs often cause long term side effects and in some cases death for the recipient.
Tens of thousands of people are thought to have bought fake drugs over the past year as awareness of the problem, and media attention on it,
has been historically low. Pfizer decided to shock people into taking the problem more seriously.



Its multi-platform campaign ran with the central image of a rat coming out of a person’s mouth. The ‘regurgitated rat’ campaign was rolled out across TV, cinema and in the press. In order to reach those most likely to be purchasing counterfeit drugs, the online community, Pfizer re-directed users searching under health and medical terms to a dedicated website giving information about illicit drugs.
The website generated over 50,000 clicks and an estimated £2 million worth of PR surrounding the campaign was generated from the initial £300,000 spend. 9 million people viewed the cinema adverts, ROI was 660% and counterfeit medicines are much higher up the agenda of all audiences.



BRAND OWNER:Pfizer

CATEGORY:Pharmaceuticals/ Healthcare

REGION:UK

DATE:Jan 2009 - Jun 2009

AGENCY:Universal McCann

MEDIA CHANNEL

Mobile or InternetTVPress

Beechams:::face the day


Nobody buys cough medicine when they feel well. Nobody wants to even think about colds when they’re warm in the sun. Beechams knows that. So, to make its adverts more focused, it needed a way of targeting people that have flu, or are on the verge of coming down with it.

Recent advances in digital out-of-home advertising technologies have allowed much greater flexibility for brands in their advertising strategies. Beechams, determined to make the most of this, tailored its all-in-one flu remedy campaign to be temperature-dependent.

Using JCDecaux’s 17 digital screens spread throughout London, they rolled out ads during December. However the ads were only shown when the temperature dropped below 10 degrees, information from the met office allowing them to screen adverts when people were at their most receptive.

The campaign achieved huge amounts of PR. It reinforced the core brand message – that Beecham’s helps you face the day, no matter how inhospitable that day may be.


BRAND:Beechams

BRAND OWNER:GlaxoSmithKline

CATEGORY:Pharmaceuticals/ Healthcare

REGION:UK

DATE:Jan 2009 - Feb 2009

MEDIA AGENCY: Kinetic, MediaCom

MEDIA CHANNEL

Mobile or InternetAmbient

Huggies::: Huggies Concept Store


Huggies needed a hook to generate interest in its latest range of denim nappies. Deciding to play upon denim’s association with rebellion and fashion, Huggies set about generating word-of-mouth by celebrity endorsement and an experiential event.

Its target was fashionable young mums who cared about their babies looking stylish. These mums were likely to spend the day out shopping in high-end boutiques for themselves and their kids.

To capture its target market, Huggies created a pop up unit on the highly fashionable Westbourne Grove in London. The vacant warehouse was transformed into a Huggies Concept Store, with a catwalk set up in the middle. Rugby player, Austin Healy and his two young twins, as well as ‘real’ mums that had won an online competition, graced a catwalk throughout the day. Live bands played rock and roll and Huggies were displayed as though the store was a high-end fashion retailer.

Initially planned as a one-day event, the Huggies Concept Store remained open for four days. Over 1,500 mums visited the store throughout that period generating significant word-of-mouth for the brand.

BRAND:Huggies

BRAND OWNER:Unilever

CATEGORY:Baby Care

REGION:UK

DATE:Apr 2009

MEDIA CHANNEL

Retail or POSPR

Axion:::Banner concerts


o increase its appeal to youngsters in Belgium, Axion, Delta’s youth bank, decided to run a competition for up-and-coming bands. The idea being that by assisting young people in an activity they are passionate about – music; they could be encouraged to bank with Axion.

And with the international music industry struggling to survive, it seemed an ideal time for Axion to give financial and logistical assistance to young people to help them achieve their goals.

Axion Banner Concerts streamed live gigs in the frame of traditional banners. A media plan was booked on popular websites, and 25 young bands competed to play an exclusive gig at Ancienne Belgique, one of Belgium’s biggest concert halls. A voting system was installed to select the winner.

In total the gigs were screened through 6,807,442 banner impressions. An embed option on the banners generated another 40,000 impressions via viral embeddings on fan pages and blogs – some of these generated more than 20% click-through. The campaign website attracted 44,845 unique visitors with 7,581 voting for their favourite band.
















BRAND:Axion

BRAND OWNER:Delta

CATEGORY:Financial

REGION:Belgium

DATE:Apr 2009

Agency:Boondoggle

MEDIA CHANNEL

Mobile or Internet

La Sirena:::A dynamic reminder of special deals

The 2008 financial crisis had a strong impact on retailers in the Dominican Republic, forcing businesses to cut out brand advertising and go for discount-led communications. The result was a retail war taking place throughout all media including radio, press and TV, with a lot of clutter and a lack of creativity.

Superstore La Sirena came up with a unique way of standing out from the advertising crowd on TV. La Sirena negotiated with the channels that broadcasted the 5 top soap operas to find a more engaging way of communicating the store’s latest offers. The solution was a superimposed banner that reacted to the content of the shows with funny messages and a suggested item on offer.

The shows were scanned a week before their air date to find items that looked similar to those on offer at La Sirena. Then, during the broadcast, at any given moment, the banners appeared with funny messages within the context of the actions and the article that was being promoted. For example, a kissing scene would be accompanied by a message pointing at the couple and saying “Chewing gum and mints for fresher breath”.



More than 200 banners were created with a range that reached a wide range of consumers. In the ranking of most admired companies compiled in 2008, La Sirena rose with a 50.9%.


BRAND:La Sirena

CATEGORY:Retail

REGION:Dominican Republic

DATE:2008

Agency:Pages BBDO

Fiat:::Driving economy

Fiat’s eco-drive is a clever tool allowing customers to monitor their driving skills thus cutting down on CO2 emissions. But as the recession bites it may well be that it is the money saving as much as eco-driving that entices consumers to use the tool.

A handy USB stick captures all the driving information from your journey, which can then be transferred to a computer when you get home, allowing you to review technicalities such as acceleration, deceleration and changes of gear.

Each action is given a rating based on the wastage of fuel with an overall mark out of 100 awarded according to how efficiently they have driven. Drivers are encouraged to follow practical, step by step tutorials in a bid to help them refine their driving skills, improve their score and, by doing so, help the environment.

A similar idea to Nike+ but for cars, the Fiat eco-drive recently won a Cyber Lions Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.






BRAND:Fiat

CATEGORY:Automotive

REGION:European

DATE:Oct 2008 - May 2008

AGENCY:AKQA

MEDIA CHANNEL

Mobile or Internet

Nissan:::Be the news


Nissan has only recently developed a presence in Brazil and was looking to jump-start its relationship with drivers there. It wanted an innovative way to introduce its worldwide brand belief, ‘Shift’, to the Brazilian consumer.

To reach its target audience, Nissan chose O Estado de Sao Paulo, one of Brazil’s largest papers, and the most important source for people buying cars. To incorporate the idea of ‘Shift’, Nissan decided to change people’s relationship with the news. Rather than have people passively reading the news, it wanted them to become the news.

For the first time in its history O Estado de Sao Paulo ran a blank front page that allowed us readers to upload their own news stories and photos via the website. The next Sunday, every subscriber was front page news, as the bespoke paper arrived with their front page design.

The ‘Shift’ campaign had the largest response for any newspaper promotion in Brazilian history. Nissan made it to the front page two Sundays in a row and its Brand Familiarity in Brazil doubled through the initiative


BRAND:Nissan

BRAND OWNER:Renault-Nissan

CATEGORY:Automotive

REGION:Brazil

DATE:Jul 2008 - Dec 2007

MEDIA CHANNEL

Mobile or InternetPress

Football Federation Australia::: Letter H



When ticket sales for Australia’s upcoming football match with Ghana were lower than expected, the Football Federation Australia (FFA) took the rather unusual step of promoting the opposition instead of the home side.

The target for the campaign was not die-hard football fans, but those who liked to watch the ‘big ticket’ events. Believing low ticket sales to be the result of an apathetic attitude to Ghana, the FFA looked for unconventional and amusing ways of educating and exciting Australians about the African country.

It formed a fake Ghanaian supporters group. Each member of the group had a letter of their beloved national side spelt out on their chests – the joke being that, as there were only four Ghanaians in Australia, they had no letter H. The group went out to public places and interacted with people to try and convince them to come and be the letter H at the game.

Starting as a piece of ambient media, interest snowballed and saw the campaign channeled into other forms of media, such as blogs and live television. For only $15,000, the AFF generated $250,000 of media value. In real terms, this translated into a 50% increase in ticket sales.

BRAND:Football Federation Australia

BRAND OWNER:FFA

CATEGORY:Sport/Leisure

REGION:Australia

DATE:Aug 2008 - Sep 2008

Agency:Lowe

MEDIA CHANNEL

Mobile or InternetTVAmbientPR

Wrangler:::We are animals

In today’s society, our animal instincts are smothered by daily modern life, city-living and constant technological developments. Man is an animal, but he no longer knows it.

Wrangler’s new strategic and creative platform seeks to re-awaken our bottled-up instincts and to encourage who and what we fundamentally are, by putting all that is pure, natural and instinctive back into Man.

The new print campaign from FFL Paris for Wrangler illustrates humans as animals in different locations in the wild.

The Wrangler brand is repositioning itself through instinct and emotion.


Agency: FFL Paris

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