• by Ken Liebeskind , July 25, 2001

Universal Pictures is teaming up with Mondo Media, a San Francisco Web entertainment syndicator, to promote American Pie 2.

The online campaign, which includes ads on Mondo mini shows, began July 20. The film opens August 10.

Universal will run ads in three mini shows: Thugs on Film, which reviews movies; Gary the Rat, which features the voice of Kelsey Grammer; and Elmo Aardvark, a serial detective adventure. The shows run on Netscape, Excite@home and Atomshockwave. The shows run three to five minutes long.

Early in the show, a 15 second spot for the movie will play. The spot, featuring flash animation, was created and produced by Mondo.

Throughout the show, additional units will appear, including 120 x 60 and 125 x 125 pixel ads that can be clicked to take viewers to a mini website where they can play games. The games challenge viewers and introduce them to characters in the film.

Viewers are encouraged to pass the games along to friends.

"We do online advertising all the time, including ads with games," says Kevin Campbell, Universal's VP of new media marketing. "But their model was different," he says of Mondo. The ads are different because they play within mini shows instead of on static Web pages.

The target for the film, 18 to 35-year-olds, is reachable on the mini shows, Campbell says.

Using games in the ads "gives them the opportunity to interact with the movie brand," he says.

Robin Harper, Mondo's senior VP, notes that mini shows are frequently supported with ads and fees for content deals are rare. She says this is the first time the company has worked with Universal, but deals with movie studios are fairly common, since they often use the Net to promote new films.

The Universal campaign runs through Aug. 12.