Expenses Invaders

May 22, 2006 - AdverBlog

Eventually an advergame from Italy which doesn't ask users for the registration up-front. It's called Spese Invaders (Expenses Invaders) and it has been developed by Olà for Fineco, an online bank.

The Beckham's interactive video advergames

May 29, 2006 - AdverBlog

Volkswagen is online with a new mini-site to promote its Touran model and its sponsorship of the David Beckham (football) Academy.

The interesting thing to look at in this mini-site are the advergames. They are not particularly original nor challenging to play, but they are all based on an innovative video interface, showcasing the interactive potentials of Flash 8. Tribal DDB London did the job.

Stop Holland: funny or silly?

May 29, 2006 - AdverBlog

Don't let this nightmare become reality. Don't let Holland win the World Cup final against Germany. Electronic Arts has put online a controversial (and therefore viral) advertainment website to promote its Fifa World Cup videogame. The idea of Jung Von Matt is to allow Germans to make fun of Dutch people and incidentally discover the new videogame.

The mini-site offers the chance to submit user generated choirs against the Orange team, as well as to send condolences messages to the Dutch football fans.

On top of the minisite, there is also a Tv spot which previews what will happen in Berlin if Holland would win the championship.

Vc consegue servir um copo perfeito de cerveja?

29/05 - BlueBus

A cerveja Stella Artois colocou na internet um advergame no qual os visitantes sao desafiados a servir com perfeiçao um copo da bebida - experimente aqui. O usuario tem que enfrentar 9 etapas - escolher o copo certo, decidir a inclinaçao do copo e assim por diante. A criaçao é da Lowe Worldwide e da Lowe Tesch, agência digital do grupo em Estocolmo, na Suécia. As sequências do game que incluem videos foram rodadas em Praga, na Republica Tcheca.

Jogo online dá chance de ganhar ingressos para a final da Copa

23/05 - Blue Bus

A Philips colocou no ar um game online que dá ao jogador a chance de ganhar ingressos para a final da Copa do Mundo. O desafio é fazer gols controlando a bola - direção, efeito e força - apenas com o mouse. A cada gol marcado, o cenário vai mudando e se tornando mais profissional.

Lonely Planet presents not so original advergame

May 14, 2006 - AdverBlog

Guess the cities in the advergame launched by Lonely Planet. Very very similar to the popular Virgin "Exercise your muscle" advergame online at end of last year.

Drive your Ford in the Acropolis rally

May 17, 2006 - AdverBlog

I'm very happy to post about this advergame: first of all it's the very first interactive campaign I receive from Greece, and second Panos, who is the Director of Interactive Services at OgilvyOne, Athens sent me an email with "an offer I could not refuse". The game lets you drive a Ford Focus inside the Special Stage of the Rally Acropolis that is taking place on June 1st inside the Athens Olympic Stadium (where the 2004 Olympics took place). People that register and play the game, can win a VIP Experience Package for the Rally, including hotels, packstage access, tickets and transport to the events, and so on.

The Levi's Truth Booth

May 18, 2006 - AdverBlog

Stay True is new Levi's campaign which OgilvyOne Singapore has taken online creating the "Truth Booth". If you have something to confess, to yourself or to the world, visit the website and record your message. You can send it as audio or video, as you prefer, as you dare.

Rexona Sport Fan and the World Cup

May 18, 2006 - AdveBlog

In Brazil, Rexona has launched a mini-site as part of a new campaign for Rexona Sport Fan. Of course the content is World Cup related: a video showing a Brazilian football fan at the stadium, a Sport Fan manifesto and an Atari style advergame and the possibility to support the Brazilian team by sending a short message.

The TV spot (by VegaOlmosPonce), currently running in South America, features Ronaldinho desperately trying to fetch a tube of Rexona. spot

Footballers Wive$, everybody plays dirty

May 17, 2006 - AdverBlog

If you like football and you're a fan of Desperate Housewives, you will probably enjoy this advergame, just launched by BBC America to promote the new Tv series Footballers Wive$.

The game is quite challenging, since your goal is to keep everybody happy. Agents, managers, wives and girlfriends always need to be in a good mood, so make sure they have everything their "little hearts" desire - love, fame, money, power, and yes, a good reputation.

Scary Movie advergame

May 08, 2006 - AdverBlog

Kill some monsters but spare the babes in an Australian advergame to promote Scary Movie 4. Excellent soundtrack BTW.

Are you a Fanimal?

May 17, 2006 - Adverblog

AKQA is behind the new weird online campaign of Peperami: Fanimal. What is a Fanimal? As Amy explains in the latest issue of Out to launch, a Fanimal is a rubber toy that screams out rants, which football fans can throw at the TV when the opposing team scores or the referee makes a bad call.

An advergame for advertising agencies

May 09, 2006 - AdverBlog

From Denmark, an interesting advergame to promote Maconomy X, a financial solution for advertising agencies. Catch Time – on Time is about a challenge any agency executive will recognize: get your people to submit time on time. The Creative people are very reluctant and will make comments... but this is something you already know :-)

Google's Da Vinci Code: two weeks in

May 1st 2006 - Joystiq

The Da Vinci Code web-based game from Google is on its fifteenth day of twenty-four, and we've had time to figure out quite what the game is all about. It's effectively a serialised puzzle game, with daily challenges which increase in difficulty as time wears on.

What's more interesting is the sheer weight of Google's cross-promotion. For example, a link to the game appears on standard search results, and the game itself plugs into Google's personalised homepage service. While the logic-based puzzles are straightforward, follow-on questions require some searching, promoting Google's more obscure services such as SMS translation.

With the entire Google machine behind it, this game could become very popular indeed -- this seems like a lightweight experiment to test the model, but we wouldn't be surprised if more 'casual' games come out of Google in future.

Sony Traffic Surges With Google Promo

May 12, 2006 - MediaPostPublications

AFTER GOOGLE LAUNCHED A PROMOTION of "The Da Vinci Code" on its home page, traffic at Sony Motion Pictures' Web site skyrocketed--increasing to about .0078 percent of all Web visits on May 6, from .0047 percent on April 15, according to data released Thursday by Hitwise.

Google accounted for 30 percent of the visits to Sony's site by May 6, 20 days after the promotion launched in mid-April--compared to competitors Yahoo and MSN's .93 percent and .37 percent, respectively. In the week leading up to the promotion's launch, Google accounted for roughly 3 percent of traffic sent to Sony's Web site.
To promote the movie, Google created a contest that involved branded entertainment puzzles for users' personalized home pages. Google linked to the contest on its own home page--marking the first time that Google promoted another company's product on the home page.

Separately, Fandango Thursday announced that the movie already is popular with Web users. As of Thursday, "The Da Vinci Code" is Fandango's best-selling ticket of the week--even though it won't open until May 19.

Commercial Clutter May Finally Choke Content

May 11, 2006 - MediaPost

IT'S A CLUTTERED AD LIFE in TV--and that's only the start.

A growing commercial and show promo load on the broadcast and cable networks has seemingly never stopped. In fact, cable, it appears now, has taken over the top spot with commercial clutter--especially for networks like MTV Networks.

It's secret? No one knows for sure. Perhaps younger adults don't really mind being sold to that much. And MTV, being the promotional machine that it is, has been stuffing in more promo-time to tout its array of other programming choices.

Well, that's your typical Viacom cable synergy. No mystery there. All this comes from being a commercial business enterprise--TV networks have this thing about making more money every year.

Of course, in future years media wants a double, triple whammy: digital TV downloads-- with or without advertising. Even then, who's to say a download from iTunes Music Store won't have a short 10-second or 15-second pre-roll ad leading in the show.

Worried about clutter now? This is nothing.

Debbie Solomon, senior partner and group research director at Mindshare, told Media Life that clutter has not stopping growing since the early 1990s. And she wonders and worries, like the rest of the marketing world, where this all is heading.

I'll tell you: branded content in TV commercials. Right now non-program time sits at about 15 to 17 minutes, depending on who's counting, depending on which network. Say that was reversed. Say you get only 15 to 17 minutes of program time per house. You'd have content integrating commercials--not the other way around.
Current branded entertainment deals may used to combat commercial clutter. But, in fact, it adds to it.

Only HBO, Showtime, and a few other select networks have seemingly resisted the trend (through product integration has made its way into those shows as well). Even non-commercial cable networks of long ago--AMC and Bravo, and even PBS--are on the hunt for marketers' money.

Pretty soon the only thing viewers will be doing each night is spending 10, 20, or 30 minutes of pure fast forwarding.

TNT to Give Sponsors Nightmares

5/10/2006 - MultiChannel

The Futon Critic

Turner Entertainment Ad Sales and Marketing has developed strategic brand partnerships around the upcoming TNT anthology series NIGHTMARES & DREAMSCAPES: FROM THE STORIES OF STEPHEN KING for AutoTrader.com and Hyundai. These multifaceted promotions reach consumers through uncluttered environments, a consumer sweepstakes and TNT marketing components supporting the series. The premiere installment Battleground, starring Oscar? winner William Hurt, will be presented uninterrupted, commercial-free by Hyundai Wednesday, July 12 at 9 p.m. (ET/PT), with the second installment, Crouch End, immediately following.

Advertisers like AutoTrader.com and Hyundai are seeking out partners who can engage their consumers, said Linda Yaccarino, executive vice president, Turner Entertainment Ad Sales and Marketing. Part of our job is to identify and develop those opportunities that have multi-platform extensions. The branded messaging that was customized around NIGHTMARES & DREAMSCAPES will reach consumers nationwide through the many ways individuals consume media.

As title sponsor for the commercial-free premiere, Hyundais brand extends to TNT marketing support surrounding the first installment, which includes on-air tune-ins, in-program graphics and a national print campaign. In addition, Hyundai has signed on as a full season sponsor alongside AutoTrader.com. Following the premiere, promotional elements for both partners include tagged broadband components at tnt.tv, along with branding within the series on-air tune-ins and billboards on TNT.

Back to the Future

May 9, 2006 - MediaPostPublications

Will TV return to its single-sponsor glory days?

It seems that 1948 was a very good year for television. There were more than 900 advertisers on TV that year, an astounding 515 percent increase over 1947. "The Ed Sullivan Show," sponsored by Lincoln-Mercury, premiered. B.F. Goodrich sponsored a new series with radio crossover stars George Burns and Gracie Allen. And Milton Berle stole the small screen in September of that year, when "Texaco Star Theater" launched.

With the 2006-2007 upfront upon us, branded entertainment, the "It Girl" of contemporary marketing, is sure to be a heated contender in the annual tug-of-war. But will a return to those lone-ranger days of single-sponsored programming be part of the wrangling?

Yes. And no. Maybe. Depends on whom you ask. But the subject is hot.

In 2005, former Initiative Media CEO and now marketing and media consultant Michael Kassan undertook a study on the future of TV for a large media conglomerate with cable and broadcast properties. He interviewed chief marketing officers at ad agencies around the country. When asked about the prospects for a return to something like "Texaco Star Theater," Kassan says he's heard a lot of talk about it, but thinks "the networks are nervous; they're not getting behind it yet. And still, to their credit, they're smart enough to say, wait a minute, we better look at it."

However, even proponents admit the price of a single-sponsor venture today would be daunting. Cost, in fact, is the largest objection raised by people who don't believe single sponsorship of network shows, with the tens of millions of dollars it would cost, could work anymore.

"The economics just aren't there," says media consultant Erwin Ephron, partner in New York's Ephron, Papazian & Ephron. "The yield to the selling network has to be at a certain point. So the cost to the advertiser becomes extremely high and what he is buying is frequency, he's not buying reach. And most advertisers do not have a range of commercials to justify that. Whenever these things have been done in recent years, they've been done as event marketing and that's fine, like Ford did with the TV broadcast of 'Schindler's List.' It's much bigger than a TV event. That you can justify perhaps, but even that is hard," Ephron says.

Coming up with novel uses of single sponsorship beyond running the same spots over and over is indeed an obstacle. And in a media world obsessed with "engagement," the challenge be-comes that much tougher. In the 21st century, as mpg CEO Charlie Rutman observes, "It's a good thing to be in a lot of places." Besides, he says he doesn't think "a whole season [of sole sponsorship] is economically viable."

But there may be new life for the old single-sponsor gambit in emerging media like broadband and the Internet. "We're not going to return to 'Texaco Star Theater' or 'Hallmark Hall of Fame,' but it could possibly work with emerging media forms, at least in the short term," says Larry Blasius, executive vice president/director, negotiations for Magna Global, whose client Johnson & Johnson scored Emmys in the past three years for an acclaimed series of eponymous Spotlight cable movies. "It's already being done in broadband and other [emerging media] areas because the economics are such that you can do that," Blasius says.

"From a TV perspective, single sponsorship is old tech," adds Brian Terkelsen, senior vice president/ director of entertainment marketing at MediaVest. "From a new media perspective, it isn't necessarily old and therefore it's being tested there. You see brands road-blocking Web sites."

For Terkelsen, single sponsorship has no place in a brave new world in which the water-cooler TV show is an endangered species. "We're not creating a new dialogue with consumers by going back 50 years," he concludes. "We're just pulling something up from a half-century ago, dusting it off and re-applying it. What we're striving for, what everybody should be struggling to figure out, is how to better connect with consumers. They may appreciate limited commercial interruption, but it is not delivering a big brand message without the proper context being added."

Beware! ABC's hit Lost is leading us down a strange and new high-tech path

By Maria Elena Fernandez

May 2 2006 - Sun-Sentinel

Get ready to get more Lost than ever.

Beginning Wednesday, when the popular mystery drama returns to the ABC schedule with original episodes for the entire month, fans will have new and, of course, mysterious ways to get clued into a new Lost world that begins on the Internet but also will take advantage of "other platforms that are out there in the real world," according to ABC executives.

The show's executive producers, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, have created the Lost Experience, so assume it will be complex and addicting. But what is it exactly, and are those "other platforms" perhaps those gadgets we call cellphones and iPods?

"I'd have to kill you if I told you," joked Steve McPherson, ABC's president of prime-time entertainment. "It's an all-encompassing experience for the extremely dedicated fan who wants to extend their experience with the show beyond the weekly viewing. It's Internet, it's mythology, it's puzzle-solving and it's games. It's groundbreaking in that sense that it's never been done before, but it's hard to put it into a single sentence to describe it."

This much has been gleaned: The Lost Experience is a story that is related to but separate from the television series, includes the same characters, expands familiar plots and will have run its course by the beginning of next season. To enjoy the experience, you do not have to be a dedicated Lost viewer, and fans who do not participate on the Internet will not be at a loss when watching the show.

"You might think of it as Harry Potter," said Mike Benson, ABC's senior vice president of marketing. "You don't necessarily have to see the first one to enjoy the second one. The great thing that Carlton and Damon have done in writing this story line is that it reaches back into season one, looks at the current season and goes forward into the future."

To find the new adventure, you must watch the show's entire Wednesday episode. TiVo and DVR users be warned: There are clues in the commercials as well.

"It's TiVo-proof," Benson said. "We will surprise the audience with where and how things are placed as far as clues and content and information. The whole experience is designed to dig deep and find lots of interesting stuff."

TiVo Offers Ads on Demand

8.5.06 - MIT Advertising Lab

"TiVo will today launch Product Watch, a service offering on-demand ads to its subscribers. TiVo has signed up about 70 advertisers, including marketers such as Kraft Foods, Ford Motor, General Motors and IAC/InterActive's LendingTree, to participate in the service. TiVo announced plans for the service in November.

For the most part, the marketers won't run traditional 30-second TV commercials. Instead, they will offer longer ads that attempt to be more informative than typical commercials. Kraft, for instance, will offer 20 different cooking videos that will show such things as how to grill its Tombstone pizza, potato-salad basics, or how to create a cantaloupe-and-Jell-O dessert.

Similar ads already are available on video-on-demand services offered by cable operators such as Comcast.

To entice advertisers, TiVo will charge marketers only for viewers who download an ad -- an arrangement akin to the pay-per-click model in paid-search Internet advertising. The only other charge will be a setup fee when the advertiser first signs on."-- Wall Street Journal, see also press release

A Cluedo advergame for B2B

May 05, 2006 - Adverblog

In the UK, the The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has launched an advergame to educate businesses on the risks associated with software piracy. Inspired to the popular Hasbro title Cluedo, the game challenges the player to find out, as a managing director, how illegal software has proliferated withing the company. Players who solve the mystery are invited to submit their score to win prizes, which consist of "legal" software.

Philips shaves you everywhere

May 02, 2006 - Adverblog

Another website highlights the importance of body grooming for men: it's shaveeverywhere.com, launched by Philips Norelco to promote their new shaver.

It's done in Flash 8 and it has some sense of humour. Is it very funny (and viral) or just very silly? You decide!