Ranga Shankara "Incidents"

Everyone loves drama, be it in cinema or real life. Based on this insight, we planted professional actors in various locations to enact scenes from real life. The audience was unaware they were staged and got completely involved in the drama. At this point, we held out boards that read, ‘For more drama, come to Ranga Shankara’ and distributed leaflets with the festival schedule. These scenes were staged in English and Kannada at 25 different locations and were captured on hidden camera. They were successful in generating interest and all the shows were sold out a week in advance.

Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, India.

Harley-Davidson "Freedom Box"

Class A Executives who have already been interested in buying a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and need to be stimulated to end the purchase. Exactly at 4 o'clock p.m. Friday, one of the most critical work times, they deliver to their target a box with freedom inside. When it was open, the box set in motion a ventilator installed in a strategic position that carries the wind to the face of their prospect. A direct mail that brings the Harley-Davidson spirit and wake the freedom desire. They deliver 30 boxes to a very specific target (people who have a real desire to get a Harley) and 18 motorcycles they sold with this action.

Agency: Matos Grey/G2 Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Volkwagen "Schlammer's Quest"

Establish Volkwagen’s image in Germany as "the people’s car“ in order to boost sales of the Golf. 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. They 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. - 4,270,000 page-impressions, - 4,730,000 video-downloads - after only two months - 90,000 qualified contacts - conversion rate of 12% - iTunes Podcast-charts: number one; blogscout-charts: number two - top issue in many blogs and online magazines - positive change of perception of the blogossphere concerning branded entertainment - high level of interactivity and identification with the story proved by numerous comments in the blog.

Agency: Tribal DDB, Germany.

Silver Cyber Lions winner "The hunt"

Sponsoring Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Volvo organises a global treasure hunt. A tricked Volvo XC90 was buried: find it and it’s yours. Having picked up a treasure map at your dealership, The Hunt continues online. Hopping from website to website a 30-day journey across the Seven Seas unfolds. Unravel an old man’s tale on Madeira, match broken china off Africa’s coast, decipher Maya murals on Cozumel and be the first to return in Port Royal harbour. Seven finalists where flown to an island in the Bahamas for the final event: the recovery of the buried car.

The hunt

Agency: Euro RSCG 4D, The Netherlands.

Grand Prix Cyber Lions " Heidies 15 MB of fame.

Six video cameras, live 24 hours a day, 5 days in a row on www.diesel.com. Two gorgeous and crazy girls wanted to become famous. These two girls, The Heidies, steal the new and unreleased Diesel Intimate collection, kidnap a guy from Diesel, and lock themselves (and him) into a hotel room for five days. They want to show the world what they are doing! The Heidies interacted and chatted with their growing audience, uploading their shenanigans to the site as well as a chunk load of other popular sites.

heidies

Agency: FARFAR Stockholm, Sweden.

Stadtmission Nürnberg "Dementia"

The “Stadtmission Nürnberg“ – the Municipal Mission of Nuremberg – is a Christian organization which helps poor, sick and / or otherwise distressed people in the Nuremberg region. The “Stadtmission Nürnberg” also helps people with dementia. An old looking photo album entitled “My life”, in which, except for a few photos of one’s distant youth, all of the pictures – and therefore all of one’s memories – are missing. A lack of memories is the typical symptom of the disease dementia. The photo album is designed to sensitize recipients to dementia, show them the difficulties that these people have, and urge them to make a donation. The mailing is directed at specific target group with pinpoint accuracy – and with great success and tremendous response. It was sent to Renate Schmidt, for example, the former German Federal Minister for Family Affairs and native of Nuremberg. The donation returns were 30 % higher than those of comparable campaigns from the previous year and reached a level of 200,000 Euros.

Agency: Publicis Kommunikationagentur, Germany.

Get your motherf... Ringtone for free.

Volkswagen owners who tend to opt for low priced parts had to be reminded to choose Volkswagen Original parts, to ensure that their Volkswagen will stay a Volkswagen. In addition Volkswagen dealers asked for new business leads for their services. Especially young people with older cars had to be won for the Volkswagen Service, as they often frequent seemingly less expensive, non-authorised service garages. Replacement parts from non-authorised service garages often lead to unpleasant surprises. While the car might look just fine from the outside, one never knows what problems lie beneath the surface. Thus, the spot reminds Volkswagen owners: "Better choose genuine parts. So your Volkswagen will stay a Volkswagen." At the end of the spot they offer the option to download your own cuckoo-clock ringtone. The downloaded file also included a small program, which for a short time changed the phone’s set-up to a foreign language, rearranged the order of their message and finally repeated it. Finally, the phone set back to normal and the ringtone was installed. The ringtone was downloaded 78,000 times, creating many new sales leads. Moreover the traffic at Volkswagen Service increased by 25%. As intended especially recipients driving segment II (4 to 7 year old-cars) and III (older than 8 years old) have been attracted by the campaign and visited the Volkswagen Service due to quality reasons.

Agency: DDB Germany, Berlin.

Soul Bar "The bet"

The brief was to promote (via viral email) Soul Bar's offer of a free glass of Laurent-Perrier Champagne for every girl who goes there in the month of October. The desired outcome was to ultimately increase bar sales and attract more people to Soul. The client specifically asked for a concept that was 'quirky, fun, flirtatious and bolshy' and targeted towards young women aged 18-35 working within the Auckland CBD. They 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. They 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. Their concept was a perfect fit for this gossipy, corporate target market who are renowned for passing the time by sitting at their desks making idle email chit-chat with their female friends. What made it so relevant was that the email was not only scandalous, but it also invited them to get one over the arrogant, wealthy tossers they all know and loathe. It was inevitable that the opportunity to forward on such an email would be embraced with open arms, especially one that encourages them to interact with the story and rewards them with Free French Champagne. The email spread like wildfire, not only around New Zealand but internationally, much to the delight of the client and the intrigue of the media. Dozens of blogsites, local newspapers and even a national primetime current affairs show all took the bait. Thousands of girls showed up at Soul to claim their free glass of Champagne, all supposedly at the expense of our mystery man. Over 3,400 glasses were given away, nearly double the previous year's promo. Bar sales increased 34% on the previous year and Soul Bar achieved a massive 118% ROI on the total cost of the campaign.

Agency: Ogilvy, New Zealand.

The one.

To promote a movement that pursued the self-expression in individuals, a user-driven community that was controlled autonomously by its members. This movement was the response to a need in the 18 to 25 segment for something different in a market that was saturated by other brands and where this group paid no attention to any form of traditional advertising. In turn, the final goal was to promote a beer that supported the movement. Instead of creating a beer, they created a movement that promoted the act of self-expression and supported their ideas to change things for the better. Since the target didn't pay attention to traditional media and didn't relate to traditional advertising, the approach was made through guerrilla style posters and stickers that were left anonymously in places where the target moved around. Viral videos of the movement's character speaking about its philosophy spread on the net through emails and chat rooms. The most read Dominican bloggers started to praised the ideas of the movement, helping spread the voice. The fact that they gave them the opportunity to express themselves through the movement instead of imposing a new beer brand. One of the strongest bonds was the belief itself, their involvement in the movement's activities and the power of being the ones that controlled the movement's present actions. No advertising was done for the beer. It just appeared one day as something that was part of the movement. Its design was another element that the movement's members had complete control over. The home of the movement was the website, a place where the whole community could communicate and decide collectively on it's future directions. A week before the launch they gained DOP$7,000,000 (around USD$250,000) in free-press. This is the average annual advertising budget for most beer brands in the country. More than 250,000 have looked into the movement and there are 6,000+ active members in the community. The beer is the 3rd most sold in the second largest city and the 4th most sold nationally above all local and imported brands like Miller, Heineken, Quilmes, Becks, Budweiser & Corona. Steady 25% weekly-increase in sales during the first five months. Today, the beer is a cult brand.

Agency: Pages BBDO, Dominican Republic.

Earth Hour.

Most people believe global warming is too big a problem for them to solve. They needed to convince them that their individual involvement in one simple event could make a difference. ‘Earth Hour’ encouraged everyone to join in one statement-making event, by simply turning off their lights for one hour, on one night: March 31st 7:30pm. The event was innovative in its simplicity: assign a simple task that anyone can do and spread the call-to-action through word of mouth. Earth Hour quickly gained momentum – the whole Sydney community and beyond became involved in the event. They needed an inspirational method of promoting their big idea. Securing ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’ newspaper and actively exploding their idea throughout wider media enabled them to build large-scale awareness through four key phases: 1. '60' brand identity launched via press launch 2. Creation of intrigue: 'teaser' TV, press, poster, and on-line. 3. Community call-to-action: TV, outdoor, Radio, Press, PR, SMS, POS, celebrity, corporate and government endorsement, on-the-street marketing, promotions and online activity 4. The Event – Sydney-siders held their own events and gathered to watch the lights go down while Sydney was broadcast to the world via international news. The only way to encourage change was to make Earth Hour part of the social fabric of Sydney - people needed to talk about it at beaches, in pubs and around their dinner table. They had to ensure it was part of the daily news agenda – an alignment with Fairfax allowed us to achieve this. They also needed to ensure that the event remained top of mind over time. This was achieved through our media partners but more importantly, through corporate, celebrity and government endorsement and integration into popular culture making Earth Hour part of their consumers’ daily lives. It worked. 97% of Sydney-siders were aware of Earth Hour. Over half of Sydney inhabitants participated in some form. The CBD cut energy consumption by 10.2% (expected 5%), the equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the road for one hour. 2.2 million people in Sydney switched off their lights. Global PR coverage - Earth Hour captured the world's attention and the story was covered in over 40 countries. In fact, other countries have already expressed interest in hosting their own Earth Hour in 2008.

Agency: Leo Burnett Sydney, Australia.

World Press Photo Exhibition.

Yearly attendance to the World Press Photo Exhibition had declined due to sombre content and the public's perception that they had ‘seen it all before’. The exhibition is a stock-take of humanity, they wanted people to feel obliged to see it. They figured that our world leaders needed to see the exhibition more than anyone. After all, their policies had directly influenced the exhibition's photo content: war, despair and political unrest. So they invited 74 of them. The campaign showed their attempts to get them to attend. Thirteen world leaders wrote back to decline and they displayed their letters in metrolites around the city. Beneath their letters was their campaign line: “See the exhibition they should be seeing”. The metrolites became an exhibition in themselves. What better way to promote an exhibition than with an exhibition. Inviting world leaders automatically made the exhibition more important: when none of them wanted to come, people wanted to know why. The promotion was reported on national television and in national press. The word of mouth aspect of the promotion is immeasurable but despite the worst winter in 30 years, attendance was 30% better than any other year - 21,479 visitors in total.

Agency: CLemenger BBDO Wellington, New Zealand.

Anyone can sell.

The original brief was to create new catalog ads on television every week. They set up a production team to wander around and ask the people of Bangkok (the general public) to present sales on certain HomePro products. After a series of commercials, more people began talking about the sale, and how they were involved. A buzz soon followed. In Thailand, television is still the most effective tool to reach target audiences. By involving the public in the campaign, they can make typical-boring-catalog ads, exciting. They engage Thai consumers via television in a way that's never been done before. More and more people waited at home hoping to have their 15 seconds of fame on TV. People who were involved in the commercial were excited to see themselves on TV. Others were intrigued on how normal people were involved in the commercials. More importantly, approximately ten million people rushed into local HomePro stores to grab these discounts. Client gained 600 million baths in profit. More than 400% in expected sales.

Agency: BBDO, Bangkok.

Parco PI "That Girl Emily"

With creating a campaign to generate buzz leading up to the season premiere of Parco PI on Court TV. The "Woman Scorned" billboards were conceived to play on the adulterous content of the show. These billboards appeared to have been purchased by Emily, a woman eager to get back at her cheating husband at all costs by exposing his adulterous nature for all to see. They saw that this concept had the potential to get even more exposure if the proper online social channels were utilized. Emily's backstory was in the form of a realistic, first-person blog. Weeks before the billboard was unveiled, "Emily" began posting to her blog, named "That Girl Emily". The content of the blog was designed to enrapture readers into the story of a woman who came to realize that her husband was cheating on her, which represented the dramatic twists and turns of the show. The narrative built up to the release of the billboards, at which point Emily declared that she would enact "Fourteen Days of Wrath" on her cheating husband Stephen. The blog took the traditional campaign to a new level by allowing the fictional character of Emily to have a real voice. In several days, the blog had over a million hits and Emily was getting requests for national publicity appearances. Users returned every day to find out what Emily would do next. Viral videos of surveillance footage and Emily angrily tossing Stephen's belongings out into the street proved to be incredibly popular and spread to other video sites. The campaign epitomized the ultimate payoff for hiring a private detective like Parco PI. "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.

Agency: Amalgamated, Deep Focus, Court TV, U.S.A.

PSP "Gangs of London"

Take gamers beyond conventional advertising to a place where they can become truly involved with the marketing launch of Gangs of London. They wanted our target audience to be part of the campaign, to dictate the outcome, to blog about it, to tell their friends. They supplied hidden clues (the game's gang logos) around London's streets on billboards, newspapers and on the internet. Users had to identify the clue, take a cameraphone picture and send it to a shortcode. Their image recognitions software identified where the user was and instantly sent them another clue to continue their hunt for the diamond prize. 18-34 year old males who own PSP’s or are considering getting one. Their interests will be technology based i.e. iPods, mobile phones, computers, internet. Email response rates averaged a high performing 16.5% 65% of visitors to nickthediamond.com came from banners, SMS clues & word of mouth. Interactive press and outdoor delivered a 34.9% conversion from mobile to online media. WoM from SMS clues reached a staggering 3783% 10,000 'teddy bear' DM packs were sent out to early registrants on the site.

Agency: 20:20 London, United Kingdom.

Volkswagen "Short Car Songs"

Volkswagen launched the Golf R32 in July amidst a great deal of media interest. The launch was at the Phillip Island race track in Victoria where the nations top motoring journalists were invited to open up the throttle of the R32 and really put it through its paces. Although there was a large turn out among motoring journalists, there was still a number that weren't able to attend the race inspired test drive and Volkswagen wanted to give those journalists that weren't able to attend a little something to "spark" their interest and hopefully stimulate a test drive or story. The creative rationale behind the campaign was to communicate the message that the new R32 is the fastest production Golf ever - but in a quirky, unexpected and fun way. Out of this objective grew the idea of producing a "Short Car Songs" CD that turned well known songs that drag on such as "10 green bottles" and "It's a long way to Tipperary" into short abrupt tunes - Why? Because the new R32 is so fast you won't have time to listen to the whole track. Short Car Songs was mailed out to a number of prominent journalists and motoring industry personalities who couldn't attend the launch. The goal: To encourage them to get in touch with Volkswagen to find out more about the R32 and book a test drive. The project was a huge success, there was a 40% response rate from journalists that were sent the CD. Comments from those that received the CD were positive. A number commented that it was a fun, interactive way of communicating the key message of the campaign - the new R32 is the fastest Golf ever.

Agency: DDB Sydney, Australia.

Cambridge "Demo CD"

To inform consumers about Cambridge Audio System's feature to play scratched discs perfectly. To provide consumers with a first hand experience of the feature, demo CDs packaged in sandpaper were sent to prospective buyers. On opening the envelope, they were urged to bring the scratched CDs to the showroom to test the player themselves. Peolpe were intrigued to get the CD to the showroom and check it for themselves, and thus generated interest among prospective buyers and lead to an increase in sales.

Agency: Everest Brand Solutions, India.

Artesanos Camiseros "Any Shape"

Artesanos Camiseros tailors shirts for people with problematic body shapes. Their challenge was to gain attention and encourage potential customers to visit the store and have a first shirt made. We identified human-shaped objects in public places near major financial institutions (UBS, Credit Suisse) and challenged our client to make shirts for them. They then staged fitting sessions and attached removable tags that doubled as 10% discount coupons. The campaign resulted in a marked increase in foot traffic and sales. They also plan on staging these events every season.

Agency: DraftFCB/Lowe Group, Switzerland.

ASB Bank "Pago Money Sticker"

ASB Bank developed world first technology that allows friends to txt cash between mobiles. It was given the brand name 'Pago'. ASB stipulated that they didn't want to use conventional advertising to promote the product and tasked the agency to find entirely new ways to promote this service to consumers, early adopters, opinion formers, and 'Mavens'. A portrait of Sir Edmund Hillary, conqueror of Everest and New Zealand's most famous living son, sits on every New Zealand $5 note. When ASB bank launched 'Pago', a world first technology that allows you to txt cash between mobile phones, they got permission from both Sir Edmund Hillary and the reserve bank to use the national currency as an advertising medium. They put stickers of his pixellated image directly over the top of his portrait on NZ$5 notes which were introduced into circulation. When peeled off, the reverse side of the sticker directed people to the Pago website to activate their own digital wallet. The results: 33% awareness objective in the first 3 months. Two months from launch 18 - 24 year old target audience knowledge of the service reached 40%. Within this group 89% accurately recalled the Pago brand. 1200 subscriptions in the first week of launch - delivering a result 3 x higher than the original goal of 400. The stage one registration goal is 5000 (still in progress). Pago content was delivered to 3821 mobile phone handsets via bluetooth/infrared. - 76.4% of the subscription goal.

Agency: TBWA\Whybin, New Zealand.

Meals for Children "SMS for Lunch"

‘Meals for Children’, a part of MEIR PANIM charity organization, delivers hot lunches to 10,000 needy children, daily. The brief was to carry their message to broader audience, encourage people to an immediate action and cover the cost of at least one meal. They looked for a way to demonstrate the value of one meal to one child. The idea was to set up a ‘meeting’ between the giver and the recipient. Providing an immediate reward to the action would change the whole experience, and with it the motivation. A unique platform, integrating web and mobile technologies enabled such one-on-one meeting: a boy is seen, facing an empty plate, looking like waiting for something to happen. The copy invites you to donate through SMS. The moment the system receives your SMS – the banner changes immediately: the plate fills and the boy smiles. Watching it change before your eyes, realizing your SMS has actually done it, made the difference. The idea was a success even before the launch. Major websites agreed to host our banner for free and all cellular operators provided their service pro bono. Early results have exceeded client's expectation. (campaign launched in April) The client, still adapting to the new techy flavor of his campaign, is overwhelmed by the opportunity to utilize digital media for raising funds. Furthermore, this idea has successfully removed a classic obstacle from the way: the confirmation SMS, along with the full plate and the boy's smile is somewhat reassuring, as for where your money really goes.

Agency: Shimoni Finkelstein DraftFCB, Israël.

Ghost Pops "Vending Machine"

In order to sell a chip snack based on the Ghostbusters theme, they had to appeal to a media-savvy younger target audience. They needed to create an interactive, engaging and compelling buying experience to lure the target market in and make the sale, without seeming ordinary or contrived. Taking into account their target audience and product, they created an interactive buying experience whereby the product, a chip snack based on the Ghostbusters theme, actullay told you to buy it. And said thanks for the purchase. They rigged everyday vending machines in colleges with motion sensors to create a paranormal buying experience. When someone stepped close to the machine, it shook as if possessed and spoke in a ghostly little girl’s voice, telling them to come closer and buy Ghost Pops. When a person bought Ghost Pops, the machine misted up and the word “thanks” appeared on the glass. The product is a chip snack called Ghost Pops and is based on the Ghostbusters theme. They used this ghost theme and extended it to our point of purchase, creating “possessed” vending machines. They shook, they spoke, they even misted up and said thank you for the purchase. These machines were placed in colleges to target the relevant audience, turning a usually cluttered point of purchase into a paranormal buying experience. The vending machine truly grabbed the attention of the target audience. Reactions varied from being startled, to intrigued to laughing. Some people even spoke back to the machine. But whatever the reaction, the possessed vending machine worked like a charm and Ghost Pops outsold other chips packets 3 to 1. Tongues were wagging over this machine, upping brand awareness and brand sales.

Agency: NET#WORK BBDO Johannesburg, South Africa.

Panasonic "Manned Airplane Project"

To differentiate oxyride battery from other products in the extremely competitive market by creating a strong impression of much improved product performance and by offering an unprecedented news value. How could they powerfully communicate that batteries so small held extremely high power? Through ordinary advertising it would be impossible. Their task: Do something unprecedented that would have impact around the world. Their idea: Have a pilot fly an airplane using just the power of small batteries. With this extraordinary ambitious project, they endeavored to give viewers of the program the shared experience of soaring into the sky. Oxyride would power one of humankind’s greatest dreams. Through Web and TVC, they simultaneously broadcasted a live documentary of the creative process, drawing audiences’ interest to the product. For additional impact, they also used the public blog community to share the dream and experience of realizing the world’s first battery-powered manned flight. The project attracted tremendous attention including that of the press. The supporting messages and viral advertising through personal blogs also contributed in spreading the information about this project. It became so famous that a number of media such as the Time Magazine and the BBC news website picked up this project, attracting worldwide attention. The media exposure they achieved through news and publicity is estimated to be worth over 4 million dollars and brand recognition jumped by 30%, and reached 85%.

Agency: Hakuhodo, Japan.

Langley Travel "Destination Japan"

Langley Travel is a Swedish travel agency for skiers. In the nordic countries they have a widespread reputation as "the skiers' travel agency", because they specialize in trips for dedicated skiers and love skiing above all else. New, unexpected destinations are added every year, such as Sibiria, Iran, Kashmir - this year, it's Japan. The purpose of this campaign is to strengthen their position as ”the skiers´ travel agency” and to sell the trips to Japan. Chop sticks + ski case = skiing in Japan. It was sent out by mail to dedicated skiers that had travelled previously to “unexpected destinations” with Langley Travel. The trips were sold out in no time. The campaign also made a tremendous buzz, greatly enhancing the brand´s perception of being the skier´s travel agency.

Agency: GOSS Gothenburg, Sweden.

Big Warnie.

Cricket – for over 125 years Australia and England have been fierce rivals. Shane Warne – Australian. No one upsets an English cricket fan more than Shane Warne. He’s taken more wickets than anyone in the game’s long history, mostly off the English. Find a new way to ignite the rivalry between the two countries in the lead up to the 2006/2007 cricket series. Cricket Australia wanted to sell 1 million tickets for the series to two markets: Australia and England. (That’s a massive amount of tickets for a sporting event in Australia.) They covertly built a 5 metre high statue of Shane Warne and then very publically transported it by truck and on foot to the very heart of London – Piccadilly Circus. They then held an unveiling ceremony designed to commemorate the anticipated Australian victory. They filmed the entire event, editing the mayhem into a series of 30 second films and a viral documentary. It was a highly provocative promotion intended to draw controversy and inflame rivalry in two countries in separate hemispheres. ‘Big Warnie’ sparked a media storm. It was picked up by over 70 newspapers, websites, news and current affairs programs, as far afield as India and France. The campaign was launched via a website attracting 130,000 hits in the first three days. · All this attention resulted in a record number of tickets (1.275 million) being sold.

Agency: George Patterson Y&R, Australia.

The North Face "No Pain, No Gain"

For true outdoors people to re-acknowledge the brand as a true outdoors brand, which has been viewed as a fashion brand by the public along with it's growth. The post office located at the highest place in Japan, the peak of Mt.Fuji, opens only for 6 weeks in a year. Finding it was a perfect find to provide the true outdoors people who value sharing experience with a desirable event to accomplish. The brand originally targets true outdoors people who love accomplishing challenges and sharing experience. A bandana may sound too insignificant as a prize, but the whole experience became the most valuable prize for Japanese participants. The number of participants was 1380 during one summer, which was beyond the expectations of client and the agency, and the campaign was strongly supported by stores specializing outdoor goods, rather than casual sportswear stores.

Agency: Dentsu Y&R, Japan.

Vegetarian Society of India "Nodding Bull"

Ironically, in the home of vegetarianism 69% of Indians are non-vegetarian. Their clients, The Vegetarian Society of India, sought to arrest this rapid decline in their believers by hosting the World Vegetarian Conference in India. Being a non-profit organization, they had our task cut out. They had to re-new that faith of the masses by drawing traffic toward the conference. They had to do so in a clutter-cutting YET cost-effective manner. And they had to appeal to their core beliefs in doing so. The Hindu faith has great belief in the mythological divine bull 'Nandi' which is represented by the famous nodding bull. Unequivocally revered as the purveyor of justice and through it was the perfect mascot for the purpose. Hence they used it as the mascot to deliver the vegetarianism message. The medium was mobile. The bull traveled to towns and residential areas catching people when they are walking on the road completely unawares and resulted in huge eyeballs due to its novelty value. It was impossible to do grassroots level comm. through mass media. By making their communication appeal to a core belief and using an icon which quite literally had divine powers, there was no better way that the cause of vegetarianism could be propagagted.

Agency: JWT, India.

Nike "Stadium"

The brief was aimed at inspiring football-crazy kids to pursue their dreams of playing professionally. A limited number of Nike shoeboxes were transformed to house a stadium within by inserting a printed sheet of the stadium interior with embedded sound chips. So you could hear the crowd go wild when the box was opened. Nike took the opportunity to ride on their latest soccer boots, which were developed together with professional players for enhanced performance. Great interest was generated for the soccer boots which led to word of mouth amongst the football-crazy kids. Nike's position as the number one supporter was reinforced with their unrelenting belief in talent.

Agency: Publicis, Singapore.

Anywhere but Germany.

Nestlé wanted to create a promo before the World Cup. The problem was that Uruguay failed to classify to Germany, and was sorpresively eliminated by Australia in the Pre Qualifying Round. Every international brand started to promote the World Cup, claiming the football passion. El Chana Coffee, one of the most traditional brands of Uruguay, created a promo that linked perfectly with people sensitivity: El Chana takes you Anywhere but Germany. The prize was very original, because every brand created its own World Cup Promo, taking people to Germany, giving football prizes as balls, TV sets, etc. El Chaná looked the world cup from the other side, as a uruguayan who was ungry with soccer and wanted to forgot everything about Germany 2006. In a time of Coffee prices growing up, this promo increases sales over 10 %. It also put El Chaná brand in the word of mouth... every uruguayan started to joke about the promo and felt that El Chana was the only brand that comprehended their feelings.

Agency: Publicis Impetu, Uruguay.

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.

Promo Lions winner "Glamour Stiletto Run"

A race on stilettos in the high-end fashion shopping street in Amsterdam was the initial idea. The winner would win 10K shopping money. The concept was announced through an integrated communication campaign. The buzzing and teasing campaign announced the run through print, television, free publicity and buzzmarketing. The website supported the concept. The Glamour Stiletto Run campaign climaxed in a guerrilla 'hit & run' event, claiming the PC.Hooftstraat one hour filling it with a huge crowd, national and international press and with stiletto wearing shop-a-holics running the race. The Stiletto Run was implemented March 2006 and is repeated March 2007. To push the March fashion edition we wanted to create an explosive buzz which would build Glamour magazine as a new and distinctive title. There are a lot of competitors and the market is in decline. Therefore we had to create something significant and memorable with limited budgets. By developing an integrated brand campaign we aimed for quick mental market leadership. It has become clear for consumers as well as competition that Glamour is more fun, fashion and more Glamour to the people.

Agency: BSUR Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Torture Museum.

Visit the Torture Museum.

Agency: Y&R Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Grand Prix Promo Lions "Bonded by Blood"

Each year, Adidas prints a commemorative poster to celebrate the announcement of the new All Blacks squad. In 2006, Adidas wanted an concept that would reflect the powerful bond between the All Blacks and their fans. Adidas also wanted to grow sales of All Blacks apparel by 15% Target audience: The fans. Which basically means, 4 million New Zealanders. The solution was a world first: we created a limited-edition poster that not only featured the players but also included their actual DNA. Each player in the 40-strong squad donated blood which was thoroughly sterilised and then embedded into the paper during the printing process. 8,000 were made and the poster, suitably named “Bonded by Blood”, was displayed at point of sale, and was available only to those fans who bought an All Blacks jersey. Each poster came with a numbered certificate of authentication, with each member of the All Blacks receiving the one matching their jersey number. The ‘Making of’ was shown in-store on plasma screens, and also at bondedbyblood.co.nz, all blacks.com and on youtube. Sales of Adidas All Blacks apparel over exceeded the target and went up by 24%. All 8000 posters quickly sold out. In fact, many are now traded on auction sites around the world for around US$400 and rising. It was featured on TV news programs, in The Wall Street Journal and other newspapers around the world generating millions of dollars of editorial comment; not to mention hundreds and hundreds of blogs and sites. If rugby is a blood sport, these posters proved its ultimate celebration.

Agency: TBWA\WHYBIN Auckland, New Zealand.