Out to Launch
Wednesday, June 4, 2003
George Steinbrenner and Point·Roll show their funny side and the IAB showcases interactive advertising superheroes. Those are just a few of the campaigns launched this week. Read on for more details.
  • George Steinbrenner and Point·Roll show their funny side and the IAB showcases interactive advertising superheroes. Those are just a few of the campaigns launched this week. Read on for more details.

    So you are a good looking shortstop that likes to party and your boss publicly scolded your work ethic. What do you do about it? Why, make a Visa commercial with your boss spoofing your quarrel of course! That's exactly what New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and Derek Jeter did for Visa, with the ad launching this week. BBDO New York created the ad, which is the latest spot in Visa's "It's Everywhere You Want To Be" campaign. The spot opens with Steinbrenner talking with Jeter, wondering how he could possibly afford to keep up with his baseball schedule and party seven days a week. Jeter's answer is his Visa card. The spot ends with George and Derek putting their differences aside while dancing in a conga line at a nightclub, and the line "to enjoy the New York nightlife, bring your Visa card."

    Last week, FORTUNE unveiled a new ad campaign featuring the tagline "Every FORTUNE Tells The Story." This is the magazine's first ad campaign in almost three years. The ads use images from recent FORTUNE stories, such as portraits of businessman Mel Karmazin, Senator John McCain and an anonymous marine, along with one-word headlines. In one ad, the word "power" accompanies an image of the Olsen twins, with copy that spotlights a FORTUNE 2002 story on how Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have become the most financially successful child stars ever. In another, the word "passion" appears in a black and white photograph of Bill Gates drudging through work on his computer. The photograph is the cover image from "Gates @ Work," FORTUNE's exclusive behind-closed-doors feature. The print and outdoor campaigns were created in-house, and expect eight creative executions during the June/July launch with a second batch scheduled to break in the fall. The ads will appear in many magazines, including TIME, People, Entertainment Weekly, Sports Illustrated, and Business 2.0. Ads will also run on outdoor telephone kiosks in NYC.

    Expedia.com last month debuted the fifth ad in their ongoing campaign handled by Deutsch LA. The spot, entitled "Parents," shows a young woman discussing family vacation plans with her sibling. While on Expedia.com, she comes across a sleek and modern hotel equipped with futuristic technological amenities. The daughter envisions her parents becoming perplexed by this atmosphere, so much so that Dad can't figure out how to turn on the sink faucet and soaks his wife when he turns on the shower instead. The ad ends with the daughter choosing a more traditional hotel instead. The ad is appearing on both network and national cable TV.

    The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) last week launched an integrated branding campaign aimed at helping marketers understand how to use interactive advertising to more effectively reach their business goals. The campaign was designed by Euro RSCG MVBMS Partners, and highlights successful case studies from Volvo Cars of North America, Frito-Lay, Inc., and Kimberly-Clark and features the tagline "Interactive. The Active Ingredient." The campaign profiles marketing executives who have helped their brands become "superheroes" by including interactive advertising into their overall marketing plan. The ads are headshots of each executive on a "superhero" body, with the copy listing their "superpowers" - the campaign innovations that contributed to achieving their brand objectives. The first two "superheroes" are Cammie Dunaway, former VP and GM of Marketing for Frito-Lay, Inc., and Phil Bienert, Manager of CRM and e-Business for Volvo Cars of North America. Media companies and online publishers donating advertising space include AOL, MediaPost (publisher of OTL), MSN, NetCreations, The New York Times Digital, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal Online and Yahoo!.

    Russell Athletic is coming back to TV (their last appearance was in 1999) with the "Are You Russell Material?" campaign this fall after signing a marketing partnership deal with ESPN ABC Sports to sponsor the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). The agreement makes Russell Athletic the exclusive sponsor of the "Road to the BCS," and the "Russell Material Player of the Game" segment on several ESPN games. The deal also features print and online components. The sponsorship includes 60-second ads leading up to the BCS Championship Game on ESPN and ABC, along with full- and 1/3-page ads in ESPN the Magazine. The campaign was created by WestWayne. A national print campaign supporting the sponsorship will run in Sports Illustrated, Men's Fitness and Shape. Online ad will appear on ESPN.com, CNNSI.com and Yahoo! Sports.

    Another Sport campaign this week comes from Champion, which launched a print and TV campaign entitled "Greed vs. Love." The campaign reinforces the Champion brand and the emotional connection that people feel when they achieve their personal goals through sports and exercise. "Greed vs. Love" is about the love of sport, not the quest for big money. The campaign was created by Publicis, Mid America Dallas, and the TV spots include a series of :30 and :15 spots that incorporate performance shots of active men and women with the tag line "Be Your Own Champion." The print campaign breaks in July and will showcase Champion Running, a chafe-resistant running apparel collection for men and women, among other products. Print ads will run in People, ESPN Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Outside, Shape, Fitness, Cosmopolitan, and Runner's World.

    Technology company Point·Roll launched a print and online ad campaign this week for their online advertising software. The ads are parodies of editorial content found in Ad Age and Adweek, and feature twelve online advertising leaders from the media, the client, and the agency sides (including Ogilvy Direct, 1-800-MATTRESS and Yahoo!). Four ads broke this week, and each ad features fake advertising news, real advertising newsmakers, and of course "Fat Boy." "Fat Boy" represents Point·Roll's mouse-over activated expanding banner. The ads were created by SFGT, Philadelphia and will run for at least one month in the print and online editions of Ad Age, Adweek, Brandweek, Communication Arts, Creativity, Media Magazine (sister publication of OTL),and Mediaweek.

    Airline travelers will be the audience seeing ads for the SeaScooter. The ads will be seen in several in-flight magazines, and are now running with Southwest and Delta airlines with more airlines expected this summer. The SeaScooter is a consumer version of the battery-powered dive vehicles used by undersea explorers and commercial divers. It is capable of pulling swimmers, snorkelers and scuba divers through water at speeds up to 2 mph, with a run time of up to an hour. The ads were designed in-house.

    This week's website launches include:

    WITF Public Broadcasting and the Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission are using Pennsylvania history and educational resources to create an online resource for students, visitors to Pennsylvania and educators. The site cataloged and digitized the history around each of the 1800 historical markers located in Pennsylvania to provide an online experience centered on Pennsylvania's history with the markers serving as the basis for telling the story. The site will also provide lesson plans for k-12 students that are based on Pennsylvania history and promote tourism throughout the state. Ripple Effects Interactive created the website.

    Head & Shoulders is in the final week of their "Win a Prom Night Limousine" contest for teens through its PromParanoia Spanish language game website. Eligible participants have a chance to win a prom night limousine to share with their friends and also a donation to their High School for this year's prom festivities. One prize will be awarded to the highest PromParanoia score winner and other prize will be awarded to a randomly selected winner from all eligible registrants. The winner will be announced on June 6. The game is about Capitán Cool and Super Silky who find out that three students - Jorge, Gabriela and Miguel - are having terrible dandruff problems and need Head & Shoulders to save them before prom night. Players select Capitán Cool or Super Silky and use their Head & Shoulders power packs to fight a variety of flakes and other obstacles to save the students. Makinita created the website.