I am Legend Advertainment – iPhone, Second Life

Warner Brothers is jumping on the unconventional media bandwagon with the marketing of their new movie, I am Legend. Will Smith stars in what proves to be the umpteenth zombie horror adventure movie to take place in the last few years. In the movie, Smith apparently spends most of his time doing what any reasonable person would do in the same situation…running away from the people/things that want to eat him. Clichéd plot lines aside, Warner Brothers is doing things that are anything but trite with their actual marketing efforts.

First, they created a Section of their Web site dedicated solely to Apple iPhone users. This interactive mini site is actually pretty advanced, as I suppose it should be, seeing as how it is designed for one of the most advanced phones on the market right now. It comes complete with wallpaper and photos tailored to work for the iPhone, recent news about the movie, a full-length trailer, a brief synopsis of the movie, and a “Daylight Meter.” This little widget allows you to enter your zip code, and it then gives your geographic coordinates (based on latitude and longitude), and the amount of time left until daylight...because Will Smith has to hide from the zombies at night, get it? Does this little site serve a purpose? Not really, unless you are a special ops soldier (coordinates), or a vampire (daylight meter). Is it a clever way to use a new media? Yes. It is basically the new generation of a .mobi mobile Web site. As for whether or not setting up a mobile Web site for a specific brand of phone will catch on, this is a bit hard to predict. However, in my opinion, it seems as though this may be a bit limiting, due to the fact that it can only be reached by those with an iPhone; it makes more sense to me to simply set up a mobile Web site compatible with any internet-ready phone.

The second part of Warner Bros. outside-of-the-box thinking for marketing I am Legend is through yet another remotely untapped medium- Second Life. This part of their untraditional marketing efforts is truly the brain child of their operations. Warner Bros. has set up the “I am Legend Second Life Survival Game,” in which residents of the virtual world can play as a human or as one of the zombies. Either way, the main object of the game is to find the cure to the virus that spurred this crazy zombie outbreak. Now, if you ask me, this is good marketing. And it is so clever on Warner Brothers’ part, especially from a strategic management perspective. Instead of creating their own high-tech advergame to market this movie, they used a platform (or medium, what have you) that already exists…thus cutting back significantly on their costs of development and production…and also tapping into an already enormous consumer-base. In fact, as of this post, there at 10,255,064 users on Second Life, check out how many there are right now (as you are reading this post) Here. They have essentially created an advergame within a game. Well played, Warner Brothers.



So, the post-blog post kudos for this entry goes first to Angela Natividad over at Adrants, for posting This Article, which brought the I am Legend advertainment news to my attention, and second to MarketingVox for posting This Article, which supplemented the other things that I found elsewhere.

Tea Partay Advertainment Videos

I have decided that it is time to revisit (see previous post Here)the Smirnoff Tea Partay video due to its brilliance, its success at generating word of mouth, and its relatively new, but yet equally successful counterpart, the Smirnoff Green Tea Partay video. These two short clips are a great example of how effective well executed advertainment can be.

The original Smirnoff Tea Partay video was released about a year ago, and, to date, it has been viewed over 3.7 million times on YouTube. Not too shabby. And let’s not forget that people viewing this pseudo-ad are doing so willingly. They are not a passive audience sitting back and ignoring this advertainmnet, rather, they sought out the video, and they actually want to see it. Also, they seem to like it, as the video has a 4 out of 5 star rating on YouTube.

Tea Partay - Smirnoff

Also, disregarding production costs for the video, which likely didn’t exceed that of any standard 30 second TV spot, what is the cost of airing this video? Nothing…so, what is the CPM for reaching 3.7 million people? Nothing.

Smirnoff recognized this, and due to the unprecedented success that they had with the video, they went ahead and released the Smirnoff Green Tea Partay video about two months ago. And, guess what, lightning does strike the same place twice. They have already had over 3.3 million hits on this video. My suspicion is that many of the people who saw the original video (such as myself) jumped at the thought of seeing another, similar video. So, what have we got here? Repeat viewing that (likely subconsciously) further substantiates the brand equity of Smirnoff in the viewer’s heads.

Smirnoff Green Tea: Green Tea Partay

As for the videos themselves, I don’t want to describe them at all in this post, rather, I think it is best if you watch them yourself. In my opinion, they are remarkably funny. Check ‘em out.

The IAB Recognizes Advergames

The Interactive Advertising Bureau has recently added a bit more legitimacy to the field of advergaming with the addition of the “Games Advertising” link under the “Resources and Research” section on their global navigation bar. It is about time that this topic gains more coverage by the internet’s main pseudo-regulatory body.

Within the aforementioned links, you are able to download a full PDF file written by the IAB, in affiliation with the Games Committee, that has an abstract describing it as “The first in a series of papers that will lead the way to a vigorous and healthy industry with commonly adopted terminology, practices and standards.” Basically, the IAB has realized that it is high time to begin to, at least attempt, to legitimize the field of advergaming.

The PDF file is a relatively in-depth analysis of the definition of Advergaming, its most common practices, and an analysis of its future potential. It also details the different mediums used for advergaming, namely gaming consoles and the internet. In addition, it includes some pretty staggering research-based statistics that are true eye-openers to the significance of this manner of advertising for future marketing efforts. A few particularly amazing facts are as follows:

“Video Games [all-encompassing, not just Advergames] have emerged as a main-stream entertainment medium that generates worldwide revenues of about $25 billion in hardware and software sales. Surpassing box office revenues, movie rentals, book and music sales, Video Game revenues reached $12 billion in the US in 2006.”



“The integration of online games across all hardware platforms has resulted in the emergence of advertising as a significant revenue driver for the games industry. Analyst predictions vary, but they all point to big numbers. Parks Associates believes overall game-related ad spending will grow from $370 million in 2006 to more than $2 billion by 2012.”

And there’s plenty more good facts where those came from. Check out the PDF I am talking about Here. It provides even more evidence that advergaming is not a fleeting fad…it is here to stay, and its significance to the advertising industry will grow exponentially in years to come.

Bravia Advertainment TVC

Ok...even though this blog is called “Advertainment in America,” and thus is supposed to have content strictly devoted to American Advertainment and Advergames…I have decided to stretch the limits of what is allowed a little bit here…because I really love what Sony is doing for their (relatively) new Bravia campaign. The ads have been airing in the EU, primarily in FR, BE, and PT, and I haven’t seen them around here yet, but I hope that they hit the US ASAP…had enough acronyms yet?

I am also stretching the definition of Advertainment a bit, I suppose…but these ads, while they are traditional in the sense that they are television spots, are truly entertaining, and they have the strange quality of feeling more like a miniature (1- 1 ½ minute) movie than a commercial. There is no doubt that an absurd amount of production time, and money, went into making these bad boys. The most recent is the Sony Bravia Play-Doh ad. Check it out:

Sony Bravia Play-Doh

As you can see…it consists of some pretty ridiculous stop-motion photography of different-colored bunnies made of play-doh…which then turn into a wave…which breaks…and a whale goes through it…which then turns into a giant bunny...et al. The nature of the filming makes it all seem pretty chaotic and tumultuous. The question that lingers towards the end of the spot is: what does this have to do with Sony, or the Bravia, at all? Well, the spot culminates with a bunch of multi-colored cubes spinning about to create different kaliediscope-like patterns, and the words “Color…Like No Other” come onto the screen, then the spot fades out to a quick shot of a Bravia LCD TV. In my opinion, the ad is, in fact, effective, as it certainly retains attention, and the closing sequence ties the entire (seemingly unrelated) ad back into the product and the brand, giving the viewer a brand message to remember, and take away from the ad.

Also, these ads have been gaining some pretty siginificant unpaid exposure via Youtube, Dailymotion, and other video, user-generated sites. The one with the most hits, the Sony Bravia Bouncy Balls ad, which debuted about a year ago, has about a half a million hits on Youtube. Check it out Here.

Thanks again to Marka at Adverblog for bringing the Bravia bunnies to my attention.

Toyota Yaris Advergame Hits Xbox 360 Live

It seems as though everybody is finally catching on to the difference between a passive and a captive, participant audience. And it also seems as though Toyota is taking a hint from its little brother branch-off, Scion (See what I mean by checking out my old Scion Post). The Yaris, Toyota’s bottom-rung, most modestly-priced model, seems to be Toyota’s attempt at reaching generation Y, something that Scion has been doing better than most companies ever have. You can even see this in the car’s description on Toyota’s Web site, which sounds extremely youth-oriented; it speaks about the different kinds of Yaris’s…or Yari, however you want to pluralize it, when it says:

“Both flavors come complete with available MP3/WMA playback capability. They boast a bottomless pit of center pockets, cup holders, console trays, map pockets to satisfy just about any multitasker. And the all-new Yaris Liftback S screams style from the get-go, thanks to its sport seats, amber-illuminated Optitron gauges, and leather-trimmed steering wheel and shift knobs. Regardless of which model you roll with, you’ll appreciate exceptional gas mileage ratings, up to 36 mpg highway, so there’ll always be enough dough left over to extend that much-needed road trip. The 2008 Yaris. May the fun begin.”

So, it makes sense that they continue to push this model to the youth, and they are using unconventional methods to do so. Most recently, they have spent a couple mil’ having their agency, Saatchi & Saatchi L.A. work with production company Backbone Entertainment (which created the Sonic the Hedgehog concept and games) to create the first-ever advergame to be distributed through Microsoft’s online gaming service. In fact, you can download the new game for free. Not too shabby. And also, they have been gaining some pretty tremendous publicity based on this game (well played Toyota PR department), making it into the NY Times in This Article.

Kim McCullough, corporate manager for marketing communications at Toyota, drives home a message that I completely endorse when she says: “People can time shift, they can do all sorts of different things to avoid advertising. That’s why we have to move beyond traditional advertising to do things that are really engaging for people.” Nice. Toyota is making some good moves these days.

To learn a bit more about this advergame, you can find tons of articles released in the past few days by going to Google and searching for “Yaris Advergame” in the news section, or This Article, or click on the link to the NY Times article mentioned above.

PSA meets Advertainment

The fine people at the State Tobacco Education Prevention & Partnership in Colorado have come up with a great way to get a PSA (public service announcement) out to their target demographic, which in this case happens to be young adults. They are reaching out to people between the ages of 18-24 who are cigarette smokers. They have come up with a new media campaign that revolves around the Web site (and phrase) Quit Doing It. One cool fact is that they paid for the entire site, which was designed by AgencyNet and Cactus, with funds from a tobacco tax that they collected all the way back in 2004.



This snazzy, futuristic, sci-fi oriented Web site gives you the option, upon entrance to its Home Page, of choosing either a macro-Flash format, or a micro-HTML format. If your computer and browser-speed allows you to, then I would suggest checking out the Macro format, as it is a great, high-speed, fluid, and by and large well-designed flash presentation.

It starts out with a woman in a lab coat, who isn’t exactly difficult to look at, with a sexy, Elizabeth Hurly-like English accent. She comes out and explains that she has been selected to give you a tour of the “lab,” and then she basically tells you how to use the site, focusing on the “research” and “development” parts of the Web site, which each take a humorous, but informative approach to teaching the Web site viewer/participant about the negative effects of smoking. Another clever approach that is used is also voiced through the narrator. She says “At the Quit Doing It.com Labs, we are quite busy creating the most innovative tools that you can use to quit smoking. One tool we haven’t perfected yet, though, is mind reading. So, the question you have to ask yourself is: why am I here? If you’re ready to quit, check out our custom tools over in the Results department, if you’re not ready to quit yet, might I suggest checking out our research or development departments?” The “Results” section of the Web site helps the viewer/participant out by providing them with a panoply of smoking cessation tools, including another clever, relatively innovative and target-marketed media tool created by the State Tobacco Education Prevention & Partnership in Colorado: Fixnixer, a Web 2.0 program that supposedly can help you quit smoking in 21 days. But that is another story.

For me, the site was very cool. It was a fun, interactive experience. Would it actually help me quit? I dunno…but then again, I used to smoke a pack a day for five years, and then I quit last December using the patch…so…my advice, if you are seriously considering quitting smoking, would be to go to the Web site to learn a bit about the adverse effects of smoking…and have a bit of interactive fun, and then use the patch to actually quit.

Big ups to Martina over at Adverblog for making me aware of this cool new way to get kids off the ciggys.

Comedy Central’s South Park Advergames

So, the new season of South Park starts October 3rd (this coming Wednesday), and I am not going to lie, I am pretty excited. I am a pretty big fan of the show. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of wit, cynicism, and overall right-on satirical humor that pours out of those four little fourth grader’s mouths. And also, for whatever reason, I usually find myself agreeing with the views (although they usually aren’t really views…they are usually more in the form of harsh criticisms) that the shows creators (Trey Parker and Matt Stone) voice through the characters of the show. Comedy Central really hit it big when they signed this show on 10 years ago. And it is still hilarious today. But I digress; the point here is that the show is starting this Wednesday, so Comedy Central has been airing a ton of late-night rerun episodes of South Park to promote the beginning of season 12. And another one of the things that they have been airing between shows is a commercial urging the viewers to go to Comedycentral.com (attempting to brand spiral in order to promote the show) and check out the South Park page, in order to play the “South Park Big Wheel Death Rally,” among other South Park-branded games.



Big Wheel Death Rally is basically a rip-off of a game like Nintendo’s Mario Kart, and it is equally, if not more entertaining, as you can be any of 16 characters (some of which are locked), and you see all of their mannerisms and character traits come through in the game. Also, guess who bought a bit of ad space before the game even begins? Sierra Mist has a 30 second-or-so interstitial ad that takes place while the game is loading...which likely helps Comedy Central bring in a bit more revenue, or at least recoup some of the costs of creating the game (s). On the Games section of the Web site, you can play not only Big Wheel Death Rally, but also 11 other games in the following categories: Action and Arcade, Brainteasers, Card and Board, and even Wireless Games, which you can download and play on your phone. Who could resist downloading a game for their phone that has a description that begins with “Capture hippies [and] kill ninjas..."



So, yet another reason to love Comedy Central’s South Park: advergames. Comedy Central is pretty clever, as they have kept the show around for a long time, and thus they continue to profit off of it hand-over-fist…and now, they, like many other companies out there, have realized the importance of gaming for Americans in general, and, specifically, the target audience of the group that would most likely be watching South Park.