• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, November 28, 2008

Oddcast, a New York-based provider of interactive character products, has partnered with creative agency BBDO/Proximity to execute a seven-week multichannel campaign for Gillette and EA Sports.

"Gillette had access to several athletes that are sponsors and characters in EA games," said Seth Fleischman, senior director of sales at Oddcast. "So we developed an application for users to upload their pictures to become characters in the games."

Users can upload images of their face to effectively become Tiger Woods on the box of Tiger Woods Golf.

"This is the first time we're allowing users to map out their hair along with their faces, which shows to technological advancements we're making," Fleischman said. "But what is most exciting about this program is that all of the approved images are being sent to a billboard in Times Square."

The billboard in question is named Times Square 2, the massive LED display combining the Reuters sign and the Nasdaq Tower on 43rd Street in Times Square. Pictures are being taken of the thousands of consumer images being featured on the billboards, which are then being sent to them.

The campaign includes another element in which users insert their faces onto the bodies of professional athletes during high-wattage press conferences.

Oddcast partnerships typically start at $75,000, which increase based on how many videos are involved, the length of the videos, among other factors. "This is essentially a six-figure deal on the high end of our average," said Emily Twomey, SVP of sales at Oddcast.

To date, Oddcast has had a number of successes, including its Elfyourself viral marketing campaign for OfficeMax, and its Monk-e-mail campaign for Careerbuilder.com.

Oddcast's technology has appealed to an increasing number of advertisers and publishers interested in engaging consumers with highly interactive online experiences.

Earlier this year, it helped launch a viral marketing campaign promoting the latest "Batman" movie, which allowed users to commit either themselves or their friends to Gotham's notorious Arkham Insane Asylum. The promotion also features sponsors, including Verizon Wireless and Nokia. Earlier this year, Oddcast helped launch a promotional campaign for the WEtv series "Bridezillas."

It also recently partnered with media agency The Visionaire Group to promote the A&E series "Criss Angel Mindfreak." For the online campaign, Oddcast supplied its 3D VideoStar technology, which allows users to upload pictures of themselves and friends, which are then automatically "mashed" into video clips from the series.

Overall, Oddcast now claims over 9,000 customers, for whom it is serving over 100 million user-generated creations a month.