Myers Media Innovation and Creativity Awards: Gold Agency Winners

Description of goals and strategies of program:
The goal of the program was to build buzz and awareness around the Saw movie franchise to support the release of Saw III on DVD. The young male target audience for the Saw franchise is notoriously hard to reach. An integrated campaign was needed to find them on multiple platforms in ways that they found compelling. Advertising has to be treated like content to get this target to pull messages into their entertainment experience.

Description, including what aspects make it worthy of recognition, why it is innovative, how it was developed, presented, approved, and implemented, as well as obstacles confronted during the development, approval and implementation process:
The Saw III DVD launch campaign expanded the boundaries of mobile advertising and the concept of brand integration. The program elements included:

• The first ever streaming wireless TV channel devoted to a film
• The first ever brand integration into made for wireless and broadband content
• The first ever interactive mobile ad
  • We programmed and launched on MobiTV (the mobile streaming video content service on all wireless carriers except Verizon) a dedicated Saw TV channel. In a world where people control the content that they see, advertising has to be treated as content to make it through the consumer filter. Understanding the value of Saw content was the key to creating and selling through the first ever studio wireless channel. The Saw channel included trailers, interviews, and a variety of content relating to the franchise.
  • We created the first branded entertainment integration into made-for-mobile/broadband content. We worked with Comedy Time, the top rated sketch comedy production company for broadband and mobile, to integrate Saw themes into original comedy programming. Research made it clear that there was tremendous overlap between our target and Comedy Time's audience. Saw III was integrated into a variety of Comedy Time's most popular serialized content, from stand-up comedy to original ongoing skits. We wanted to harness Comedy Time's creative talent, and provided very loose creative guidelines for the integrations; and it worked. Comedy Time delivered a tremendous range of great content, fro mover the top shameless promotion of the DVD release to more subtle allusions to Saw films and the horror genre.

    The resulting content lives on 40+ broadband internet sites and four wireless platforms, including MobiTV and Amp'd. At the time when wireless banner ads are receiving press ink, we went far beyond that by integrating into the actual content.

     

  • Another innovative aspect of the campaign was the launch of the first ever interactive mobile ad unit. In addition to the Saw channel on MobiTV, we ran a full ad schedule on their network of channels. Consumers that saw the ads on Cingular could click on them to and directly link to the Saw channel.

    The program exceeded expectations, but as with all innovative programs there were unexpected challenges along the way. Creating a channel and a two-screen integration program goes beyond trafficking ads and typical approval processes. The challenges stemmed from the fact that all the key players had to do things they have never done before. From having to source the Saw franchise materials, to programming an entire channel to managing, reviewing and approving the custom integrations.