THE OTHER SIDE OF CANNES – PART 3

Paul Yole, Strategic Planning Director of The Brand Agency sends his blog from the Lions.

Mindshare Entertainment approached two clients, Unilever (for their Suave brand) and Sprint (cell phones) with an idea that took over a year to sell in to senior management. Both clients wanted to target Mums so the idea was to create a competition asking people to create a 5 to 7 minute sitcom episode of their real life parenting experiences.

Scripts were entered online and other users were asked to vote for the best ones. Each week, over 1,000 scripts were entered and the winners were flown to Hollywood to meet professional scriptwriters and actors who would then make the webisode.

The episodes are actually quite funny and the public must like them because in season one there were over 5 million video views. Season two had 16 million.

Other partners include MSN, who hosted the site, Walmart, who held in store events, and the Ellen DeGeneres show, who promoted it.

Branding in the episodes is very subtle but when you go the web site there are dedicated brand sections. Both brands say they have seen significant shifts in brand metrics and Suave enjoyed a market share increase of 0.5%, which they are very happy about. The site has games, forums for Mums to share experiences and blogs.

Have a look. It’s called ‘In the Motherhood‘.

In Other Side news, there were joint winners of the Cannes Travel awards. Andrew Tinning missed his plane and the airline lost his luggage but Heather Jacobs takes the croissant for getting on the plane at Heathrow, arguing with the guy sitting in her seat, then discovering that she was on the plane to Barcelona instead of Nice. The airline is investigating its security measures.

All I will say about the awards is that there is some awesome print work yet again and I am choking at the fact that our Perth Zoo radio didn’t get up. I will be seeking comfort at The Gutter bar tonight.