MktgCliks

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