• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, July 15, 2005

Rather than just latch onto any of the Web's existing content to promote its new beverage, Nestea this week launched its own sensory-overloaded Web environment to attract 12-to-24-year-old males. JUXT Interactive, Nestea's creative partner of about two years, created the site, NESTEAICE.com, which incorporates original music videos, a design pallet on which to design T-shirts, and a mix of other novelties meant to engage visitors for as long as possible.

Visitors are directed to "ICE 'N Stories," the first two in a series of vignettes about a wannabe rapper puppet, Ice 'N, made entirely of fake ice cubes. The site also includes a candid-camera style short film starring El Yielazo, an offbeat wrestler whose mission is to rid the world of 'hotness' by targeting unsuspecting Nestea Ice drinkers.

"We wanted something that would take on a life of its own and maximize the viral potential of the Web," Mel Clements, Nestea's interactive marketing manager, said.

The site is part of a larger marketing effort that will include more traditional methods, which launch later in the summer. Since the site launch in late June it has attracted about 2,200 unique visitors per day, a number that Clements is happy with but expects will increase significantly when Nestea's online adverting begins appearing around the Web. "That traffic is just from word-of-mouth and blogs, which we think is very impressive," Clements said.

The site is representative of a larger shift occurring in the world of advertising, according to Todd Purgason, creative director at JUXT Interactive. "People are having to get a lot more creative now in very Web-centric way, because even the agencies who have a lot of awards sitting on their shelves aren't as familiar with the Web as they should be," Purgason explained.

What does Purgason consider the really important rules of thumb when advertising online? "The Web is an interpersonal communication tool, where cultural differences have to be respected," he said. "You're not just entertaining, but trying to connect with people and trying to become part of their online culture."