• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer @MediaPostOTL, August 25, 2004

Visa. Tide with a pinch of Downy. More Olympic Ads. Let's launch!

The mother of all advertisers, Procter & Gamble, has launched Tide with a touch of Downy. And they are devoting massive amounts of ad dollars to support the launch. The product debuted Aug. 20. The marketing campaign includes national advertising, in-store programs, product sampling, a strong presence online, consumer promotions and strategic partnerships. More than one million product samples will be distributed via Internet requests and through other channels. A TV campaign, developed by Saatchi & Saatchi, began airing this month with a fifteen-second teaser spot called "Stork." The spot celebrates the arrival of the new product by featuring a bottle of Tide with a touch of Downy being delivered in the beak of a stork. Additionally, the November issue of Good Housekeeping will feature a unique insert - a fuzzy Tide bottle.

Visa launched a national campaign to further its position as the card of choice among high-end consumers and support its member financial institutions' signature card portfolios. Visa will help members court affluent customers and show how signature cards offer cardholders more benefits than American Express. The campaign consists of print, TV, and radio components. The "New Affluent" segment is defined as individuals, 35 to 54, with household incomes of $125,000 and higher who typically are employed as professionals and managers and lead busy lives. They comprise only 7 percent of all U.S. households today, but accounts for 15 percent of U.S. spending. The ad debuted during the Olympics ceremonies.

The Connecticut Lottery Corporation unveiled a campaign to support the Mega Money scratch game. Developed by Cronin and Company, the campaign consists of a 30-second television spot, a 30-second radio spot, print, and point-of-sale. "Romantic Vacation" opens in a suburban living room with the wife giving a speech about how she would like to spend their Mega Money winnings on a romantic vacation. The husband, who has been gazing out the picture window past his wife, is watching deliverymen unpack new "toys" on the front lawn, which he has already purchased with their Mega Money winnings. The doorbell rings. The husband immediately offers to get the door. The camera shows the husband begging the deliverymen to return his new purchases.

To coincide with the 2004 Olympic Games Adidas launched part two of its global advertising campaign "Impossible is Nothing." The campaign, created by 180TBWA, consists of three 30-second spots, entitled "Haile," "Nadia," and "Jesse." The campaign will run in more than 50 markets across the world and the three ads focus on Nadia Comaneci, Haile Gebrselassie, and Jesse Owens. The theme of past and present is represented in each spot. For example, the current world 100 meter champion Kim Collins encounters 1936 four-time Olympic Gold medal winner Jesse Owens on the track, while 13-year old gymnast Nastia Liukin follows in the path of the legendary Nadia Comaneci, the first gymnast ever to score a perfect "10." And the greatest runner of all time, Haile Gebrselassie takes on the seemingly impossible challenge of beating himself.

Bigfoot Interactive launched a permission-based consumer e-mail ad campaign to educate consumers about the benefits of adding legitimate senders to their e-mail address book. The vertical market focused campaign and sales package will be made available to more than 140 Bigfoot Interactive clients and includes a choice of "Add to Address Book" e-mail creative executions, a corresponding instructional "Add to Address Book" landing page, hosting and all reporting for $2,500. The campaign will be e-mailed to millions of users across Bigfoot Interactive's Fortune 2000 clients' permission-based customer files, and will also be featured in various CNET Networks editorial newsletters. The ads educate consumers about the many benefits that come with "known sender" communication status.

Humax USA, an international digital satellite set-top manufacturer, unveiled its first national print advertising campaign this month to prepare for its September introduction of DVD Recorders with TiVo. Sigma Group created the Web banners, e-mail blasts, direct mail, and sales collateral pieces that target mass market electronics retailers. The ad is slated for such publications as Sound & Vision and Home Theater, as well as in-flight and sports publications such as American Way and the 2005 Super Bowl Guide.

GlobalFluency will launch a series of ads in Chief Executive magazine over the next 12 months to promote its worldwide authority leadership marketing practice. GlobalFluency provides strategic communications, product and brand positioning, as well as digital market interaction services. Three ads, created by Frank Priscaro of Ten Thousand Feet will run in eight issues of Chief Executive magazine. In one ad, a lone CEO with a flag marches ahead, vainly looking to his rear for those behind him. The headline reads: "The difference between leaders and everyone else." The copy then states: "Leaders have followers."

Brickyard VFX teamed up with Fallon Worldwide on "Quitting Time," a TV spot for business and technology solutions leader EDS. The commercial opens on city skyscrapers, full of activity. The lights begin to go out, as workers leave their desks for the day. Not so for the EDS office block, which shines on in an otherwise barren business landscape. A voiceover by Sam Elliott follows with the EDS tag, "Manpower. Brainpower. Willpower."

In Web site launches this week:

The Democratic National Committee launched a fundraising appeal via e-mail that includes an interesting ad and Web site. The e-mail includes an interactive ad featuring a donkey that gives participants different ways to kick George W. Bush out of the White House. The donkey kicks Bush out of the White House with three possible landings. Clicking the "One Hoofer" results in a George Bush cartoon figure dressed as a cowboy being kicked out of office and over the White House by the donkey. The "Two Hoofer" puts Bush somewhere on Mars, and the "Shock and Ouch" prompts the donkey to do his best Keanu Reeves "Matrix" impression, landing Bush back home on the ranch in Crawford, Texas. There is also a link for users to contribute to the DNC online. E-tractions created the ad.

BBC Motion Gallery has developed a Web site with a core collection of some 10,000 moving images from which media professionals around the world will be able to search and license clips for a wide variety of uses - from corporate videos, advertising, TV, and feature films. A search engine and project management tools allow users to access relevant content and collaborate with colleagues. The first stage of the Web site development gives customers the opportunity to view moving images from the BBC archive. Additional functionality will be added to the site over time. The BBC archive houses some 500 million feet of film and 350,000 hours of video dating from 1934, with more than 200 hours of new content added every week. The archive also contains more than 700,000 hours of U.S. and international film and video imagery from CBS News archive.