Soccer star Kaká featured in Sony BRAVIA'S Motionflow campaign

FIFA’s World Player of the Year, Kaká, the Brazilian soccer star who plays for Real Madrid, is the focus of Sony BRAVIA’S new Motionflow advertising campaign for 2009, competing directly with Phillip's "Carousel" online campaign, (http://mktgcliks.blogspot.com/2009/07/philips-carousel-brings-creativity-to.html). The UK advertising agency responsible for this unusual and creative campaign is Fallon Worldwide, the agency which in 2005 introduced the Sony BRAVIA advertising premise, COLOUR LIKE NO OTHER. This memorable platform is heralded by a trilogy of "larger-than-life" spots that have surprised and entertained viewers over the last 4 years with captivating sound-tracks and imaginative portrayals of colour. This trilogy of ads; “Paint,” “Balls,” and “Play-doh” got attention with an over abundance of paint, bouncing balls, and colourful bunnies which communicated the vivid colour spectrum visible through Sony BRAVIA’S high definition LCD TV sets.

Fallon’s latest campaign for Sony BRAVIA moves away from this COLOUR LIKE NO OTHER platform, focusing instead on the smoothness of motion that Sony BRAVIA’S new Motionflow 240Hz TV technology provides. (Motionflow technology provides the viewer with 200 frames per second, delivering an extremely smooth viewing experience.) The “larger-than-life” premise from the previous BRAVIA campaigns still remains, almost as a Sony BRAVIA signature trademark, but this time it is diverted into the creation of a technological marvel as the centerpiece of their spot - a modern-day zoetrope. A zoetrope is a contraption that harkens back to 19th century film technology. It works by rapidly moving successive static images to give the perception of movement.

Fallon’s mission for the Motionflow campaign was to build a “larger-than-life,” fully functioning zoetrope and use it to demonstrate Sony BRAVIA’s Motionflow technology. They did just this, creating in northern Italy a BRAVIA-drome (zoetrope), a large donut-type (room-size)carousel of sorts, as the centre piece of their set for the 2009 advertising campaign. The campaign featured celebrity Brazilian soccer star and FIFA’s World Player of the Year, Kaká. Once the BRAVIA-drome was built, the commercial shoot took place, complete with the zoetrope and sixty-four static images of Kaká controlling the soccer ball in amazing ways. The shoot comprised of crowds of people, including Kaká, watching as the BRAVIA-drome containing his static images started to spin. As the BRAVIA-drome spun and gathered momentum, the static images of Kaká intermittently appeared to be moving until a speed of 44 km/hr was reached. At this speed the static images of Kaká seamless and smoothly flowed, moving sequentially as if on film to display the soccer player’s incredible ball control. This action all comes together in the final edits of the spot which uses the song UNDERDOG by Kasabian to give it that added edge.

The music for the campaign can be accessed through the Sony BRAVIA microsite for this campaign, http://www.motionflow.eu/ which also includes the Motionflow Kaká ad, information on the TV, interactive visuals of Kaká, behind the scenes footage, and information on the idea behind the campaign. The campaign also includes a BRAVIA in Motion YouTube channel where additional footage can be seen, http://www.youtube.com/user/braviainmotion.

The Motionflow campaign first aired in Australia and is now moving into the European markets, and will be rolled out into other countries as appropriate. The campaign also includes print, internet, viral, and in-store materials.

A few interesting facts from these “larger than life” Sony BRAVIA campaigns:

• The BRAVIA-drome weighs 10 tonnes and is 15 meters in diameter. It is also collapsible and can be easily dismantled and assembled at other locations.
• The BALLS spot was filmed using 250,000 balls being thrown down the streets of San Francisco. It uses the song “Heartbeats,” from Jose Gonzales’ Veneer album.
• The PAINT commercial used 70,000 litres of environmentally friendly paint. The music is from the “Overture to The Thieving Magpie,” by Gioachino Rossini.
• The PLAY-DOH spot was filmed in New York City. It uses the soundtrack “She's a Rainbow,” by the Rolling Stones.

You can see the Sony Motionflow spot below as well as the “making of” the spot, and the trilogy of the COLOUR LIKE NO OTHER spots from the previous 3 years; “Paint,” “Balls,” and “Play-doh.”

Sony BRAVIA Motionflow Kaká's ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFvYI5q-Bl4



The making of the BRAVIA Motionflow ad with Kaká
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we2tce9dklI




Sony BRAVIA, BALLS (2005)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP5J4W5GQ3w



Sony BRAVIA, PAINT (2006)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGL0gdEPCtU



Sony BRAVIA, PLAY-DOH (2007)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLUAbkRUvVQ

The Caramilk Secret, Still Wondering Campaign?

After numerous requests, this blog post looks at the current Canadian advertising campaign for Cadbury’s Caramilk chocolate bars which revives their Caramilk SECRET campaign from many years ago. “How do they get the caramel inside the Caramilk bar?” This is the light hearted theme of the 2009 Caramilk summer advertising campaign, STILL WONDERING, which picks up on a communications platform that has run intermittently for over 35 years.

The Caramilk SECRET campaign was made popular over the years, originating back to 1968, when the first Caramilk SECRET ad launched showing a person drilling a hole in the Caramilk chocolate bar prompting the question, “How do they get the Caramilk inside the Caramilk bar?” Probably one of the most famous TV spots was the Cannes and Clio award winning MONA LISA commercial from 1973 where the Mona Lisa smile was attributed to her secretly eating a piece of Caramilk chocolate while Leonardo da Vinci was trying to figure out the Caramilk secret.

After numerous ads over the years that followed the Caramilk SECRET platform, and a diversion over the last 5 years to focus on the eating experience, Caramilk had gone back to its roots and launched another SECRET campaign, STILL WONDERING, which begs the question, “How do they get the caramel inside the Caramilk bar?” This campaign is rather unusual in its whimsical approach and has been met with mixed reviews. Many people enjoy its eccentric qualities, while others have questioned, “What were they thinking?” Nonetheless, when one looks at the campaign in context of the light hearted approach of previous Caramilk SECRET campaigns and the type of humour used, it falls into place quite nicely. Of course, the issue that currently exists is that awareness levels of previous Caramilk SECRET campaigns remains relatively low after a lengthy hiatus. This issue will be remedied over time through consistent messaging and strong media weights which will give the campaign additional traction.

The STILL WONDERING campaign, created by Saatchi and Saatchi New York, includes TV spots, on-line components, print ads, a microsite, and audio boards on the Toronto subway system. At the end of June, 2009, 50 innovative interactive audio boards were put on the Toronto subway system allowing listeners to plug their earphones into various spots on a Caramilk STILL WONDERING ad to listen to an assortment of quirky voices, unusual accents, strange sounds, and foreign languages, all intentionally incoherent in their explanation on how the caramel gets inside the Caramilk bar. There are six selections on the ad (see above); a five year old boy, a Cockney man, a Xhosa tribesman, a whale, a fax machine, and a speed reader! These Caramilk STILL WONDERING audio options can also be seen and heard on videos posted on the campaign’s microsite at http://www.stillwondering.ca/. People that have listened to the audio transit ad seem rather amused, perhaps a little confused, but have nonetheless enjoyed it enough to spread the word to others, encouraging them to also listen to the ad.

The TV component of this campaign MODERN DANCE is currently playing at heavy weights, using an interpretive dance, a Cirque du Soleil type spoof, to explain the secret of how the caramel gets inside the Caramilk bar. Some have called the spot bizarre while others have enjoyed its quirkiness. MODERN DANCE is certainly unusual and uses a catchy sound track reminiscent of melodic, Peruvian folk music to engage viewers. The music track, called Cachapaya from the Swingle Singers, is originally from the British-South American band Incantation.

Below you can appreciate the Caramilk SECRET platform by listening to a short interview with Cadbury’s on their Caramilk brand and see segments of their original 1968 ad. You can also see the famous Mona Lisa ad from 1973, followed by two further spots in the SECRET platform. Their current STILL WONDERING campaign for Caramilk follows, including their interpretive MODERN DANCE spot and website executions for COCKNEY, XHOSA, and 5 YEAR OLD. The STILL WONDERING microsite is at http://www.stillwondering.ca/. By the way, Cadbury tell us the Caramilk secret is still safely under lock and key in their vault!

Cadbury Interview with Watch Mojo.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1E5WidRHJQ&feature=fvw




Caramilk Mona Lisa Spot, 1973
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4yqlttpJvk




Cadbury Caramilk Spot, 1986
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPhO1aT4IuE




Cadbury Caramilk Factory Spot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouSukfRtCOU




Cadbury Caramilk Modern Dance Spot, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPZKlziySSM




Cadbury Caramilk Secret Revealed in Cockney, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y44FBndD7M




Cadbury Caramilk Secret, Revealed in Xhosa, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzHgGkmPnHY




Cadbury Caramilk - 5 Year Old, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t92KANvgFb8

Cadbury GOO ON THE LOOSE Campaign Announces Social Media Winner

As part of their UK new product launch for Cadbury Creme Egg Twisted, a year round version of the Cadbury Creme Egg, Cadbury in the UK just announced the winner of their social media campaign devised to spread the word of their gooey new product and create a buzz in the market. The GOO ON THE LOOSE campaign created by CMW London used traditional media such as TV ads, but also used social media to spread the word in a way not seen before. The social media elements included a microsite created specifically for the promotion, a Facebook fan page, a Twitter account, and the use of YouTube for their viral TV spots. (See examples at http://mktgcliks.blogspot.com/2009/06/cadbury-creme-egg-twisted-social-media.html). The social media campaign ran from mid May to mid July and started with press kits being sent out to bloggers to encourage them to write about the campaign. A challenge was then let loose to young adults over the age of 18 to become super agents in the quest to find the missing Cadbury Creme Egg Twisted bars. The agent who most successfully created a buzz in the market would win the grand prize.

The social media campaign used Twitter to send out clues on the whereabouts of the missing Cadbury Creme Egg Twisted bars, with prospective agents vying to become one of the selected top 10 super agents who would then compete for the grand prize of £20.000. Once the top 10 agents were selected, they were each given a video camera with which to film their quest for the missing Twisted bars. They were challenged to spread the word of their feats and the Cadbury Creme Egg Twisted campaign through social media outlets such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Bebo, YouTube, Flikr, and MySpace etc. The winning agent would be selected based on creativity, social networking skills, the lengths gone to spread the word, and finally the buzz created.

Cadbury just announced the name of their top super agent, and winner of the £20.000 grand prize, Dean Stokes, who not only managed to get the Cadbury campaign talked about on the top rated Mashable blog, but also created numerous humorous viral videos of himself uploaded to YouTube. Dean Stokes could be seen gently spoofing the secret agent campaign with police outside Downing Street, at Wimbledon talking in hushed tones outside an Andy Murray match, and in London hotspots such as the London Eye. In total, 2,000 fans followed Dean Stokes on social networking sites and his viral videos received more than 5,000 views of YouTube - an accomplishment for both him and Cadbury. Let’s not forget that another 9 agents were also spreading the word about the Cadbury Creme Egg Twisted GOO ON THE LOSE campaign through social media outlets, making the campaign a measurable success for Cadbury.

Since the announcement of Dean Stokes’ win, the buzz continues to spread through articles and interviews on what Dean Stokes will be doing with his winnings. You can see a smattering of how Dean Stokes used social media to create a buzz in the market by going to his YouTube channel, visiting his blog, and seeing his Twitter updates. Below you can also see one of his best video uploads during the social media campaign and the final viral video he used to sell himself in the competition. All in all, a very imaginative campaign by Cadbury, and a very creative endeavour by Dean Stokes.

CMW London's video review of this successful campaign is also posted below. It identifies the intricate elements that went into the campaign, highlighting the positive campaign results for Cadbury Creme Egg Twisted!

Dean Stokes’ YouTube Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/agentdeanstokes
Dean Stokes’ Blog http://gooisontheloose.wordpress.com/
Dean Stokes’ Twitter http://www.twitter.com/deanstokes

Agent Dean Stokes' Viral Video - Mission to London Goo on the Loose
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtdW0nJkB7s&feature=player_embedded



Agent Dean Stokes’ Viral Video - GOO ON THE LOOSE - A Look Back & Creme Egg Twisted Bars Surrender! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQSeCKWrSTo




CMW London's campaign review - Twisted Campaign 2009 - Operation Goo on the Loose http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_f4MvYcDZM