Skate Pinball
Issue 22 | February 2012
Agency
Colenso BBDO
Creative Team
ECD: Nick Worthington; Art Director: Victoria Daltrey; Copywriter: Will Bingham; Digital Creative Director: Dan Wright; Digital Designer: Pablo Dunovits; Director: Jae Morrison (Colenso BBDO) and Warren Green (Satin and Lace)
Production Team
Group Account Director: Angela Watson; Account Director: Tim Ellis; Account Manager: Sam Wallace; Account Executive: Eileen Cosgrove-Moloney; Planner: Hayley Pardoe; Producers: Rob Linkhorn, Paul Courtney and James MacMullan
Other Credits
Photographer: Sam Minell ; Park Designer: Corban Walls
Date
From June 2011
Background
Despite Mountain Dew being a big international brand, in New Zealand it has only a small presence and little kudos amongst its core target, teenagers. With three new flavours to launch, not just to build awareness of these but also to give the brand some fame with Kiwi teens.
Idea
Building on Mountain Dew’s affiliation with extreme sports and its philosophy of “living out your passions”, the idea was to build a skatepark like no other: a 600 square-metre, fully functioning pinball machine that enabled skaters and BMXers to become human pinballs. The skatepark was kitted out with a 13 metre high backboard, bumpers, flippers, tunnels, ramps, rails and even a plunger to launch you in. There were three dedicated zones for each flavour and throughout the park sensors were wired in, along with sounds and lights to score your run just like a pinball game.
A TV commercial promoted the park and the new flavours and directed people to the website. Online you could explore the machine, follow a video blog of the build, watch the live feed and download your own 360-degree photos. With only 10% of the budget being spent on media, the agency was relying on the fans to spread the word themselves. Thankfully they did, not just in New Zealand but also around the world. Even the godfather of skateboarding, Tony Hawk tweeted about the park. From the time the first gates opened, teens were lining up for up to five hours to get in.
Results
The Pinball Skatepark campaign has not only raised awareness of the new flavours but also raised the profile of the Mountain Dew brand in New Zealand: During the campaign Mountain Dew saw 106% dollar growth (YOY) against an objective of 20% and is now the fastest-growing soft drink in New Zealand. Mountain Dew saw a 45% increase in ‘is a cool brand’ measure. The TV commercial scored the highest talkability measures ever recorded by Colmar Brunton New Zealand. The campaign generated over $400,000 in PR in NZ alone. In addition it was picked up by more than 100 international news channels, mentioned in over 1000 websites and blogs, and is connected with more than 1,000,000 Google searches. Facebook fans grew by 25%
Our Thoughts
It has become a cliché, but Confucius’s little dictum really does justify the rise and rise of experiential advertising. “Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I’ll remember. Involve me and I’ll understand.”
Run a TV commercial showing skateboarders doing their thing and you give yourself just thirty seconds to grab and hold attention.
Create a website where there is a lot of content with dudes on boards and bikes and you may get a couple of minutes.
Actually build a skateboard park and you have people engaged with you for hours on end, sharing their passion with each other and with the brand.
If you’ve ever wondered how much the advertising business has changed, here’s an example.10 years ago, the team would have written a commercial about a skateboard-pinball machine. Now they got one built.