Olympus "Shark"

Most people think you need high professional equipment to take underwater photos. So their client wanted to create a campaign that shows the advantages of the OLYMPUS mju 725 SW digital compact camera. It is easy to use and even enables shutterbugs to take funny snap shots of sea dwellers that are normally not as friendly. Positioning of the OLYMPUS mju 725 SW as "digital snap shot camera" for underwater fun. Against the business trend Olympus was able to improve its operating by more than 66% up to 227 million Euros and exceeded the expectations. For the fiscal year, ending in March, the company raised its market objectives for digital compact cameras to 9.5 million units compared to the initial 9 million units.

Agency: Springer & Jacoby, Germany.

Phone Legends.

Every weekend in New Zealand, young males drink drive. Their brief was to stop them. From research, they knew that if a member of this demographic was drunk and decided to drive home, his friends would be worried. But they also knew that his friends wouldn't actually say anything to stop him - in the world of young adult peer pressure, this is a very un-cool thing to do. They needed a way for friends to express their concerns anonymously. The solution was found in mobile phones, an accessory every young male takes to the pub. They created a campaign called the Phone Legends. It works like this. First, a concerned friend chooses a Phone Legends character from a poster or beer coaster at the pub. He then texts that character's name, along with the prospective drink driver's mobile phone number, to their automated operator. The prospective drink driver then receives a voice message from that character on his mobile phone: a humorous yet timely reminder of the consequences of drink driving. By using mobile phone technology they were able to reach their audience at exactly the moment they decided to drink and drive. They launched the campaign in over 200 New Zealand pubs, and to date over 12,500 concerned friends have used the service so far. It attracted national media attention and contributed to achieving New Zealand's lowest road toll ever (2006).

Agency: Clemenger BBDO, New Zealand.

Recruiting Rare Web2.0 Birds via Second Life.

They were urgently looking for 8 experienced online specialists. But how to find excellent job candidates in a booming online business world, where agencies use every trick in the book to lure the rare Web2.0 birds? They set up their entire recruitment campaign in Second Life. To attract media attention they claimed 2 firstevers: The first casting & photo session on Second Life. For the picture in their recruitment ad they selected 8 avatars and paid them in Linden dollars. The first 'real life' job interviews on a tropical beach in Second Life. All candidates received a T-shirt for their avatar. Their press release and YouTube movie were caught up by TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, blogs and online forums. They were even on the evening news of the biggest Belgian TV channel. They interviewed about 50 candidates in Second Life and received another 50 applications. In one month they found their 8 specialists.

Agency: TEQUILA\Agency.com, Belgium.

Renault "Clio Speed"

With almost 200 hp, the Clio Renault Sport is Renault's turbocharged model. In order to position the Clio in an overall more sporting context, advertising is focused on the Clio RS. The objective: to communicate the dynamism of the Clio RS on the Internet for direct interaction with the target group. Users chase after the Clio motion blurs and race from banner to banner. The virtual course leads through several European cities. Each player's time is stopped precisely to a hundredth of a second. The high-score ranking at clio.de ultimately shows who's the fastest. After registering, users could challenge their friends to another race through Europe. 11,412 starts of a banner race in just five days. The checkpoints were clicked 20,601 times. 1,200,000 ad impressions in less than one week. 68,000 people in total visited clio.de.

Agency: NORDPOL+ Hamburg, Germany.

VERB "Yellowball"

VERB is a campaign dedicated to fighting youth obesity. In 2006, they were challenged to create a movement. To get kids 9-13 active, then inspire them to spread play to other kids. They 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. The program created 148 million kid impressions and got over 5 million kids active. 21% of the balls were passed on. Nearly 17,000 blogs were received. One ball was passed 31 times while another ball traveled 39,940 miles.

Agency: Arc Worldwide, U.S.A.

Raid "Eviction Notices"

Based on discussions with the client, Raid insecticide had been dropping in sales and in terms of top of mind awareness. As competitors generally choose to advertise on television and print, and with them not having sufficient budget to do the same, they came up with the perfect and cost effective solution to reach their target market in the right place, their home. Their client has an existing database which made a direct mailer campaign the perfect cost effective solution to reach the relevant people in the very place that they are affected by insects. They sent out miniature envelopes that were addressed to the pests of the home, the cockroaches, mosquitoes, spiders and ants. Due to the envelope’s unnatural size, they were intriguing and immediately stood out. Inside them, were eviction notices that informed the pest that their presence would no longer be tolerated. The Raid logo was displayed with the pay off line, Kills Bugs Dead. The insecticide category is dominated by television and print. Their campaign offers an opportunity to reach consumers in a new way, which heightens the impact. They ran a test distribution drop to measure the effectiveness and followed up with ad hoc visits to homes that had received the mailer. The response was great. The idea thought to be very smart. One housewife said our timing was perfect – she received the eviction notice as a column of ants was marching through her kitchen. Another housewife had also put the little mailer up on her fridge. Based on these positive results, the client is keen to do another round.

Agency: FCB JHB, South Africa.

Listerine "Embossed letter"

The needed to encourage dental professionals to try Listerine Advanced Tartar Control, and then recommend regular use of it to their patients. Dentists had never seen anything like this before. The mailing was pure white; it appeared to have nothing on it. On closer inspection, the recipients could see the letter copy was written in an embossed font - as opposed to being printed in black ink. It acknowledges the importance of keeping your teeth white and how hard dentists work to help their patients achieve this. Particularly relevant to this sceptical audience, it also pointed out the benefits of Listerine in combating tartar. The letter directs to a fold-down reply slip for requesting samples and subscription to a magazine. The mailing was sent to 25,404 Dental Professionals, with a target of 2,032 responses (8%). We actually received 3,487 responses (172% over the target). This led to an additional 34,920 opportunities for Dentists to recommend Listerine Advanced Tartar Control and to supply samples to their patients. With 83,688 recommendations overall, this level of recommendation will translate into £67,260.05 in patient sales of Listerine (in our first year), giving us a positive ROI of £2.99 per £1 of budget spent, for the campaign.

Agency: RMG CONNECT, United Kingdom.

Orange "Static"

They had to communicate the launch of a new product called 'My 5 from Orange', which lets you choose 5 friends, and call them at a very low rate. So, you can both make and receive many more calls. Everyone looks at their mobile phone when they hear the static noise that sounds right before a call. So the idea was to get the audience to look at their mobile phones and realise that no one was calling them. This, to communicate that with 'My 5 from Orange' they'll receive more calls and their phone won't stop ringing. They recorded the static noise of mobile phones and used it on the radio. They bought 'radio mentions' (ad spaces that air during the radio station's musical programming) and we put our static ad there, over the music. Logically, everybody listens to the radio close to a speaker or headphone and that guaranteed that everyone would think that it was their own phone's static interference. And people hate it when calls don't come. So they created the perfect situation to tell them that with our product they'd receive more calls. Two weeks later, 'My 5 from Orange' sales had increased 20%. Because their static ad was disguised and did not seem to be advertising, they avoided rejection. In this unexpected and surprising way, they achieved 25% more reach.

Agency: Vitruvio Leo Burnett, Spain.

Ariel "20°C Mailing"

Ariel Coldactive cleans your laundry at just 20 °C. A benefit that had to be communicated in a surprisingly convincing way. At the same time the mailing should help sell more Ariel Coldactive. They sent a mysterious mailing containing a black piece of cloth, an unbranded bag of Ariel Coldactive washing powder, along with a message to wash the cloth at 20 °C. The trick: after washing the cloth, it turns pure white, literally revealing the benefit of Ariel Coldactive: It's that easy to get your clothes pure and clean at only 20 °C. The mailing itself could be used as a voucher for a discount on Ariel Coldactive. More than 15% of them were actually returned for the discount. Many clients called Ariel to express how much they liked the mailing.

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Germany.

Olympus "Here's proof"

A new digital camera that’s not only shockproof - but seriously waterproof. What more exciting brief than to promote this revolutionary new technology by directly engaging with customers in an approach that would leave an indelible impression in their mind. The campaign is a pure demonstration of a unique product benefit, delivered in a compelling participatory approach. An ambient lead idea - signage and the camera were positioned opposite one of the world’s most famous and most photographed icons – the Sydney Opera House. Passers by were invited to see how tough and genuinely waterproof the Olympus camera was by pulling the camera up out of the depths of Sydney Harbour, taking a photo with it and then throwing it back into the water. They were then invited to directly download their photo from an online site and learn more about the technology and benefits of this amazing product. Curiosity drew the public’s attention, and cleverly positioned in a high traffic spot as soon as the seed was placed crowds were attracted to see what was going on. Despite the constant rough treatment and submersion in and out of the harbour the product stood testament to its unique selling proposition of being waterproof and shockproof. A client’s dream, the ambient stunt was the clearest demonstration of the product’s benefit – the simplest idea – Here’s proof!

Agency: SAATCHI & SAATCHI, Australia.

Arnold Worldwide "Voodoo kit"

Arnold Worldwide Italy opened a guerrilla marketing department called Arnold Guerrilla. We needed to advertise the service to marketing managers. To communicate that with Guerrilla Marketing everything is granted and to make something unique that could strike marketing managers. The Marketing Voodoo Kit made in single copies is an object that marketing managers would want to keep on their desk and show to their collegues. Coca Cola Italy and Nike Italy called us for an agency presentation. Grana Padano Cheese asked us to enter the pitch for Grana Padano Cheese and San Daniele Ham.

Agency: Arnold Worldwide, Italy.

Sieglinde Betzler "The heavyweight brochure"

To produce a promotional brochure for personal trainer Sieglinde Betzler. This heavyweight brochure had solid steel plates in its cover. To lift, open and read it, people therefore had to put in a bit of effort: it weighed 2 kilograms. 200 mailings were sent out to a target audience of senior decision-makers in November 2006. As of 23 December 2006, 43 requests for an introductory training session had been received. In January 2007, a follow-up mailing was sent.

Agency: BBDO Stuttgart, Germany.

NetCom Wireless Business "Nostalgia"

NetCom Wireless Business is a phone solution where you replace the fixed phones with mobile phones. Most Norwegian companies both know of this and do change. But how do they convince the rest. How do they book meetings with the conservative latecomers? The dealer, Klart Svar Business Partner, was in need of a new, charming door opener. Their target group resists changes, but still doesn’t want to lag behind their competitors. Their approach was use of personal statistics along with our expression of surprise at their current communication solution. The nostalgic handset was just what they needed pinpointing the conservative attitude in a warm manner. By printing the letter as a band they gave the standard handset box a professional identity in a most cost effective way. Pick up your mobile phone, choose the correct adapter and try it out – then you’ll understand why 4,000 DM’s resulted in 1,200 (!!) meetings, 600 contracts at a computed value of €4,125,000 and a contribution margin of €1,875,000

Agency: McCann Direkte, Norway.

NABUCCO "The Singing Bus Stops"

In 2007, two German cities (Hamburg March 2- 4, and Mannheim April 27-29) show NABUCCO by Giuseppe Verdi as a monumental opera in sports stadiums. The opera is famous for the song “The Prisoner´s Chorus”. The producer needed to sell a minimum of 17,000 tickets in Hamburg alone. But three months prior to the shows and after two periods of conventional advertising only 5,500 people wanted to see the opera. In line with an integrated campaign, they produced the “Bus Stop Announcements” to the tune of “The Prisoner´s Chorus” which we aired on Hamburg city-line buses. The names of the single bus stops were sung by a professional tenor. Additionally, the passengers got more information via the monitors and advertising spaces on the bus. Within the first two weeks of communication, ticket sales trippled. Finally, all three Hamburg shows were sold out.

Agency: TBWA\Germany, Berlin.

Mercedes-Benz "First impression"

To encourage drivers of other brands of car to visit the Mercedes-Benz dealership in Stuttgart during one of its “test drive weeks”. Mercedes stars were stuck onto the bonnets of other makes of cars, making drivers eager to take a test drive in a genuine Mercedes-Benz. How does it feel to drive a Mercedes? The Mercedes star giveaway was designed to whet people’s appetites, and make them eager to find out more. Most visitors to the showroom during the “test drive weeks” were drivers of other makes of car. Test drive requests and sales rose by 30% during the campaign period.

Agency: BBDO Stuttgart, Germany.

Bosch "The Calendar Schredder"

To create an impactful calendar for selected retailers and the internal Bosch sales organisations in order to generate excitement for the product launch of the new Bosch garden shredders. To experience the outstanding performance of the garden shredders, recipients of the calendar were given the chance to do some shredding themselves, every day of the year, which will also ensure that Bosch garden shredders stay on their mind, every day of the year. The unusual dimensions (200 cm wide by 50 cm high) and the original way that people could interact with the calendar meant that it quickly became a highly desirable collector´s item, was talked about and the focus stayed on Bosch garden shredders.

Agency: Jung von Matt, Germany.

Olympus "World's Smallest Ad"

Olympus was losing market share in high end microscopes orders to cheaper equivalents. They wanted a cost effective piece of communication to reconnect with the high end buyers of microscopes and ask them for their opinions and thoughts on what they wanted, so they could create a stronger relationship with their market. They created the world’s smallest questionnaire and sent it to Olympus’s database of most valued microscope buyers on a slide. The direct mail piece could only be viewed under a microscope and drove the clientele back to Olympus’s website to check out products and services as well as gathering information from the client. Everything in the pack that was sent is what scientists actually receive when getting a specimen slide through the mail. This direct mail piece is currently under a review process to be accepted into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s smallest questionnaire. Traffic hits to Olympus’s microscope website increased by 24% over the period that the direct mail packs were sent out and sales people were phoned up and personally thanked by many of the customers that had received the pack.

Agency: Hoopernagel, Australia.

The Croc-eats-Dog promotion.

The brief was to draw attention to the Zoo and achieve an increase in attendance. According to the motto “Come to the Zoo before the Zoo comes to you” a promotion-team walked a dog that obviously became a crocodile’s lunch. Because half of its body was put into the mouth of an almost life-sized crocodile costume. Additionally, the promotion team handed out discount coupons for the Zoo. The dog was walked through the most popular pedestrian zone in the city of Neunkirchen on four successive Saturdays. As the promotion team walked the dog, the passers-by came up to the team all by themselves wondering what was going on – which made the promotion very effective. It resulted in an increase in attendance of about 15% compared to an average month. Besides, croco-dog became a very popular picture motif.

Agency: SCHOLZ & FRIENDS, Germany.

Smoke is Poison "Tanker"

To get under the radar of hardened smokers who block out health advice and opinion. They know that smoking is bad for them but, as with any addiction, they blind themselves to the effects on their own health and the health of others. As a result they are pretty immune to the standard ‘smoking is bad for you’ advertising which they deem to be ‘preachy’. They needed to find a fresh approach which would surprise them before they had time to block out the message. Very few smokers know that smoke from a cigarette is made up of over 4000 chemicals including hydrogen cyanide, formaldehyde and benzene. The idea was to make smokers reappraise the highly dangerous nature of these chemicals by placing them in public places together with the hazardous warning signs that have to accompany them by law. The shock of seeing such a large group of chemicals together in town centres was compounded when it was further revealed that they are actually all present in cigarette smoke. The main aim of the chemical tanker was to launch the campaign which it did extremely successfully. It also generated £75,000 of free publicity with lead stories on the Guardian Media’s website and further extensive coverage on the BBC online, ITV, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland plus other local stations. Awareness of the poisons in smoke rose by 178%. The website received 62,467 unique visitors in just 14 days with 124,682 page views. 85% of people believed cigarette smoke posed real dangers while 58% of smokers took action to give up.

Agency: Ogilvy Group, London.

Bronze Direct Lions winner "The Doom & Dickson Book Collection"

Doom & Dickson is an advertising agency in The Netherlands. Two ‘founding fathers’ Jack Doom & Bill Dickson never really existed. They play a large role however in our communication. An exhibition on the internet of their historic ads was the big bang for the agency. Even national newspapers wrote articles about the world famous Jack Doom & Bill Dickson. In following years a book with their ads and a CD of Frank Sinatra at the 20th anniversary of Doom&Dickson in New York were sent to clients, press, advertising colleagues and prospects. In 2006 they needed something new and exciting. Not only have Jack Doom and Bill Dickson created stunning (imaginary) ads, they also have written dozens of books on Marketing & Advertising that have changed their profession. Unfortunately nobody has had the opportunity to buy or read one of their books. That’s why they have sent a mail piece with a lightweight version of 20 of their finest books to our clients, advertising colleagues and potential clients. Because it is like it is said in the accompagning letter; ‘A decision maker without books is like Marilyn Monroe without her beauty mark. Just another face in the crowd.’ Next to very enthousiastic reactions of clients, press, advertising colleagues and prospects it gave they a ticket to a big pitch for a national newspaper that already had made a shortlist without Doom & Dickson on it. They changed their minds after receiving The Doom & Dickson Book Collection. They thought this was just the fresh approach they were looking for in an agency.

Agency: Doom & Dickson Amsterdam, The Netherlands.