• by Staff Writers , September 6, 2007

To create a viral campaign, marketers must be willing to cede control to consumers.

* WINNER BEST IN SHOW *
THE COCA-COLA COMPANY
"The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments"

Coca-Cola: Mark Greatrex, Tim Kopp, Michael Donnelly, David Vanderpoel
EepyBird: Fritz Grobe, Stephen Voltz

Destined to go down as one of the seminal events in viral marketing history, "The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments" firmly secured both Diet Coke and Mentos as brands open to experimentation and consumer input.

Credit for the initiative goes to lawyer Stephen Voltz, and his friend and professional juggler Fritz Grobe, who set off the viral video sensation. The video the pair created, dubbed Experiment #137, would ultimately draw more than 7.5 million viewers. The brands should be credited with getting out of the way to let the viral phenomenon run its course.

* CATEGORY WINNER *
DEEP FOCUS
Court TV/"Parco P.I."

Deep Focus: Sabrina Caluori, Account Director; Jim Marsh, Account Executive; Eva Nagorski, Copywriter; Eric Stockmeyer, Art Director;
Amalgamated NYC: Lauren Puglia, Account Planner; Jason Gaboriau, Creative Director; Doug Cameron, Creative Director
MediaStorm: Craig Woerz, Managing Partner
GEM Group: Marc Klatzko, Director, Marketing and Creative; Jennifer Kauf, Co-President
Court TV: Jason Valentzas, Vice President, Consumer Marketing; Amy Mirwald, Copywriter/Senior Director, Consumer Advertising; Kathi Palminteri, Senior Director, Consumer Promotions; Kelly Hughes, Senior Manager, Consumer Promotions; Joe Alesi, Vice President, Off-Air Creative

Going big offline to achieve high impact online, Deep Focus and client Court TV tapped into people's weakness for voyeurism to create buzz for a new season of "Parco P.I."

The "That Girl Emily" campaign amplified the impact of "Scorned Woman" billboards with guerilla and blog marketing to focus viewers' attention on the show's theme of adultery. The campaign used unbranded billboards, apparently purchased by Emily, a woman eager to get back at her cheating husband by exposing his exploits. Major media outlets soon requesting Emily's appearance, while her story was picked up by over 600 blogs and the mainstream media.

EVENTFUL
Energizer

Eventful, Inc.: Holly Anderson, Jesse Mellon, Lee Fuhr,
Energizer: Jenny Moffat
4Fini: Sarah Baer
Weber Shandwick (St. Louis): Kara Griffith

Energizer had enormous success this past year with an "Energizer Encore Music Competition," in which 62 bands competed to win the Encore in each of the 45 cities on the tour. The campaign's viral voting widget was placed on each of the 62 competing bands' MySpace pages. In addition, the MySpace pages of The Vans Warped Tour, Energizer, and even the bands' labels and management companies also hosted the viral widget.

Overall the campaign received over 25 million impressions.