• by June 2, 2006

Media Category: "Third Screen"
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
Client: Elizabeth Arden
Campaign Title: "Curious Britney Spears"

Marketing Challenge: Launching a brand that has become the butt of late night TV talk show jokes. Literally. Seeking to replicate the successful launch years earlier of its Elizabeth Taylor White Diamonds celebrity-based fragrance, Elizabeth Arden tapped one of the youth market's iconic performers, pop star Britney Spears for a new fragrance line dubbed, Curious Britney Spears. With her personal image under constant attack in the tabloid media, the pop diva's image did not seem consistent with Elizabeth Arden's upscale persona, and the trade and consumer media responded to the deal announcement negatively. Talk show host David Letterman epitomized the media reaction when he quipped that the fragrance would "stink of cigarette ash and bubble gum."

Creative Solution: Have Britney speak to her fans personally via messages on their cell phones. "Creatively, we wanted to exploit our teen target's love for Britney and their ability to spread pass-along gossip instantly with their favorite, personal pass-along media tool: the cell phone," wrote agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in its EFFIE award-winning brief. "The Britney cell phone message was written as a personal communication to individual fans in friendly, natural, non-marketing language. The key was to connect Britney to her fans, not simply to market to them."

Media Solution: Goodby's research team identified a core consumer target group dubbed "Pop Queens," primarily 14- to 18-year-old girls that adore Britney Spears, and who consider her both an idol and a friend. The media strategy centered on placing personal voice and text messages on the cell phones of these Pop Queens, giving them the ability to communicate one-to-one with a pop star in a way that no other medium could deliver. "We knew Britney's passionate fans would be excited to spread the word, and were provided right when many girls transcribed their messages from Britney to bulletin boards, chat rooms and gossip sites across the Web within minutes of receiving them," the agency explained in its brief. No other media was used prior to the fragrance going on sale.

Results: Nearly 30,000 girls voluntarily gave Elizabeth Arden their cell phone numbers and zip codes. Respondents listened to an average of 91 percent of the Britney voice messages. The media strategy worked by transforming individual fans into evangelists for the brand, posting messages across Britney fan sites and beyond, creating a media value estimated to be 10 times greater than the cost of the cell phone program. First week sales of the brand propelled it to the No. 1 spot in the fragrance category, making it the most successful new fragrance launch in 2004, according to industry data.

Winners of all 2006 winners will be presented June 7 during the 2006 EFFIE Awards gala in New York.