• by Staff Writers , August 24, 2006

Great online campaigns put control into the hands of consumers, who take care of all the rest.

AgencyNet 

iN Demand

This viral campaign had all the subtlety of, well, a Howard Stern joke. AgencyNet launched "Shave the Beaver" to drive traffic to Howard.tv. The campaign introduced visitors to the star of "Beaver Salon," an animated beaver, and invited them to groom him by trimming, waxing, shaving, and dyeing. Visitors could make unlimited trips to the salon and e-mail the game to friends. A gallery showcased the hottest beavers of the month. The Beaver Salon drew more than a million visitors, with an average 4.22 minutes per visit. Sixteen percent sent the game to a friend.

Click here to view AgencyNet's brief.

Pod Digital Design

Peerflix

Steve Curran, Creative Director; Lizzie Curran, Principle, Client Relations; Karl Lindeman, Senior Programmer, Developer

Pod Digital devised a viral marketing campaign for Peerflix that parodied celebrities. Users play a paparazzo out to snap pictures of fake celebrities behaving badly.

The campaign, which raised awareness of the company's DVD trading service, offered five levels of play. Users advanced by taking pictures of everything from the new hairdo of a certain hotel heiress ("Nikki Sheraton") to the plastic surgery of a certain pop king ("Jackson Michaels"). The campaign generated nearly 2.4 million unique sessions and more than 6.7 million visitors overall; about 5 percent of visitors went on to the main Peerflix site.

Click here to view Pod Digital Design's brief.

Richter7

Zions Bank

Scott Rockwood, Executive Creative Director,  CEO; Hugh Plautz, Director, Internet Marketing; Teri Austin, Account Supervisor; Matt Maxwell, Interactive Design and Development

The viral CashBackBoulevard.com came with a bonus: geotargeting. It educated users about the benefits of using the Zions Bank Cash Rewards Visa card while showing them how to use it in their own neighborhoods.

When players entered their ZIP code, the stores in the game took on the real names and addresses of shops in one of 13 regions and displayed various offers. Users raced to cross everything off their "shopping lists," learning about Cash Rewards in the process. Players who completed a level -- there were three -- could register for a weekly drawing. 

Click here to view Richter7's brief.

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