• by Staff Writers , October 10, 2007

This year's finalists show how interactive, or "enhanced" television, offers new possibilities for engaging viewers.

Campbell-Ewald Advertising

U.S. Navy

Campbell-Ewald: Daniel Rioux, Senior Vice President, Media Director; Kyra Wilson, Media Supervisor; Joseph Gaulzetti, Senior Vice President, Group Management Supervisor.

The goal of this campaign goal was to create an on-demand channel for Navy video content. The Navy also wanted to track how potential recruits responded to specific programming. With Cablevision as its cable partner, the NAVY VOD Channel tagged TV commercial spots and promotional banners within Interactive TV guide listings. Their homepage featured videos highlighting careers across several Navy recruiting initiatives, including Navy Reserve, Navy SEALs and non-traditional roles for females.

During the two-month campaign, the Navy channel received nearly 3.3 million visits. People spent an average of 5 minutes and 10 seconds viewing content and the channel produced 500 gross leads for the Navy.

GM Planworks (a Starcom MediaVest Group company)

Pontiac Cleveland Local Marketing Group

GM Planworks: Jeff Ryznar, Account Supervisor; Martin Jay, Retail; Molly McDermott, Senior Media Buyer; Thuong Delplace, Associate Media Director; Julie Walters, Media Planner; Sheila Jacobi, Media Supervisor.

General Motors: Kyle Gilliam, Local Area Marketing Manager; Robert Morris, Northern Ohio Pontiac LMG President, Morris Cadillac-Pontiac-GMC.

For GM Planworks, the challenge was to boost traffic to PontiacOhio.com, the sales site for Northern Ohio Pontiac dealers. To connect with its target audience, the agency developed a media plan around the hit Fox show "24."

Local Fox affiliate WJW aired 5-, 10-, and 15-second promos directing viewers of the hit show "24" to the Pontiac Ohio site. The spots asked contestants to answer trivia questions on the site about the last five seasons of "24."

In addition, WJW ran one 30-second Pontiac spot in every episode of "24" on Monday nights, as well as bonus spots in the late news on Monday nights. The 10-week promotion resulted in the largest traffic increase ever for PontiacOhio.com.

Starcom USA

Nintendo/ Wii Launch

Angela Steele, Director; Brooke Gilbertson, Assistant Media Director; Erynn Herman, Supervisor; Brandon Stewart, Supervisor; Paul Lim, Assistant Media Director; Kiley Lechleitner, Supervisor; Samantha Tenicki, Supervisor; Beth Doyle, Supervisor; Stephen Riley, Associate Creative Director; Jason Smith, Senior Interactive Designer; Nando Rossi, Interactive Designer; Nick Slough, Art Director; Nicholas Yecke, Strategy Director. Leo Burnett: Dominick Maiolo, Senior Vice President, Executive Creative Director; Bill Stone, Senior Vice President Executive Creative Director; Jamie Kieffer, Executive Vice President, Account Director; Robb Hittner, Vice President, Account Director; Adrienne Houghton, Account Executive.

For the launch of Nintendo's Wii game console, Starcom's strategy was to target social influencers who would spread the message to the wider public.

Going well beyond the 30-second TV spot, the agency turned to streaming video ads on sites such as the Food Network and MSN, TiVo branded programming, and syndicated content. Results included a 29 percent gain in awareness and message recall and a nearly 11 percent increase in purchase intent.