"The Gamekillers Campaign" for Axe

Winner of the Andy Bronze Award
Bartle Bogle Hegarty, London

One-Hour MTV Special Kicks Off Nationwide AXE Dry Advertising Campaign

NEW YORK, Feb. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- MTV: Music Television today announced that "The Gamekillers" will air tonight, Monday, February 6 at 11pm ET/PT. The reality-based special, produced by advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty and production company @radical.media, is the result of a partnership with AXE Dry, who developed the idea and will use characters from the show to launch a new advertising campaign in mid-February. "This project grew organically from the combination of a trend-setting sponsor partner, a talented ad agency and a creative production company who all have a unique understanding of the MTV audience," said John Shea, Executive Vice President, Integrated Marketing/Brand Partnerships, The MTV Music Group. "The Gamekillers' is another example of how MTV is partnering with clients to create new, innovative solutions that connect with viewers across all of our platforms."The Gamekillers campaign and MTV special were built based on the real insight that every guy knows there are people out there who are working against him as he tries to get the girl. They come in different forms -- some friends, some rivals and some her friends -- but they all have one objective in common -- killing a guy's chance with the ladies. While guys have experienced these characters in real life, the MTV show will introduce them to the world for the first time publicly. "The Gamekillers" will have a presence across MTV multiple screens including on-air, online through MTV.com and MTV Overdrive, as well as via wireless platforms. "We believe this initiative will be successful because it is a fresh approach ... part scripted and part reality ... that illustrates guys' real life experiences," said David Rubin, Brand Development Director, AXE. "We knew that MTV was the right partner to kick-off the idea of 'The Gamekillers' -- a real consumer insight -- for the entire campaign."The advertising campaign will launch AXE Dry -- an anti-perspirant stick that keeps guys cool so they can focus on more important things, like getting girls. The creative featuring "The Gamekillers" will appear on television, national radio, college campuses, military bases and the Web and in national magazines, college newspapers and college bars.@radical.media is a diverse global production company that has produced numerous award-winning feature films and television programs including the Academy Award winning "Fog of War," the Grammy Award winning "Concert For George," "Metallica: Some Kind of Monster," winner of the Independent Spirit Award and Jay-Z's "Fade To Black". Additionally the company produced the recent critically acclaimed television series "Iconoclasts" on the Sundance Channel, "Nike Battlegrounds" on MTV, the Court TV drama "The Exonerated" and the upcoming, "Ten Unexpected Days That Changed America" for the History Channel.

"Brawny Academy" for Brawny

Winner of the 2007 Andy Silver Award
Fallon Worldwide, Minneapolis

Campaign Insight
Research has shown women are fed up by two things: First, they are disappointed by the men in their lives-- they simply wish men could be a little more helpful around the house. Second, they do not like consumer package goods companies which continue to create advertising that portray women in stereotypical ways.
Fallon and their client, Georgia Pacific, quickly understood that Brawny's communications needed to break the category convention and engage their female consumer target audience in a better way. Chris Lawrence, group account director for Brawny at Fallon Minneapolis explained, "With used these insights to come up with a way to connect deeply and emotionally with women in way that reflected the reality in their lives. And to do so in a unique and entertaining way."

The mission of Brawny Academy is to support women by helping the men in their lives become better, more proactive and more compassionate partners. Lawrence explained, "We also wanted to leverage the popularity and attributes of 'strength through versatility' of the Brawny Man icon."

Brawny Academy provides "tools" to motivate husbands to perform better both in and outside the home, but the Brawny Man himself becomes an advocate for women -- teaching men ways to be not only better husbands -- but to become better men.

Fallon decided to create the episodes online (hence, webisode) because we know women in our target (women between the ages of 30 and 54) are very busy taking care of their work, family and home, but spent a lot of time online. By providing content that they can seek out "on-demand," and on their own terms, we further demonstrated our deep understanding of these women and their needs-- not only in the message, but in how they receive the message.

As Chris Lawrence explains, "A unique aspect of the project is that two husband-and-wife teams worked to bring Brawny Academy to life." Alisa Sengel Wixom and Kris Wixom were the creative team at Fallon Minneapolis who teamed up with John Russell Feist and Kate Hall Feist of Feisty Flix, the prime-time Emmy-award-winning reality show producers/directors whose resume includes CBS's Survivor; NBC's The Restaurant and Meet Mr. Mom;and Fox's The Casino and America's Most Wanted.

It is also important to note that there were no shortcuts taken in the development of Brawny Academy just because it was created for an interactive environment versus TV. A few less cameras and a compressed production schedule perhaps, otherwise the process, the quality of the crew, right down to having a psychologist on set, was exactly the same as any quality reality show created for TV.

This is the first time the Brawny Man has stepped into real life and interacted with real people. This is particularly noteworthy because other packaged goods companies who keep their icons highly protected and "in the glass case." It is also important to note that this is a real reality show with real contestants, not actors.

This is not a reality show "spoof," as some other ad agencies have created, nor it is simply a sponsorship with product placement. This is true branded entertainment that was born from the heart of the brand, with content that includes real issues that are relevant to the female consumer target audience.

"Wonderful World of King" for Burger King

The 2007 Winner of the Andy Gold Award
Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami

"Safe Happens Integrated" - Volkswagen

Winner of the 2007 Andy Gold Award
Jetta Commercials Show Real People in Real Crashes To Sell Viewers on Safety

So these two guys on TV are rolling down the road, chatting about this and that and just generally chillin' when out of the blue comes this red pickup. Car meets truck. Tires shriek, metal bends with a concussive thud, glass shatters and sprays. The two guys fly out of their seats like flour sacks, faces planted into the spreading white of the car's airbags.

The violent crash isn't part of a shoot'em-up film or a cop show. It's one of two much-debated commercials from Volkswagen of America for its Jetta sedan.

One of two Volkswagen Jetta "Safe Happens" commercials. The company says the ads use no trickery, and show actual crashes with non-reinforced Jettas. (Volkswagen)

The German automaker says it is selling the durability and safety of its product; the crashes are followed by shots of the passengers walking away, dazed but uninjured. Viewers, however, might be forgiven if the ads jolt them off the couch much like the two guys in the commercial.

Love 'em or hate 'em -- and VW says it's gotten strong reactions both ways -- the Jetta commercials represent new territory in car advertising, a line crossed. After steering clear of safety pitches for decades, carmakers began to tout safety in earnest in the 1980s with the advent of family-friendly minivans and government crash test ratings, says Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Auto Safety. The ads went from static comparisons to more explicit imagery in the 1990s, with driverless cars and crash test dummies slamming into walls in test labs.

But safety and advertising pros cannot remember any car company going so far as to show people being banged around in such shocking and violent circumstances as VW has. BMW even declined to air an ad five years ago because its slow-motion footage of a crash dummy being crunched in a crash was deemed "too scary," says Claudia Caplan of Mendelsohn Zien Advertising in Santa Monica, Calif., which handled the campaign.

VW says its two commercials, created by the Miami agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky and themed "Safe Happens," weren't tricked up in any way. The crashes were shot in one take, using real stunt people and real, non-reinforced Jettas, says Karen Marderosian, Volkswagen of America's director of marketing. The company even conducted the crashes according to the speeds used by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in its crash tests -- 32 mph in a head-on collision (shown in the spot featuring the two guys) and 18 mph in the side-impact crash (featured in the ad with the couples).

Marderosian says she's heard the complaints -- about using "shock value" to sell, about the unpleasant reaction that accident victims might have upon suddenly encountering the commercials. But that misses the point, she says: "We're trying to get people's attention, yes, but not purely for shock value." Instead, the ads are pegged to the Jetta's four-star (frontal) and five-star (side) ratings in NHTSA's tests.

"We're trying to show that these are types of crashes that happen frequently," she says. "We're showing the damage they can do to your car. The fact that you can walk away from it is very interesting."

Well, yes. But.

Safety experts generally applaud VW's depictions, saying the company raises public awareness about auto safety with very memorable advertising. "If [the ads] make people aware of their vulnerability when they get into their vehicle, that's a good thing," says Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an industry-funded group. "It's a whole lot better message than telling people the stereo has 400 watts."

Or that the car is speedy, a common selling point in car advertising. Indeed, Volkswagen itself is doing that, with another model, the 200-horsepower GTI. Commercials for the car feature a demonic little character and the slogan, "Make Friends With Your Fast."

On the other hand, Judie Stone, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a consumer and industry group, points out that your results in an auto accident may vary -- widely. "Nothing is foolproof in a crash," she says. "I think the company knows that. By showing such a positive outcome -- when it might not be that way in the real world -- you wonder if they're taking a risk of saying, 'The car will take care of you.' Chances are, the car will protect you. But you just don't know."

VW acknowledges that, in the fine print that flashes by almost imperceptibly at the end of the commercials. Placed beneath the crumpled image of the cars, the text reads, in part: "All crashes are different and severe injuries can occur. Airbags do not deploy in all accidents."

What's more, Ditlow says, Jetta's safety record isn't particularly special. He says about 90 percent of the passenger cars tested by NHTSA receive either four- or five-star ratings. The Jetta's ratings aren't much better than those of similar models made by Toyota or Pontiac, and are worse than those of the Mitsubishi Galant and the Mercury Montego.

Those distinctions might be lost on VW's target audience for the Jetta, typically young-adult buyers. Manufacturers tend to emphasize style and speed over safety for those customers. Matt Christy, 30, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, said he found the ads "gripping."

"Honestly, they're pretty striking, no pun intended," Christy says. "Safety is a big thing with me. If I can walk away from something like that, that's a major factor."

Yet for all the buzz the commercials have generated, it's not clear whether they've done much for sales. So far, Jetta sales for May, a typically strong month, are behind the pace of April.

"We don't have any finite analysis that our sales have increased," national VW spokesman Sean Maynard says. "It's difficult to say."

Simpsons Propel Burger King to Most Popular Website in July

The internet is a form of media with resources on every subject imaginable. It's always interesting to find out what types of websites that the visitors to this immense resource visit the most though. ComScore, Inc. has announced their findings on this specific subject in a recent press release. The study which reveals the most popular websites for the month of July found certain categories controlled the visitors in July. These categories were movies, travel, and job searching.

The website with the biggest gain in the percentage of visitors for July was Burger King's website. The press release credits the release of The Simpsons Movie as a large factor in this increase in traffic. Burger King along with The Simpsons Movie were marketing partners in the movie, and it has paid off for Burger King. In July they had 4.2 million visitors to their website. This was an increase of an astounding 774 percent over June's visitor total. Movies didn't just help Burger King's website though.

The success of several movie releases in July drove web traffic to movie related websites as well. The more popular movie releases of the month included Transformers and Harry PotterPhoenix along with The Simpsons Movie. These releases drove visitors to move related websites including moviefone.com, fandango.com and movietickets.com. The movie industry websites as a whole saw a 12% increase according to the study in the press release. Moviefone had the most visitors among the three websites in July with 13.7 million of them, Fandango.com had 10.2 million visitors, and Movie tickets.com has 6.7 million visitors, which was an increase over June of 107 percent for that website.

Other websites that were popular in July included vacation websites and job searching websites. Among the more popular travel related websites were car rental websites, and ground and cruise transportation websites. Meanwhile many web visitors were looking for summer jobs, or jobs after graduating college. Traffic to job searching websites increased by 11 percent according to the press release. Careerbuilder.com had a total of 7.9 million visitors in the month of July which was a 3 percent increase over June. Monster.com had fewer visitors than Careerbuilder.com but it's 6 percent increase over June was larger. The third most popular job searching website of July was HotJobs Job Search which had a total of 4.9 million visitors and the largest increase in the category of 11 percent over June.

The numbers and increases in percentages were based on the number of unique visitors to each website in the month of July. ComScore measures the use of the internet by the digital world, and monitors the use of over 2 million customers which allow comScore to track their browsing in a confidential manner.

Prnewswire.com. "ComScore Media Metrix Releases Top 50 Web Rankings for July".
URL: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=ind_focus.story&STORY=/www/story/08-17-2007/0004647461&EDATE=FRI+Aug+17+2007,+02:07+PM
And The Order Of The

"Simpsons" - Integrated Campaign - 01

'Simpsons' Creative Ruled in July

By Eleftheria Parpis

NEW YORK
The best of July was all about The Simpsons Movie mania. Most interesting, of course, was 7-Eleven's transformation into real-life Kwiki-Marts, complete with straight-out-of-Springfield, limited-edition products like Krusty O's cereal. But Burger King made the best Simpsons play on TV with a spot in which the King masterminds an alien plot to simpsonize the world. It directs viewers to the animated simpsonizeme.com Web site, where visitors can upload their pictures to see their Simpson doppelganger.

The BK commercial opens with a balding guy with a gut giving his fast-food order. The slobbering cartoon alien behind the counter, however, has different plans, asking him, "Do you want to be transformed into a 2-D character with yellow skin?" A laser beam then converts the customer into an elated Homer, who materializes with a "Woo hoo!" Cut to a city in panic as multiple laser beams turn citizens into the Simpsons cast of characters (e.g., a newscaster reporting on the "alien invasion" becomes anchorman Kent Brockman and an old man on a scooter crabby Grandpa). Back in the spaceship, the aliens hail their chief, who reveals himself as the King in an alien costume. "The world is going Simpsons," says the voiceover, "and BK is in on it." Boy, is it ever.

7-Eleven & The Simpsons a Collectible Value

After 7-Eleven, Simpsons Move to eBay

By LIA MILLERPublished: August 20, 2007

As Apu, the owner of the Kwik-E-Mart store in “The Simpsons,” would say, “Thank you, come again.” Joyce Dopkeen/The New York Times

A Homer Simpson prop at a 7-Eleven in Manhattan. Items from a Kwik-E-Mart promotion at the stores have popped up for sale on eBay. Fans of the TV series have been doing just that, bidding up Kwik-E-Mart mementos for sale on eBay that are left over from a promotion for “The Simpsons Movie.”

In July, a dozen 7-Eleven stores were transformed into Kwik-E-Marts, with employees wearing the green-and-blue uniform shirt that Apu wears. On the shelves were products that are familiar to “Simpsons” viewers: Squishees (replacing Slurpees), Buzz Cola, Krusty-O’s cereal, and Bart Simpson’s favorite comic book, Radioactive Man.

During the stunt, fans came in droves, snapping pictures and waiting in long lines; some stores hired extra security staff. But now that it is over, some people are selling their loot.

A search on eBay for “Kwik-E-Mart” yields more than 180 items, from a $1.99 Squishee cup to a $200 Kwik-E-Mart shirt. The asking price for a box of Krusty-O’s is $10, the same as for a six-pack of Buzz Cola.

A spokesman for Fox Broadcasting, Gregg Brilliant, said the promotion had surpassed expectations: “Anytime you make something that appeals directly to a fan base, in a limited quantity, for a limited amount of time, naturally you are going to have a collectible value.”

Rita Bargerhuff, a marketing director for 7-Eleven, said that all of the Kwik-E-Mart items had sold out, and sales from the promotion were “off the charts.”

Dilip Chaudhari, the assistant store manager for a 7-Eleven in Manhattan that was transformed — and where a Kwik-E-Mart shirt is for sale — said the store had double the number of customers during the promotion. It was a “crazy month,” he said.