A demonstration of

• > Active Engagement
• > Earned
• > Multimedia
• > Owned
• > Paid

Context is king

Local election fever offered an ideal context for promoting a blockbuster cartoon movie.

The challenge

The launch of Shrek the Third in Buenos Aires coincided with four simultaneous Hollywood blockbuster releases - and a very noisy city election.

The majority of the budget had been assigned to TV, even though the target audience was more engaged with digital media. To make the task even more challenging, we only had a week to launch a campaign, generate buzz and drive brand awareness

Our insight

The movie's plot involves Shrek and his companions overcoming various challenges to become rulers of their country. We linked the movie to the concurrent city election. We changed a weakness - a noisy overcrowded market - into an opportunity - a witty parallel between the film's plot and electoral turmoil in the city

Our solution

We proposed Shrek and his companions as ‘official candidates' for the elections, using outdoor to kick-start the campaign. We created a website where visitors could vote for the candidates, or ‘recommend' them to friends. The site also carried a running poll showing the current standings of the ‘candidates'. To close the campaign, we ran two consecutive ads in a leading Buenos Aires newspaper announcing the expected result of the elections: "The city has already chosen its king!" with a picture of Shrek

The results

• No. 2 film of the year
• 800,000 people saw the movie in the first week, a local record
• 16,500 visits to campaign website