Cannes Lions 2007
It’s the Cannes Lions this week and prizes are being handed out the the best and brightest campaigns. I’ve taken a look through the winners announced to date and here’s what I like.
- Verb Yellow Ball This won stuff in a number of categories. I love the use of a real world object to create interest and pass-along.
We created the ultimate, kid-targeted direct response vehicle. VERB delivered 500,000 yellow balls directly into kids’ hands. They looked ordinary. But each ball carried a unique code and instructed kids to play with the ball, enter the code at the VERB website and blog their story, then pass their ball on to another kid. The balls drew kids into an on-line and off-line community dedicated to spreading play. Kids could post a blog, read the stories from all across the country and track their ball’s journey. The ball was our response device. And we created a variety of innovative ways to get them directly into the hands of our target.
- SCHLÄMMER’S QUEST From Volkswagen. Multiple touchpoints, telling a story that people could engage with.
A story of epic dimensions, starring “the people’s man”: Horst Schlämmer – a popular character, played by a famous Comedian – goes for his driving licence. We used the internet to make the adventure come alive and accessible to everyone: our central platform was an elaborate video-blog, accompanied by podcasts, distribution through video-sharing-websites like youtube, extensive PR and media-coverage and a documentary website.
- Soul Bar Viral promotion. Great insights, using reality of pick up blokes adn women’s annoyance at them to share the story. I’d pass it on. Although I’m less comfortable with the use of the buzz agents and the lack of transparency there.
We fabricated an email conversation between a girl and her friend. It explained how a wealthy man made a bet with her at Soul the night before. He arrogantly wagered that if he couldn’t get her to sleep with him, he’d buy Champagne for every girl who went to Soul for the following month. He lost, so his credit card was now sitting at Soul, waiting to be abused. The email also included a mobile-phone mpeg confirming the bet. We then briefed several female friends within the target market to forward it on to their girlfriends and work colleagues as if the story was true.
- That Girl Emily also won. Wonder of Court TV’s latest will do so next year. I’ve blogged about it before, but here’s the results:
“That Girl Emily” truly transcended the medium. The billboards, the blog and the very persona of Emily became part of the cultural zeitgeist. Covered by over 200 press outlets on-air, online and in print, this campaign generated incredible awareness for Parco PI, and has become a model for viral marketing. -Page Views | 2,037,900 -Emails Sent to Emily | Over 1600 -Viral Video Views | Over 250,000 -Youtube Week of Launch | 7th most viewed video -Youtube Currently | 16th most linked to video of ALL TIME
- BBC America and voting billboards. Nice use of SMS to solicit thought from the viewer. Vote on what you think an image means.
- Doritos Crash the Superbowl One of the first mainstream consumer generated ads, it gained PR because of that. They had 1070 entries which does not seem a lot but with the PR adn ‘free. media, they foudn that sales increase 12% which is the magic response. Will it work the next time?
Doritos gave consumers a once in a lifetime chance! Participants had eight weeks to produce a video entry, panelists narrowed down five and the public voted. The five finalists received $10,000, a trip to THE GAME and immeasurable press coverage. The final video chosen as America’s favorite aired as a Doritos commercial during the Super Bowl XLI broadcast. LI Doritos core target actively pursues personalized content. Yahoo!, YouTube and MySpace, delivered the casting-call for entries.
- Scream TV. They created a haunted house with a ‘real’ ghost, (through projection) and got people to come see it – and talk about it. I love this altered reality approach.
we developed an approach that would give them a real-life thrill. Instead of buying billboard space, we rented a house in a high pedestrian-traffic area. Then we proceeded to direct thousands more to this house through viral videos, blogging and invading chat rooms as well as sending emails.
- Comic Shogakukan books – comics on your mobile. An illustration of how further Asia takes the mobile than US, codes on posters could be translated into instant access to online comics on your phone.
posters column wrapping ads, and outdoor video display billboards were posted simultaneously in Tokyo, Osaka and other major Japanese cities. Instant access to the Manga content was realized by making advertising visuals consisting of two-dimensional bar codes containing URL data function as entrances to the “Comic Shogakukan Books” contents.
More to come, with digital and integrated still to be announced.
