Mars – Message From Mars
Posted: July 29, 2011 Filed under: Cannes Lions, Case History, Direct, Promotion, The Nederlands | Tags: alphabet in Mars typography, BBDO, Cannes Lions, Case History, Demy Sapthu, design, Direct, Gijs Sluijters, gold lion, iconic brand, Joris Tol, Joris van Elk, Mark Muller, Mars, message from mars, packaging, Thomas Aberson Leave a comment »
Describe the challenges and key objectives
Engage youngsters with the Mars brand; allow them to participate with the brand. Prove that Mars, as an iconic brand, is able to keep coming up with innovative, fun stuff. Raise brand awareness by doing a remarkable campaign.
Describe the brief from the client
Mars is one of the most classic brands in its category: it’s a true iconic brand.
To stay top of mind the brand has to keep proving its relevancy and therefore shifted its focus on engaging youngsters (16-24) with remarkable campaigns and actions.
Mars asked us to create a sales activation in which we engage the target audience. Not by telling them the ‘feel good energy’ brand proposition, but by giving them the opportunity to experience the brand in a whole new way.
Describe how you arrived at the final design
We erased the logo from the Mars bar thereby creating a black bar. We developed a set of stickers with the complete alphabet in Mars typography, including punctuation marks.
This way the bar became an interactive object that gave people the possibility to create their own messages and give these to friends, colleagues or family. Interaction was thereby created through the heart of the brand: on the package where normally the logo is printed.
Give some indication of how successful the outcome was in the market
The black bar and the campaign around it stimulated the target audience to create messages and personalise their Mars bars.
24.000 extra sticker-sets where ordered via the campaign-website. Mars saw an increase in sales of 12 % in OOH and 5% in grocery. Additionally brand preference amidst youngsters increased by 4%.
Advertising Agency: FHV BBDO, Netherlands
Creative Director: Mark Muller
Copywriter: Mark Muller
Art Directors: Joris Tol, Gijs Sluijters, Thomas Aberson, Demy Sapthu, Joris van Elk
Photographer: Studio Beerling
Stern Fast News – News have never been this fast
Posted: July 29, 2011 Filed under: Cannes Lions, Case History, Germany, Guerilla, Promotion | Tags: Cannes Lions, Case History, Cinema, fast news, Germany, gold lion, Grabarz & Partner, Guerilla, news has never been this fast, pregnant, Stern Leave a comment »
The goal was to establish stern.de as the fastest news website in Germany. To achieve this, we combined a promotion in a movie theatre with a cinema ad. First, something relevant to the news happens in the cinema audience. Only two minutes later, an ad for stern.de in the same cinema deals with just this event.
The Promotion: In the middle of a cinema, shortly before the main feature. A pregnant woman in the audience gets contractions. She gets up, shouting in pain, and leaves the theatre with her husband.
The Cinema Ad: While the audience is still discussing this event, the following cinema ad is screened:
Chart and Announcer: “Now on stern.de”
The chart is followed by a screenshot of the stern.de website with a photo showing the woman and her husband in the foyer of the cinema with newly-born twins in their arms.
Announcer: “Twins born at cinema in Hamburg.”
Chart and Announcer: “News has never been this fast. stern.de”
The target market is composed of young, Internet-savvy people, who are easily reached in cinemas. By combining the cinema ad and the promotion we didn’t only claim that stern.de is especially fast – but also proved it. And our target audience witnessed this fact firsthand.
As the promotion was unseen and surprising, word of mouth generated a significant spread. Hits on stern.de increased significantly after the promotion.
Advertising Agency: Grabarz & Partner
Creative Director: Ralf Heuel
Copywriter: Paul Von Muhlendahl
Art Director: Fedja Kehl
New York Festival 2009/2 Gold
Clio Awards 2009/Silver
Cannes Lion 2008/Gold
Kempertrautmann for Comedy Central – They take it seriusly
Posted: July 29, 2011 Filed under: Cannes Lions, Germany, Press/Outdoor | Tags: Cannes Lions, Comedy Central, funny, Germany, Kempertrautmann, Mathias Lamken, Press, We take it seriously Leave a comment »MTV Comedy Central in Germany has run two award-winning print advertising campaigns using the tag line, “We Take It Seriously”. The print advertisements show slapstick scenarios illustrated in simple cartoons, enhanced with the stamp of MTV Comedy Central, “Wir nehmen es Ernst”, translated in English as “We Take It Seriously”.
The first series won silver for outdoor at Eurobest 2007, silver for illustration in the London International Awards 2007, gold at the ADCE awards 2008, winner in the 15th Cresta Award for poster, silver for print at the NY Awards, bronze at Clio 2008. The second series has won a Silver Press Lion at Cannes 2008 and a print Gold at ADCE Awards 2008.
2007 – CACTUS/ADOLF/RAKE/STEPS
2008 – BIRD/DOOR/CHAIR/TWINS
2009 – ELEPHANT/FLIES/HEDGEHOG/TARTE
2009 – NOW, ECO-FRIENDLY
Advertising Agency: KemperTrautmann, Hamburg
Creative Director / Copywriter / Illustrator: Mathias Lamken
Art Directors: Mathias Lamken, Simon Jasper Philipp
UHU – The Stickiest Ad in the World
Posted: July 29, 2011 Filed under: Best Use of Television, Cannes Lions, Case History, Digital, Germany, TV/Film | Tags: Alex Schill, break, Cannes Lions, Case History, coat, Digital, fast, Germany, Matthias Harbeck, Oliver Palmer, Serviceplan, stick, stickest ad in the world, super strong, TV/Film, uhu, Viral Leave a comment »
Insights, Strategy & the Idea
To convey the product advantages “fast” and “strong” of UHU one-second adhesive in such a way that they would ‘stick’ in the target group’s minds.
Basically everyone knows, and uses, UHU.
Compared to our competitors, we are faster and stronger. That is where the idea comes from.
It showed the product features both clear and unseen.
Creative Execution
The ‘stickiest’ UHU ad ever. We took over a complete commercial break. In the first UHU ad, a man hangs his coat on a hook that he stuck onto the wall just a second before. In the following three ads from other companies, the coat remains unmoved, in the centre of the picture. In the final UHU ad, a young woman hangs her bag on the hook. Payoff: Super-strong. And super-fast. UHU one-second adhesive.
Results and Effectiveness
Click-through rates from the website during the time the campaign was on air rose by 14%. In additon to that, numerous comments were posted on blogs as moderators of the sequence, interrupted by advertising, focussed on the ad.
Advertising Agency: Serviceplan, Munich
Executive Creative Director: Matthias Harbeck
Chief Executive Creative Director: Alex Schill
Creative Directors: Matthias Harbeck, Oliver Palmer
Copywriter: Oliver Palmer
Art Director: Therese Stüssel
Production Company: Neverest, Munich
Film Director: Helmut Huber
Polo – Snow Stamp
Posted: July 28, 2011 Filed under: Ambient, Cannes Lions, Case History, Press/Outdoor, UK | Tags: Ambient, Cannes Lions, Case History, Darren Keff, fresh, gold lion, Jason Berry, JWT, mint, Phillip Meyler, Polo, Russell Ramsey, snow stamp, UK Leave a comment »
Polo mints first rolled off the production line in 1948, they proved to be a hit with the Great British public and are now the nation’s favourite mint.’The Mint with the Hole’ is instantly recognised by its distinguished shape and is now considered a British design icon.
Our objective was to freshen up the image of the much loved mint, to make it feel relevant to today’s society to both new and existing consumers whilst communicating its fresh, white mintiness.
In December 2009 the entire UK was covered in a fresh, white blanket of snow, this gave us the idea to use the fresh, white snow as a blank canvas.
We had a small window of opportunity to take advantage of the fresh, white blanket of snow that had covered in UK.
We needed to act fast with a simple, fresh and effective idea, a tactical idea that used the heavy snowfall to illustrate the white, fresh nature of the mint. So we produced a tactical ambient idea for the brand, a ‘Polo snow stamp’.
When stamped in thick, fresh snow it left a near perfect replica of the iconic fresh, white.
The purpose of this idea was to create a buzz around an old, iconic brand, to freshen up the perception of Polo mints in today’s society.The communication reinforced the ‘fresh’ association with the brand and gave passers-by a smile as they made their way through the thick, fresh snow. We wanted people to talk about Polo mints, the communication provoked an online reaction with many passers-by photographing the snow Polo’s and circulating them the blogs and social media sites.
One passer-by said she ‘couldn’t believe her eyes’ when she walked passed a large Polo mint stamped in the snow.
Advertising Agency: JWT, London
Executive Creative Director: Russell Ramsey
Creative Director: Russell Ramsey/Jason Berry
Copywriter: Phillip Meyler/Darren Keff
Art Director: Phillip Meyler/Darren Keff
Coca-Cola (1998/2010) – Modern Print Ads
Posted: July 28, 2011 Filed under: Argentina, Australia, Beverages, Brazil, Cannes Lions, Coca-Cola, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, Press/Outdoor, Singapore, Spain, The Nederlands, UK, USA | Tags: 1886, advertising, Al Moseley, Argentina, art gallery, Brazil, Cannes Lions, Coca-Cola, coke, coke side of life, Dave Fikkert, Dentsu, El Laboratorio, enjoy, Euro RSCG, formula, France, Genevieve Gauckler, Germany, gold lion, Japan, Jeff Kling, John Norman, Jorge Calleja, JWT, Leo Burnett, McCann erickson, Mother, open happiness, Pierre Janneau, Publicis, refresh, Spencer Wilson, Springer & Jacoby, Sue Anderson, USA, Wieden+Kennedy 2 Comments »Coca-Cola Italia – BLIND BOTTLE
Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett, Milan
Creative Director: Fabrizio Russo
Copywriter: Maria Paola di Stefano
Art Director:Sandro Olivieri
Photographer: Studio Neon
Year: 1998
Coca-Cola Classic – SEALS/PENGUIN
Advertising Agency: Publicis Conseil
Creative Director: Olivier Desmettre
Art Director: Fabrice Delacourt
Photographer: Jeal-Noel Leblanc Bontemps
Year: 1999
Coca-Cola Brazil – TRUCK/HYDRANT
Advertising Agency: McCann Erikson Brazil
Creative Director: Luiz Nogueira
Copywriter: Monica Maligo
Art Director: Jose Luiz Vaz
Photographer: Mauro Risch
Year: 1999
Coca-Cola India – BARCODE
Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett India
Creative Director: KV Sridhar
Art Director:KV Sridhar
Year: 1999
Coca-Cola India – GLASSES
Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett India
Creative Director: Agnello Dias
Copywriter: SM Talha
Art Director: Vijay Kartik
Photographer: Prased Naik
Year: 2001
Coca-Cola New Zealand – ENJOY Campaign
Advertising Agency: Publicis Mojo, New Zealand
Creative Director: Laclhan Mcpherson
Copywriter: Seymour Pope
Art Director: Laclhan Mcpherson
Photographer/Illustrator: Kane Mcpherson/Mike Shepherd
Year: 2001
Coca-Cola Spain – FISH TANK/NEW HOUSE
Advertising Agency: El Laboratorio, Spain
Creative Director: Carlos Holemans/Eduard Farran
Art Director: Armanda Carbonell
Photographer: Sara Zorraquino
Year: 2002
Coca-Cola Poland – BOOKSHELF/PENCIL
Advertising Agency: McCann Erickson Polska
Creative Director: Damir Brajdic
Copywriter: Katarzyna Orseszek-Korobleuska
Art Director: Arkadiusz Pawlik
Photographer: Jacek Wotowski
Year: 2003
Coca-Cola India – BARBER SHOP/MAN IN THE SHADOW
In India, the word ‘Thanda’ has many meanings. It means ‘cool’, ‘cold’, as well as ‘refreshing’. Any refreshing drink, including soft drinks are also referred to as ‘thanda’. Guests are asked whether they would prefer coffee, tea or ‘thanda’ (something cool and refreshing). Therefore the headline in Hindi (the local language) means “Cool Means Coca-Cola”.
Advertising Agency: McCann Erickson India
Creative Director: Prasoon Joshi
Copywriter: Prasoon Joshi
Art Director: Akshay Kapnadak
Photographer: Altaf Khan
Year: 2003
Gold Lion for the campaign
Coca-Cola India – REFRESHING WIND/REFRESHING BATH/REFRESHING RADIATOR
Advertising Agency: McCann Erickson India
Creative Director: Prasoon Joshi
Copywriter: Prasoon Joshi
Art Director: Akshay Kapnadak
Photographer: Altaf Khan
Year: 2004
Coca-Cola Italia – BOTTLE/KISS
Advertising Agency: McCann Erickson Milan
Creative Director: Alessandro Canale
Copywriter: Valerio Delle Foglie
Art Director: Antonio Mele
Photographer: Marco Ambrosi
Year: 2004
Coca-Cola UK – THE REAL WORLD OF COCA-COLA Campaign
Advertising Agency: Mother, London
Creative Director: Robert Saville/Mark Waites
Copywriter: Yan Elliot
Art Director: Luke Williamson
Typographer: Stephen Allen
Year: 2004
Coca-Cola de Argentina – FACES
Advertising Agency: McCann Erikson Argentina
Creative Director: Martin Mercado/Esteban Pigni
Copywriter: Pablo Romano/Martin Mercado/Esteban Pigni
Art Director: Christian Maselli/Diego Tuya/Denise Rodman
Photographer: Charlie Mainardi
Year: 2004
Coca-Cola, Germany – BLACK
Advertising Agency: Springer & Jacoby, Hamburg
Creative Director: Till Hohmann/Axel Thomsen/Bettina Olf
Copywriter: Birgit Bouer/Florian Kahler
Art Director: Jan Blumentritt
Year: 2005
Coca-Cola, Germany – THOUGHT/DREAM/IDEA
Headline: When a thought stays just a thought nothing changes.
Headline: Live your dream, don’t dream your life.
Headline: When an idea remains merely an n idea nothing changes.
Advertising Agency: Springer & Jacoby, Hamburg
Creative Director: Till Hohmann/Axel Thomsen/Bettina Olf
Copywriter: Menno Kluin
Art Director: Menno Kluin
Year: 2005
Coca-Cola Spain – CLOUDS/SHAME
Advertising Agency: McCann Erikson, Madrid
Creative Director: Marcos Garcia
Copywriter: Marcos Maggi
Art Director: Marcela Augustowsky
Illustrator: Genevive Glaucker
Year: 2005
Coca-Cola Spain – MANDALA/MOON/WAVE
Advertising Agency: McCann Erikson, Madrid
Creative Director: Marcos Garcia
Copywriter: David Moure/Pablo Castellano
Art Director: Javier Wandosell
Illustrator: Javier Wandosell
Year: 2005
Coca-Cola Philippines – VALENTINES
Advertising Agency: McCann Erikson Philippines
Creative Director: Peter Acuna/Carlo Directo/Micky Domingo
Copywriter: Lisa Kahn
Art Director: Che Soriano
Photographer: Jeanne Young
Year: 2005
Coca-Cola Japan – Coke, Please Campaign
Advertising Agency: Dentsu, Tokyo
Creative Director: Tohru Tanaka
Copywriter: Hirokazu Ueda/Satoshi Hanai
Art Director: Kengo Kato
Photographer: Shu Akashi
Year: 2007
Coca-Cola Pacific – SURFER
Advertising Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Singapore
Creative Director: Sanol Dabral
Copywriter: Neil Flory
Art Director: Alan Vladusic
Year: 2007
Coca-Cola New Zealand – SUMMER AS IT SHOULD BE
Advertising Agency: Publicis Mojo, Auckland
Creative Director: Nick Worthington
Copywriter: Guy Denniston
Art Director: Emmanuel Bougnerers
Year: 2007
Coke Side of Life Campaign – LIQUID SPLASH/COLOUR SPLASH/GUNS/TOGETHER/STRAWS/RAINBOW HAND
Advertising Agency: Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam
Executive Creative Director: Al Moseley/John Norman
Creative Director: Rick Condos/Hunter Hindman
Copywriter: Rick Condos/Giles Montgomery
Art Director: Hunter Hindman
Illustrator: Dave Fikkert/Pierre Janneau/Genevieve Gauckler/Spencer Wilson
Year: 2007
Coke Side of Life – COCA-COLA ART GALLERY
In 2006, Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam has commissioned artists and collectives from around the world to create experimental work for the global “The Coke Side of Life” campaign. The result is a range of original artworks by emerging image-makers as different as Catalina Estrada, Geneviève Gauckler or the Peepshow Collective, … many of whom have gone on to make strong impacts in today’s graphic design & art scene.
The ‘Coca-Cola’ Art Gallery is a collection of images that has been designed by leading artists and designers. They have all depicted their own interpretation of ‘The Coke Side of Life’ philosophy.
The work of the artists reflects various styles, personalities and cultures, and all designs have one thing in common: they are colourful explosions of energy, optimism and happiness.
Throughout its 120-year history, advertising and communication has played a vital role in shaping ‘Coca-Cola’ into an iconic, cultural and timeless brand. Over the years, ‘Coca-Cola’ has continually challenged artists and agencies to create innovative refreshing images.
The diverse backgrounds of the contributing artists and designers, has resulted in a range of images that reflect different cultures and societies. By combining the iconic original glass bottle image with up-to-date illustration techniques and styles, the artists have given rise to a progressive style of visual expression.
‘Coca-Cola’ has always had a strong artistic heritage having been famously interpreted by artists such as Haddon Sundblom, Norman Rockwell and Andy Warhol who have all reflected the social and cultural attitudes of the time.
Live the Coke Side of the Music – VIOLIN/FACES/INSTRUMENTS
Advertising Agency: JWT Brazil
Creative Director:Richardo Chester/Roberto Fernandez
Art Director: Roberto Fernandez
Illustrator: Roberto Fernandez
Year: 2007
Coca-Cola - CREATED IN 1886
After years of cool marketing campaigns revolving around football, music and latterly computer gaming, the world’s most famous brand is going back to basics. Coca-Cola has been communicating about its product, what’s in it “Nothing artificial. Never had been, never will be” and the product heritage, dating back to 1886 when John Pemberton created his secret formula.
Advertising Agency: Weiden+Kennedy, Portland
Year: 2008
Open Happiness Campaign – BRRR/AHHH/BURP/FIZZZ/PSSST/GULP
“Open Happiness”is an advertising focus building on the award-winning “Coke Side of Life” campaign. The new tag line, seen in this series of print advertisements, will serve as a platform for all integrated marketing for the Coca Cola brand around the world, tying together the pleasure of opening up a drink and the satisfaction of sharing with others. Open Happiness is designed to work at every level, from national advertising all the way down to coolers and store shelves, with a clear call to action at the point of purchase.”
Advertising Agency: Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam
Executive Creative Director: Jeff Kling/John Norman
Creative Director: Jorge Calleja/Sue Anderson
Copywriter: Sue nderson
Art Director: Craig Williams/Pierre Janneau
Illustrator: Pierre Janneau
Year: 2009
Open Happines Campaign from Coca-Cola Pacific – BURP/LAUGH LINE/SMILE
This poster campaign introduce Coca-Cola’s new Open Happiness platform to a relatively young audience — locally.
These “bottles” executed in a breezy manner bring out the full flavour of the Open Happiness campaign. The light-hearted messages in the shape of iconic Coke bottles invite the audience “to open happiness” — even without overt Coke branding.
Advertising Agency: Euro RSCG, Singapore
Creative Director: Alfred Wee
Copywriter: Wong Wai Ling
Art Director: Jimmy Kim/Seah Ting Ting
Illustrator: Evan Lim
Year: 2010
MINI – Size
Posted: July 28, 2011 Filed under: Ambient, Cannes Lions, Car, Case History, Guerilla, Switzerland | Tags: Alexander Jaggy, Ambient, Cannes Lions, Car, Case History, escalators, gold lion, Jung von Matt, Michael Rottmann, Mini, underpasses Leave a comment »
A MINI still has the public image of being a small car. MINI wanted to correct this misconception with the help of a guerrilla campaign that focused playfully on exactly that key asset of a MINI – its size. The goal of the campaign was to make the target audience realize that a MINI offers much more space than is commonly assumed. To “prove” this, the size of a MINI car was used in a witty and slightly exaggerated way: at several locations in a number of Swiss cities life-size front views of a MINI car were installed, complete with an open driver’s door. The locations chosen were entrances and exits of underpasses and escalators (leading, for example, to train stations) in areas frequented by many passers-by. Those passers-by who stood directly in front of this very life-like MINI duplicate got the impression that a host of people were getting in and out of that presumably so small car. This eye catcher with trompe-l’oeil effect was an effective way of getting people’s attention. In addition, the typical MINI humor of this tongue-in cheek approach confirmed MINI’s status as a “cult” brand. Good for a golden lion for Best use of Ambient Media.
Advertising Agency: Jung von Matt, Zurich
Creative Directors: Alexander Jaggy/Michael Rottmann
Art Director: Hendrik Schweder
Art Director: David Hanselmann
Copywriters: Lars Haensell/Ole Kleinhans
Happiness Brussels – Comic Sans Destroyer
Posted: July 27, 2011 Filed under: Agency, Belgium, Cannes Lions, Case History, Digital, Promotion | Tags: application, bad taste, Belgium, bronze lion, Cannes Lions, Case History, comic sans, destroyer, Digital, font, graphic designer, Gregory Titeca, happiness brussels, Promotion, Ramin Afshar Leave a comment »
Advertising agency Happiness Brussels is looking for a graphic designer with the right spirit and good taste.
How could we get a maximum number of applicants amongst the best graphic designers? We targeted the graphic design community through an online action in order to spread the word.
In graphic design communities, the Comic Sans font it is considered to be the ultimate symbol of bad taste.
Therefore, we designed the ‘Comic Sans Destroyer’, a downloadable application that will erase Comic Sans for once and for all from your computer. Only after using the application and cleaning their computer from all forms of Comic Sans, applicants can apply for the position of graphic designer.
‘Comic Sans Destroyer’ is now the ultimate tool to get rid of Comic Sans for once and for all; and at the same time it spreads the message: we only want graphic designers with really good taste.
Results
After one week:
- Featured on the most influential graphic design blogs and websites.
- Over 20.000 unique visits on the website.
- More than 4.000 downloads of the application.
- More than 130 graphic designers from all over the world applied for the job.
Advertising Agency: Happiness, Brussels
Creative Management: Karen Corrigan/Gregory Titeca
Creative Director: Gregory Titeca
Creative: Tom Galle
Creative: Ramin Afshar
Toyota IQ Font – The First Typeface Designed By a Car
Posted: July 27, 2011 Filed under: Belgium, Cannes Lions, Car, Case History, Digital | Tags: Belgium, Cannes Lions, Car, Case History, design, designed by a car, Digital, font, gold lion, Gregory Titeca, happiness brussels, iq, Pleaseletmedesign, Ramin Afshar, Stef van Campenhoudt, the making of, Tom Galle, toyota, typeface, Zach Lieberman Leave a comment »
Toyota launches the new iQ, a compact car that combines sleek design and cutting edge technology. Our briefing was to communicate the unique agility and perfect control of the iQ in a relevant way to a target group of 18-35 year old urban people. We want to reach the communities that fit the iQ’s core values: design, technology and automotive. We need a concept that can merge these three strong online communities. How can we jump out of the mass? How can we be different from our competitors, and be relevant and attractive to our target group? How can we create something that’s in our target group’s world, and that lasts longer than a normal ad?
To demonstrate its incredible agility, the new Toyota iQ was the first car in the world ever to create an entire font from A to Z. To make this project happen, we collaborated with: – Zach Lieberman, pioneer in interactive art. Color tracking software developer. – Pierre and Damien, from Pleaseletmedesign, a type and graphic design studio. Font designers. – Professional pilot Stef van Campenhoudt, European champion of GT3 racing. Font driver. All together, they created the iQ Font. The making of video was posted on Vimeo, with a direct link to download the iQ font for free on the Toyota website, where people were also invited to book a test drive.
Results
The making of video was posted as a viral film on Vimeo, and got featured on thousands of influential design, technology and automotive blogs worldwide. The video was posted on over 6000 blogs worldwide. The stunt also got a huge amount of offline media attention in leading design and technology magazines all over the world. It was even broadcasted at the Typophile festival in New York, and at ‘Centre Pompidou’, the museum for modern art at Paris. The iQ Font making of video got more than 600 000 unique clicks and reached over 2 million page views on blogs and online magazines. The iQ Font got downloaded over 24 000 times from the Toyota website.
Thousands of posts on other social media, like digg, facebook, tumblr, delicious… More than 600 000 views of the making of video. More than 2 000 000 page views on blogs and online newspapers. Free media coverage in magazines and newspapers. More than 24 000 font downloads from the Toyota website. 2 345 test drive demands. All this with 0 euro media investment.
Advertising Agency: Happiness, Brussels
Creative Management: Karen Corrigan/Gregory Titeca
Creative Director: Gregory Titeca
Creative: Tom Galle
Creative: Ramin Afshar
Head of Art: Cecilia Azcarate Isturiz
Volkswagen Fox/Short but Fun – Complete Case History
Posted: July 27, 2011 Filed under: Animation, Cannes Lions, Car, Case History, Germany, TV/Film | Tags: 30 seconds, alien, Angry Alien Productions, Animation, Bunny, Cannes Lions, Car, Case History, Christian Brenner, complete, DDB, Eric Schoeffler, funny, Germany, jaws, Jennifer Shinan, pulp fiction, rocky, shining, short but fun, silver lion, the exorcist, Tim Jacobs, Titanic, TV/Film, volkswagen fox Leave a comment »
A robbery. A burger. A dance contest. An overdose. A shot in the head. A robbery. Watch Hollywood’s legendary blockbuster “Pulp Fiction” in 30 seconds. Short and fun. Just like the VW Fox.
A ship, a man, a woman. Ship sinks. Man dead. Woman alive. Watch Hollywood’s legendary blockbuster “Titanic” in 30 seconds. Short and fun. Just like the VW Fox.
Vacant hotel. Lonesome family, sick father. Psychic power. Bloody ending. Watch Hollywood’s legendary blockbuster “Shining” in 30 seconds. Short and fun. Just like the VW Fox.
A great white shark. Lots of dead people. A bunch of fearless men. A dead shark. Watch Hollywood’s legendary blockbuster “Jaws” in 30 seconds. Short and fun. Just like the VW Fox.
An obsessed girl. A priest. An expulsion. A dead priest. Watch Hollywood’s legendary blockbuster “The Exorcist” in 30 seconds. Short and fun. Just like the VW Fox.
A space ship. An alien. A nightmare. One survivor.
Watch Hollywood’s legendary blockbuster “Alien” in 30 seconds. Short and fun. Just like the VW Fox.
A princess. A dark lord. A Jedi. A death-star. A battle. A happy end. Watch Hollywood’s legendary blockbuster “Starwars” in 30 seconds. Short and fun. Just like the VW Fox.
CASE HISTORY
Question: What do one German mini-car, six Hollywood blockbusters and a fast-talking cast of cartoon bunnies have in common? Answer: They all figured prominently in a wildly original and successful TV advertising campaign that last year earned a Gold World Medal in the International Awards Group’s 2006 Advertising and Marketing Effectiveness (AME) Awards.
The mini-car in question is the Volkswagen Fox, a sporty compact car aimed at youthful, first-time car buyers. The ad campaign, created for Volkswagen AG by DDB Düsseldorf and built around the tagline “Short but Fun,” featured 30-second, animated versions of six international film hits, including Titanic, Jaws and Pulp Fiction. And the bunnies? They took the place of the films’ human characters, adding an element of the outrageously hip to the spots that captivated German audiences during the campaign’s brief, four-day run.
The AME Awards committee, comprised of a multi-cultural and international cross-section of top marketing executives, recognizes integrated marketing campaigns that are fresh, creative and above all, successful. Campaigns that demonstrate innovative problem solving, and that achieve specific business goals using well-crafted concepts, inspired marketing strategies and an effective combination of traditional and/or alternative media tactics.
Volkswagen’s “Short but Fun” campaign met all these criteria, achieving extraordinary, measurable results for the German car manufacturer that exceeded its campaign objectives and proved it could capture an audience of very critical media users on a very tight production and media budget.
A Clear Objective
Volkswagen introduced the Fox in the spring of 2005 into the price-driven mini-car segment. Despite Volkswagen’s premium image and the Fox being slightly higher priced than the competition, it soon became the market leader.
The launch campaign emphasized the idea that in opting for economy, buyers would not have to compromise quality and reliability. This notion appealed to buyers at all levels, however the next phase of communication would need to sharpen the Fox’s profile among its main target audience: youthful, first time car buyers between the ages of 18-25.
A Moving Target Audience
While highly desirable, this group is the hardest to reach through traditional advertising methods. They have grown up being bombarded by messaging from multiple communication channels and have a very short attention span. If content does not grab them immediately, they turn elsewhere. DDB faced a formidable challenge in coming up with a strategy to capture their attention and motivate them to action.
Inspired Creative Strategy
“We developed a very creative positioning for the VW Fox: short but fun,” said DDB’s Luis Ramirez. That’s the message we wanted to communicate: a small car that is fun to drive and does not cost a fortune. The ideal car for young people.”
The ‘Short but fun” positioning also was developed to differentiate the Fox from its competitors’ cliché lifestyle advertising, which implies that one need only drive a certain car to be more active, attractive and popular. Rather, the ‘Short but fun” messaging conveyed that driving a Fox provides a concentrated, intense form of fun that doesn’t depend on others’ approval; the type of enjoyment that young, upwardly mobile people seek.
In order to illustrate this concept, the agency teamed with artist Jennifer Shiman, whose 30-second, animated versions of cinema classics – starring floppy-eared versions of Hollywood’s A-list – were sure to stop young, media-savvy consumers in their tracks.
“To get this target group excited about the Fox, we created a funny communication platform: http://www.shortbutfun.com,” said Ramirez. “There, site visitors could find a variety of short and fun content, including short films. So we were looking for endlessly long films, told in a very short time. When we discovered the movies of Jennifer Shiman on the Internet, we realized that they perfectly matched our positioning and had to part of our platform. We contacted her and discussed a potential cooperation. She was very excited to work with us. We had to animate and cut the films created by Jennifer so that they matched with the already shot Fox ending. The result: six crazy films, loved by everybody.”
An interesting note: though the commercials appeared only in Germany, they were run in English, in order to speak pointedly to the young target audience.
Innovative Media Strategy
In order to keep media costs down, DDB decided to air the commercials for only four days and make the Internet the main communication channel. This was a risky decision, however the concepts and creative were so strong that DDB felt that viewers would flock to the Fox’s microsite to see more. To ensure that the campaign reached the maximum number of desired audience members, the agency chose a very targeted media strategy, running the commercials on music channels such as MTV, and choosing weekend spots during entertainment shows rather than mid-week spots between shows.
Once on the “Short but fun” web site, viewers could watch all the commercials as movie streams. In order to engage the viewers further, they were asked to rate each commercial. In addition, a banner ad with a link to the Fox product web page was prominently positioned on the home page so that users could learn more about the Fox.
Dazzling Results
The primary, direct communication objective of the “Short but fun” campaign was to generate 20,000 visits to the shortbutfun.com homepage. Within only four days, over 31,000 visits were counted, exceeding the original goal by 56 percent.
The agency also projected the campaign would generate 2,000 email addresses and increase traffic to the Fox product web page by 10 percent. After four days, over 8,000 users provided their addresses in order to receive more information, and the number of visitors to the web page increased by 37 percent.
Further, qualitative research indicated high recall and positive reactions among viewers, demonstrating that the campaign did indeed achieve its objective of raising the Fox’s profile among young, first time car buyers.
Advertising Agency: DDB Dusseldorf
Creative Director: Jennifer Shinan/Eric Schoeffler
Copywriter: Tim Jacobs
Art Director: Jennifer Shiman/Christian Brenner
Production Company: Angry Alien Productions, Los Angeles
Director: Jennifer Shinan
