As part of its sponsorship as the “official treat” of the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics, Cadbury tapped Fallon London to launch a massive two-year campaign, Spot v. Stripes. The integrated effort includes TV, print, online, events, social media and more, all centered around a massive tourney divvying the U.K. up into two teams, Spots or Stripes, in the spirit of play.
Players are asked to join a side and participate in a series of silly games offered on the site—like hoop tosses, or of their own making—anything from traditional sports to cereal tower building or bog snorkelling. Games can be played online or in real life. Online winners get their points registered automatically, while offline competitors can log their wins on the claim a point page. The competition will continue right up to the 2012 games. The side with the most points after two years will be the winner, but the two teams will also participate in a grand score-off event for a special prize.
I signed up and it seems still at a very infant stage. Although I did join stripes. This could potentially be huge. Certainly worth keeping an eye on throughout the coming months. Be interesting to see how many people upload videos.
And also, the got Chris Akabusi involved which is incredible. That would be Chris Akabusi from Wecord Bweakers!
This would never run in Ireland – not a chance! But it’s great to see a unique angle in short film festival promotion. This is a great change of pace from the usual executions based around concepts of size or length.
Dominos has launched a contest inviting pizza eaters to become part of the company’s branding. The site invites visitors to add their words of pizza wisdom – the best ones make the actual boxes. Great idea, very simple and easy to engage with.
“What’s the Worst that Could Happen” is a dream proposition for any creative to work with. Until now it’s safe to say that Dr Pepper haven’t truly explored the route – it’s always been safe and distinctly bland (or at least that’s always been my impression).
That was until I had this sent to me. This April Fools promo was the first time I’d seen the brand not only embrace the idea fully but it also made full use of the media (a brand insight working in sync with a media insight) and it was executed flawlessly.
Naturally I’m sure the video had to be substantially edited (as youtful as a brand wants to appear, erect cocks don’t sell sodas). However, I know I personally sent this onto my friends, as I’m sure a lot of others did too. The agency responsible had managed to generate an enormous amount of engagement and goodwill for minimal spend (zero media, cheap production).
This was followed up by, what I feel, is one of the best facebook based campaigns yet. As with all ideas the beauty lay in it’s simplicity. Your facebook status page allows the world to see what you’re doing, what’s on your mind and what you love or hate. So “what’s the worst that could happen” if you relinquished control of this inner sanctum? Would you be brave enough to let somebody else communicate with the outside world as you? It’s a fantastic proposition, made even stronger with the incentive of a cash prize. 162,000 people (this was a UK based campaign) rose to the challenge and from reading some of the comments, the majority loved it.
A roaring success then?
Not quite. As with any campaign like this there will always be some people who take offense (be it rightly or wrongly) especially when the content is intentionally subversive. Cue Mrs Rickman from Glasgow, who’s 14 year old daughter had been sent an offensive message via the application. You can read it all here.
Of course the problem with facebook is the age group. If it was over 18s there would be less minefields to maneuver, but you’re dealing with people as young as 13. It’s very difficult to know where the line is. And a bigger issue, especially when dealing with the status updater, is that ALL your friends see updates. You may talk shit with your friends – but do you really want your grandmother or younger sister to see the things you say?
This is a major issue when dealing with facebook (not to mention fucking farmville). But it’s worth noting that the more marketers begin to exploit facebook as a media channel then the more issues and problems will arise. There’s a fine line between consumer engagement and sending pornographic references to 14 year old girls (m’lord).
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It now looks as though the problem won’t just fade away. Read it here.
Another excellent addition to the Old Spice / W + K Portland relationship is this Father’s Day campaign. These E-Cards are available through the brand’s Facebook fan page. Anyone who sends a card from the Facebook page also gets a promo code for 40% off items in the Old Spice store.
As always these are well written, irreverent and actually worth sending. My first reaction was to question how many dads are on facebook? But. Problem solved. You send the cards via facebook 0r the old classic – email.
This book helps traditional advertising and marketing people master the step into the digital era, providing tools to create campaigns that reach the people of today.
The team, Innovative Thunder, specializes in innovative marketing and has gathered experience by working with three of the world’s leading marketing agencies – Jung von Matt, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, as well as currently, R/GA, New York.
