Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Evian Babies – Live Young Campaign (updated July 16, 2009)

The creativity coming out of France this year is worth mentioning with the latest imaginative campaign coming from Paris-based BETC Euro RSCG for Evian water. Just two weeks ago, Evian’s Live Young campaign was sprung in France, the UK, Belgium, Canada, the US, and Japan with an imaginative campaign that makes you chuckle - who would expect a gang of rollerskating toddlers with “attitude” to be showing us that Evian water invigorates the body? These babies toe-tap to rap music, break-dance to the beat, and perform rollerskating tricks - all to make the point that natural, pure water supports youth! I am not a fan of talking babies (in either movies or ads), but this ad over-comes the cliché of talking babies by having them do something other than talk which, after all, is not that exciting, or even creative. In fact, these babies do not talk at all. Instead, we are immediately engaged at the start of the commercial by the unexpected view of a “tough guy,” (very cute), rollerskating clad toddler, rhythmically tapping his toes and moving to the beat of a rap song. The unexpected scene and music raises our interest as we curiously enter into the playful world of Evian babies that captivates us with their playful grins as they boogie to a RAPPER’S DELIGHT remix, (hiphop artist Dan the Automator).

This campaign includes viral videos posted on YouTube, (6,245,870 views for the international version, 5,668,037 for the US version, and 1,161,468 for the French version by July 16, 2009), homepage YouTube placements, TV ads in select markets, print ads, a Facebook page (5,541 fans to date), http://www.facebook.com/evianliveyoung, a microsite at http://evianliveyoung.com/ with viral videos, teasers, interviews, the making of the 60 second spot, and music and photo downloads. They are using a social media campaign to virally spread their campaign through press releases, bloggers, Tweeters, Internet links passed on from person to person, and updated videos posted on YouTube and Facebook. Their latest video- release, posted July 15, 2009, is a new (not the original) montage of the making of the Roller Babies. It cleverly splices in props, computer animation, and the footage of the babies to give us a taste of how they brought the campaign to life. You can see the video below. This campaign will receive additional international exposure in August/September 2009 as Evian is a sponsor of the Masters Women's Golf tournament and the US Open Grand-Slam tennis tournament.

For those of you familiar with the advertising for Evian water, this campaign goes back to their use of babies in 1998 where we saw the babies swimming under water in a synchronized swimming routine. The use of babies is to represent something precious and pure - a symbol of Evian water itself. The 1998 spot starts with the same trademark sound of dripping water that we hear in the latest 2009 spot. I would be remiss if I did not mention the very creative Evian WaterBoy spot from 2003 which took us all by surprise with a TV spot created to the Queen song “WE WILL ROCK YOU.” You can see these spots below;

Evian Roller Babies International Version 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQcVllWpwGs&feature=channel



Evian Babies New making of
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQXD9sx-i0A



Evian Water Babies 1998
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCOcjWG6Ykc



Evian WaterBoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s5pVe47xns





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7 comments:

Danny Da Silva said...

I feel that this was a very smart and creative way of advertising this water because the message in the videos are very loud and clear, that water is good for you and it will also keeps you young and full of life. The videos it self are genius, they keep you glued to the screen the whole time, and it doesn't matter how many times you have seen the video, every-time it comes on you will definitely watch it again and again.
Also the thing I loved about this is the way they went on getting the adds out there. By streaming it viral. Like this people that enjoy the video can now send it to their friends who will definitely send it to their friends. It will be like a snowball rolling down a hill, it will just keep on accumulating more and more until its to big to move.

Unknown said...

The video for Evian Babies was an inventive way to advertise water. Most people’s attention span is only 10, may be 15 seconds; however, this video has you intrigued to continue watching for the full minute. As a viewer you are fascinated to see what else these babies can do on roller skates because the video is continuously introducing new and different turns and jumps throughout. Putting the video on YouTube was an excellent way to grab an audience. Viral media interconnected with word-of-mouth gave it the success of having over 6,000,000 views internationally.
Babies as well as animals are the most fascinating characters to watch in commercials. With using either one in a commercial you have the potential of attracting the attention of a large age bracket. In addition, it was clever to see how there were “mini” commercials added into the commercial. As the video progresses you read a sentence as to what the commercial is advertising as well as actually seeing the Evian water bottles, which the babies roller skate around. This helps to identify the product being marketed as well as something humorous to watch.
Lastly, most people can relate to the babies in the Evian video. When you see babies in real life you see the oddest things that they do and everyone usually finds it cute. Throughout the video you see the babies trying to act tough, which is very adorable and helps to keep the audience’s attention. Evian’s goal through creating this original video is that “natural, pure water supports youth.” Showing the purest and most innocent character possible, which are babies, was the perfect way to relate the two together.

besyjoana said...

This Commercial i believe was very effective was it catches the viewers attention. Seeing babies on roller skates isn't exactly something you would see everyday. I think that evian took a very unique approach on this ad. It relates to evians goal because their tag line is "natural, pure water supports youth" and their showing the babies as the lowest stage of the youth. I believe that this ad was effective and catching to the viewers eye. By being this creative viewers actually took time to watch the commercial instead of just muting it or not paying attention to it.

Crystal Kennedy said...

The video for Evian Babies was an inventive way to advertise water. Most people’s attention span is only 10, may be 15 seconds; however, this video has you intrigued to continue watching for the full minute. As a viewer you are fascinated to see what else these babies can do on roller skates because the video is continuously introducing new and different turns and jumps throughout. Putting the video on YouTube was an excellent way to grab an audience. Viral media interconnected with word-of-mouth gave it the success of having over 6,000,000 views internationally.
Babies as well as animals are the most fascinating characters to watch in commercials. With using either one in a commercial you have the potential of attracting the attention of a large age bracket. In addition, it was clever to see how there were “mini” commercials added into the commercial. As the video progresses you read a sentence as to what the commercial is advertising as well as actually seeing the Evian water bottles, which the babies roller skate around. This helps to identify the product being marketed as well as something humorous to watch.
Lastly, most people can relate to the babies in the Evian video. When you see babies in real life you see the oddest things that they do and everyone usually finds it cute. Throughout the video you see the babies trying to act tough, which is very adorable and helps to keep the audience’s attention. Evian’s goal through creating this original video is that “natural, pure water supports youth.” Showing the purest and most innocent character possible, which are babies, was the perfect way to relate the two together.

Vedoshie Narindralall said...

Name Vedoshie Narindralall
(This the second time I am Post this comment.)
I would like to say this is a very creative and innovative way to doing advertising. Water is something everyone needs. It is showing us that water is good and it keeps us young and active. With this kind of advertising viewers keep wanting more and their attention is focus on the ad,wondering what will happen next.

The more I watch the ad it always feel like the first time I am seeing the ad because I enjoy it so much. To see how people can be creative opens my mind to new things. seeing the babies having fun is so much fun.

Jeffrey Nti-Adjei said...

I really have a lot to say about this ad. There's so much on my mind that I don't even know where to start. I must say that this ad really catches my attention in the sense that an idea like this has never been done before; well not to my knowledge. The ad is effective because it really ties in with the saying "Live Young", which was shown at the end of the ad. Those babies were so full of life and viewers will definitely purchase Evian water in order to get that energetic sensation and some might just purchase Evian water specifically because the commercial was catchy, convincing, and interesting. I'm not a fan of Evian water, but the whole overall message sends that feeling for me to get up and dance or do something "fun". I could watch this video over and over repeatedly and never get tired. This is the whole point of advertising. Advertising must form effectiveness to the extent that it will pull people towards the product it's trying to market. Even while having a short attention span when watching commercials, this ad will always have my undivided attention without any intention of changing the channel until the ad is done. Furthermore, the ad was very humorous I must say because I enjoy ads that are very amusing and would make me want to watch it again just to embrace more laughter. The effectiveness of this ad will help Evian's brand recognition propel heavily through the market.

As for creativity, this ad has a lot of strengths. The whole atmosphere is very abstract and unique as it connects to reality and modern day life itself. How often do people see babies in rollerskates dancing just to promote a brand of water? This ad could not have promoted Evian any better. This ad is something you don't see everyday. It was different and the advertisers must have put an excessive amount of effort into this ad. The special effects made the ad look and seem too real, as if those babies were actually performing those impressive stunts on rollerskates. Also, the background and setting was a good choice followed by the right music with the proper rhythm to get viewers into the mood. All these features make the ad very thorough and outstanding. I must say that the creativity was well implemented and a lot of thought was put into making this ad. The whole theme really gives that young and urban effect towards the whole perspective of life and making the best of it. To me, it means to live every moment of it. This ad is definitely my definition of proper advertising. We can all relate to this ad and learn from it. Drink water and live young. You are only as young as you feel.

Amandeep Singh said...

Evian had one very good advertisement campaign. Using babies to promote their ad campaign was not only clever but very creative. They definitely chose the right people for their ad campaign. Having babies dance around to remixed music sends out the message that everyone should live young and have fun all the time. This campaign caught the attention of not only parents but everyone else who loves babies.

Evian's live young ad campaign has very been successful. Having the large number of hits on their viral videos definitely proves the ad campaign was a success.

Overall, Evian had a very unique ad campaign. The ad campaign sent out a message to live young by drinking water but not just any water "Evian" water.