Out To Launch

This will be the last Out To Launch you’ll see in MediaDailyNews. It’s moving out. Adam’s weekly synopsis of ad campaign and website launches has outgrown its present home and starting next Thursday will become its own newsletter, complete with all the highlights you expect, and a few enhancements.

Until then, here are a few launches from this past week.

Starting October 1st, teens nationwide began cashing in on video games, Music Cash and video game discounts, all for consuming specially marked gallons of white milk. Milk, Electronic Arts (EA), and America Online have partnered to create the "got milk? Cyber Loot" promotion, which gives teens a one-in-five chance of winning $15 Music Cash Certificates, EA video games and video game discounts. From October 1 through November 15, 300 million specially marked gallons of white milk across the country will carry Cyber Loot stickers that can be peeled back for a chance to win.

Keeping things somewhat musical, Rock the Vote and Brilliant Digital Entertainment, Inc., a developer of 3D technologies for rich media content creation, distribution and ad serving for the Internet, have launched a viral advertising campaign to educate youth on hate crimes in America. The campaign, in the planning for six months, will also address the wave of terrorism that has hit America in recent weeks. Brilliant Digital created this viral campaign using their proprietary b3d technology that brings true-to-life 3D celebrity faces to the Internet to educate and empower teens on the fight against hate crimes. Already committed to this campaign are some of the biggest names in music, ranging from platinum recording artist Sisqo to superstars such as Moby and platinum rap artist Outkast.

From Outkast to 2Pac… well, sort of. The New Mexico Department of Health's Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Program (TUPAC) will begin running its second year of television and radio advertisements encouraging New Mexicans to avoid tobacco and tobacco smoke. The funds for the advertising campaign are provided to New Mexico as part of the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) that each state received following negotiations between the tobacco industry and 46 state governments. Aimed at discouraging the use of tobacco and educating the public about the need to stay away from secondhand smoke, the first round of scheduled advertisements began airing in 27 of New Mexico's 33 counties this week.

Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest wireless service provider, has launched FREE [2]TLK, a new website and online campaign with wireless product and entertainment options developed for the late teen/young adult wireless consumer. The FREE [2] TLK website, which leverages the brand and entertainment appeal of Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment (SPDE) online entertainment assets, will play a key role in Verizon Wireless' expanded marketing focus on late teens and young adults. It closely follows the company's recent launch of [FREEUP], a service package designed for late teens/young adults aged 16 to 24, that bundles nationwide voice service, two- way text messaging and voice mail. The marketing initiative uses a mix of SPDE's branded entertainment properties popular with teens/young adults to integrate its campaign messages, including Dawson's Desktop, which experiences 26 million page views each month, Dawson'sCreek.com and online gaming site The Station@sony.com. The campaign will feature creative online and offline extensions, including mobile "Dawson's Creek" updates and the use of odd-sized ad units and interstitials to reinforce its message and drive traffic.

In sports, an unprecedented marketing campaign where Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins met Felix "Tito" Trinidad at Madison Square Gardens on September 29, 2001, GoldenPalace.com left quite an impression on Hopkins, and the boxing community. GoldenPalace.com is the first sponsor to suggest this marketing method; Hopkins was the first fighter courageous enough to do it. Hopkins had his sponsor's website address prominently displayed on his back. Marketing executives were extremely impressed with this innovative campaign, and expect to see this style of advertising to reverberate throughout the entire sports world.

Keeping with the theme of people you won't win fights with, World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. announced the launch of its Get R.E.A.L. educational program. Get R.E.A.L. is a school program that brings WWF Superstars into junior and senior high schools to deliver positive messages on education, literacy, safety and goal setting. The program is built around the initiative's four tenets - Respect, Education, Achievement and Leadership. As part of the Get R.E.A.L. launch, WWFE and KB Toys are sponsoring a nationwide Get R.E.A.L. essay contest. Participants are asked to write in 150 words or less about what one or all of the four tenets of Get R.E.A.L. means to them.

Moving to the sky, responding to President Bush's call to get America flying again, American Airlines will launch a major print advertising campaign as the latest in a series of actions to help restore air travel and energize the nation's economy. The advertising campaign will run under the theme "American's Getting Back To Business." Full-page ads will appear on today in more than 20 major daily newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times and other key papers in Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami/Fort Lauderdale, the New York area, San Francisco/San Jose and St. Louis. The ads promote American Airlines' new "Getting Back to Business" fares in the domestic 48 states that give business travelers extra travel flexibility and offer discounts of up to 50 percent without the Saturday night stay requirement.

Staying in travel, The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) turned to research to help gauge the current mindset of travelers as it developed a new marketing strategy. The findings -- a resurging desire to escape from the woes of the world to enjoy life and to do so at a great value -- serve as the cornerstone of a new $13 million, eight week advertising campaign launched in print on Sept. 30th and on television Oct. 3rd. Lyrics from a never-before released song by Las Vegas icon Frank Sinatra entitled "It's Time For You" symbolize the primary message of the campaign and set the tone for a growing national sentiment, echoed in the urgings of our nation's leaders: it's time to get back to the business of living.

The Microsoft unit that makes software for the Macintosh operating system launched a multimillion-dollar ad campaign aimed at, of all people, Apple Computer loyalists. In the campaign, four print ads will appear as full-color, two-page spreads in several Macintosh magazines, including Macworld, MacDirectory and MacAddict. The ads, developed by agency McCann-Erickson, aren't meant to be easily understood by the general public, but are aimed at those who are well acquainted with the Mac platform. Apple Computer of Cupertino, Calif., is supporting Microsoft's grass-roots marketing campaign. Apple will feature Microsoft's new Office software on its website and will have hands-on demonstrations of the program at its retail stores.

VMS, a world leader of custom monitoring, analysis and the evaluation of news and advertising this week launches a multi-faceted re-branding campaign to highlight its new and enhanced services for the public relations, advertising and marketing industries. Central to VMS' re-branding effort is a newly designed corporate logo. A new advertising campaign, which also incorporates the new logo and is running in conjunction with the re-branding effort, features full-page ads with the headline "Did You Know?" and is aimed at promoting the company's heightened capacities while also highlighting its distinct enhancements. All versions of these ads conclude with the tagline "Because insight begins with knowledge," reinforcing VMS as a purveyor of knowledge in addition to data.

Philips Oral Healthcare, maker of the Sonicare toothbrush, launched a multimillion-dollar national advertising campaign in time for the holiday season. Developed through the combined creative talents of D'Arcy Los Angeles and London, the campaign features a new 30-second television spot for network and cable television stations that will run throughout the end of this year. The new spot features a powerful video demonstration of Sonicare's unique fluid dynamics, and its 28-day guarantee for healthier, whiter teeth.

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