• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer @MediaPostOTL, July 16, 2003

Cars. Cereals. Playboy Magazine. Those are just a few of the campaigns launched this week. Read on for more details.

Last month, The Discovery Channel had us walking with cavemen. This month, meet Nefertiti. The Discovery Channel launched a summer-long brand and program marketing campaign, promoting new original series and specials. The centerpiece of the brand portion of the campaign focuses on the "Entertain Your Brain" tagline, which showcases the real-world entertainment that the Discovery Channel provides, while reminding viewers that you can have fun and educate your brain at the same time. Three TV ads, created by BaylessCronin, will promote the brand along with shows such as Monster Monday, Monster House and Nefertiti Resurrected. Ads will run during "The Today Show," "The Tonight Show" and "CSI," and on ESPN, TBS, TNT, Lifetime, Comedy Central, USA and E! networks. Print ads will appear in Entertainment Weekly, People, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, the New Yorker, Esquire, The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today.To promote Nefertiti Resurrected, debuting Aug. 17, thousands of "missing" posters featuring a silhouette of a bust of Nefertiti will be blanketed on telephone poles in 11 U.S. markets. Print ads will run in People, Time, Entertainment Weekly, Oprah's O Magazine and Harpers Bazaar, along with heavy rotation on Lifetime. There will also be actresses dressed up as Nefertiti walking around New York, L.A. and D.C. closer toward the launch date along with 'Found' posters plastered in 8 markets.

Volkswagen and Apple have joined forces to provide 2003 New Beetle sedan buyers with a complimentary Apple iPod, in a campaign called "Pods Unite." The pairing began this week through a variety of radio, newspaper, broadcast and online campaigns, lasting until the end of September. Each Beetle iPod is custom-engraved with Volkswagen's "Drivers Wanted" logo and comes with a coupon from apple.com, Volkswagen's Street Mix CD collection and a "Pods Unite" window sticker. Up to 25,000 Volkswagen owners will be offered a $50 gift certificate at Amazon.com if they test drive the New Beetle with the iPod system. Arnold Worldwide in Boston created the ads.

Speaking of cars, Land Rover North America has launched its first campaign in over five years for the company's flagship Range Rover. The campaign includes TV, print, online and outdoor components and will last throughout the summer. The TV spots will air during The Practice, Dateline, Will & Grace, Law & Order and NYPD Blue, and on cable networks including A&E, ESPN, CNN, CNBC, Bravo and TLC. Newspaper ads will run in USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Investor's Business Daily, and magazine ads will run in Vanity Fair, Fortune, Forbes, Town & Country, Wired, Travel & Leisure and Conde Nast Traveler. Y&R in Irvine, Calif. designed the ads. Land Rover is also targeting potential buyers one at a time through "The Range Rover Experience." The Experience offers invited guests to attend one of six events around the country, all set either in resort locations or elegant private country homes. The event combines one-on-one off-road driving instruction with cultural, culinary and adrenaline adventures.

The last car campaign this week comes from Hummer. Their campaign began at the end of June and their two spots, entitled "Big Race" and "Asteroids" will run throughout the year. Created by Modernista!, the ads aim to demonstrate that "Hummer is like nothing else." The ads will run on CNBC, VH-1, Outdoor Life Network, E!, Bravo and Sci-Fi channel to name a few.

Playboy, in an effort to boost their newsstand circulation, has launched a print advertising campaign, marking a return to advertising for the magazine. Their last campaign was in the late 1990s. The first ad ran on June 27th in USA Today using the slogan "Guys Who Get It, Get It Here." The ad promoted Playboy's August issue featuring "Survivor" contestants Jenna Morasca and Heidi Strobel. There were also wildpostings placed around NYC. Fusion Idea Lab developed the print ad. Playboy will run another ad in USA Today at the end of July for their September issue.

 

Ecko Unlimited has launched a print advertising campaign in conjunction with their Fall 2003 collection. The campaign, "Dreamnasium," will consist of several dream-based scenarios featuring a variety of fictitious landscapes inspired largely by collage art and pop-up books. The campaign was designed in-house and will feature an array of talent that exemplifies the diversity of the Ecko lifestyle. The talent ranges from hip-hop artists to Hollywood's hottest young actors, including The Clipse, Mobb Deep and Michael Rappaport. The print campaign debuted this month and will run for six months in magazines such as ESPN, Slam, Teen Vogue, Paper and YM.

The Humane Society and A Big Chihuahua/K. Fernandez have partnered to develop a Public Service Announcement to raise awareness of the daunting statistics involving animal overpopulation in the San Antonio area. San Antonio puts down more than 40,000 dogs and cats annually, double that of bigger cities like Houston or Dallas. Two 30-second TV spots were developed in Spanish and then adapted into English. One spot shows "Pancha," a female dog that as the spot progresses we find out is pregnant for the fifth time, and has been left tied up in a backyard with no shelter, food or water. The camera continues widening the view and focuses on a sign outside the fence of the yard which reads "Beware of Owner," a twist on the Beware of Dog signs typically seen around town, and emphasizing the issue of animal cruelty.

Foote Cone & Belding, Irvine, Calif. has created a 60-second spot for AAA of Southern California. The spot uses subtle sentimentality to evoke the message that AAA's slate of services helps guide customers through all of life's travels. The ad opens with a woman's soliloquy. "Imagine a time when you felt like you could not only take on the world, but teach it a thing or two when getting completely lost became the best itinerary of them all," she says, as a series of vignettes depict life's simple pleasures: driving with the top down or falling in love. The end tag illustrates AAA's dependability and personal relationship it shares with its customers: "We were there. Through all of life's travels, we're always with you."

This week's website launches include:

Silly Rabbit. Trix is online too. Semaphore Partners has designed a website to create buzz around the Trix® brand, encourage repeat product purchase, and to re-ignite Trix's "gotta have it" status with kids. In Great Train Robbery, kids become detectives on the case of missing fruity Trix cereal and two-colored Trix yogurt, swiped by an unknown culprit while on a train bound for New York City. Clues found on Trix cereal boxes and Trix yogurt lids are combined with those on the website to allow the young detectives to solve the case on their own. August 4 will mark the TV announcement of 'who dunnit.'

Another cereal drawing consumers online is Kelloggs. Kelloggs, FairMarket and Draft have teamed up to make Kellogg Kash, an integrated online and offline loyalty rewards program that enables consumers to bid on Walt Disney World Resort experiences and collectibles. Consumers collect Kellogg Kash by purchasing participating Kellogg's cereals and then use the "Kash" to bid online. The highest bid wins. Participating brands include Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Mini-Wheats, Frosted Bite Size Mini-Wheats, Kellogg's Honey Crunch Corn Flakes, and Kellogg's Raisin Bran. FairMarket provides the technology platform and hosts the auction site. Draft manages the creative aspects of the program.