Case sTuDy 15
The challenge
Foster’s asked Play to complement its Shadow Napping TV campaign by uti- lizing digital channels to improve brand perception and increase sales of Fos- ter’s Super Chilled.
Target audience
The principal target audience for the campaign was 18- to 24-year-old males.
Action
Foster’s 2008 TV spot saw a gang of Aussie mates raiding the streets of Sydney for shadows in order to keep their pints of Foster’s Super Chilled
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super-chilled. It was a phenomenon that came to be known as ‘Shadow Napping’.
While the Aussie Shadow Napping gang was relaxing off set, Play coaxed a challenge from them and, on returning to the UK, the agency orchestrated a nationwide search for a group of British ‘mates’ who could rise to that chal- lenge. To find likely contenders Play released an online video highlighting the ‘Shadow Napping Challenge’ across a variety of video-sharing and social media websites. The video gained traction and word spread quickly across the web. The video directed viewers back to the Shadow Napping website, where groups of British ‘mates’ were invited to register their details and audi- tion to become the ‘Shadow Poms’.
At regional auditions across the UK hundreds of groups demonstrated their shadow-napping prowess and highlighted just how far they would go to keep their Foster’s Super Chilled super-chilled. Two months on and the self-styled ‘Shadow Kings’ – five likely lads from Essex who have been mates for more than 10 years – emerged victorious.
Off they went to Sydney, where they would do their damnedest to beat the Aussies at their own game, on their own turf. The team was subjected to a series of challenges ranging from the sublime to the truly ridiculous. Play filmed every step of the group’s Aussie adventures and released weekly epi- sodes on the purpose-built Shadow Napping website and on video-sharing platforms. To get visitors even more engaged Play also commissioned an interactive multi-user game called ‘Virtual Shadow Napping’ that would run as rich media ad units across key high-profile websites for the target demographic.
The ads featured a selection of comical Aussie characters: Doris the old lady, Bruce the karate man, Sheila the lifeguard, Rex the dog and Croc the croco- dile. The aim of the game was simple: to ‘nap’ the unsuspecting characters’ shadows as quickly as possible, earning points that could be added to your overall team tally, moving you up the leader board and giving you the chance to win cool prizes. To make things more challenging each individual character had more than 100 cunning defensive moves to thwart the player’s
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shadow-napping endeavours, and the location of the ads kept changing, sending players back to the Shadow Napping website to check a dynamically updated ‘hunting map’ to find their next virtual shadow napping opportunity. Play also seeded a range of ‘cheats’ around blogs and forums across the web, each one altering the behaviour of a particular character to make napping their shadow easier.
Results
●● Hundreds of groups of mates from all over the UK applied and attended
regional auditions across the UK.
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● Interactive ads recorded interaction rates 400 per cent in excess of industry
benchmarks and average interaction times of more than two minutes.
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● Video episodes of the gang’s Aussie shadow napping exploits amassed
hundreds of thousands of views, and the average user session length on the website was recorded at 10 minutes – well in excess of industry averages.
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● An independent brand awareness study conducted by Dynamic Logic
concluded that the campaign increased the brand perception for Foster’s Super Chilled by 18 per cent.
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● The campaign generated high levels of radio and press coverage,
particularly across the red tops (popular UK tabloid newspapers), including
The Sun, Daily Star and The People.
Lessons
The Foster’s Virtual Shadow Napping campaign is a good example of how digital channels can be used to effectively build on and extend the reach of a great idea. Tapping into the natural, historical and sporting rivalry between British and Australian males, and combining it with a common passion (beer), this campaign was always going to resonate with its target audience. How many 18- to 24-year-old British men do you know who could ignore a direct, beer-related challenge from their Australian contemporaries?
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Add in a paid-for trip to Sydney, and other prizes for participants in the interac- tive Shadow Napping online game, and combine with creative execution and you get results that far exceed industry benchmarks and an impressive posi- tive impact on the overall perception of the brand among the target demographic.
A particularly interesting aspect of this campaign is the way its interactive advertising units circumvent the ‘banner blindness’ that plagues so many online display ad campaigns. By adding an incentive (bankable points that help put the player in contention for a prize) and constantly moving ad units around different websites the game becomes a series of treasure hunts, with people actively seeking out and engaging with the ad units as they move around the web (using the dynamic ‘hunting map’ on the website as a guide) rather than subconsciously avoiding them. A judicious sprinkling of ‘cheats’ and short- cuts helps to reinforce the quest-like feel, driving further engagement. Marketers look for existing deep-seated characteristics that are common to your target demographic and ask how your campaign can leverage those traits to maximize its appeal.
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● www.playwithus.co.uk/work/fosters/shadowNapping/shadowNapping.html
Links to campaign creative
Client ● Foster’s
Geographical scope ● United Kingdom
Agencies ● Play
Campaign contacts ● Creative Director: Jon Sharpe
Awards ● BIMA: Runner up in Display Advertising