Effie Awards: HBO and CNN Win Gold, CBS Wins Silver Dan Koelsch, June 10, 2010 The Effie Awards, founded in 1968 by the American Marketing Association, recognize the most “effective advertising efforts” in the country. This year’s event was held on Tuesday night, and while most of the categories and winners were regular campaigns, a viral campaign and a few networks got onto the list. Each category has an Olympic style structure, with gold, silver, and bronze winners. In the “Entertainment and Sporting Events” category, HBO won the gold for True Blood. Campfire, who ran the viral campaign for the show, is one of the companies on the winner’s list. Hear Campfire co-founder Mike Monello talk about the campaign in our interview with him. Watch Campfire’s video presentation of their work on True Blood below, as well as Effie’s remarks on the overall marketing for the show. In its first season, HBO’s True Blood quickly amassed an audience of die-hard fans, but for an increasingly ravenous audience, it wasn’t enough to just witness the world of True Blood, they wanted to be able to walk right into it. For Season 2 vampires wouldn’t just be walking among us; they’d be deeply integrated into our society. HBO called it ‘Hacking Reality,’ and it was all about blurring the line between reality and fiction. When it was all said and done, HBO had seized the momentum of True Blood?s first season and delivered an integrated campaign that generated massive press and industry buz, but more importantly, it engaged, provoked and rewarded both die-hard fans and new viewers. CNN also won gold for their Facebook Inauguration collaboration, which allowed Facebook users to watch the event right on the website.The Presidential Inauguration presented an equally unprecedented opportunity to not only further demonstrate our brand leadership as the place for news, but to connect and engage with our audience, allowing viewers to experience an historic event in an entirely new way. CNN.com’s collaboration with Facebook offered consumers the opportunity to witness the historic event firsthand while also connecting with their friends in real-time, which made this not only a momentous occasion but also the largest event in Internet history to date. Finally, CBS and Pepsi won silver in the “Media Innovation” category for their “Monday to the Max” ad, which featured the first ever video-in-print. I personally saw this in a copy of Entertainment Weekly, and it’s pretty impressive.With the severe downturn currently accelerating in the print industry, we identified the medium as ripe for innovation and re-invention. The goal was to do something in print that would ensure the integrated messaging for CBS and PepsiMax would come to life and for the first time organically tie the print medium to a true television experience. As a centerpiece to its 2009 Fall Season launch campaign, CBS, with new promotional partner PepsiCo, introduced the first-ever use of video in print advertising. Introducing readers of a magazine to the allure of sight, sound and motion and directly delivering consumers CBS and PepsiMax video content on the printed page. For the complete list of winners and more information on the awards, go to Effie.org. Viral Marketing Viral News awardsCBSCNNeffie awardsHBOMike MonelloTrue Blood
Current Viral Campaigns January 31, 2009January 30, 2010Now you know who we are and what we do. So what movies currently have viral campaigns going on? Here’s a quick introductory summary. Don’t worry, we’ll have much more coverage leading up to these films. Watchmen (Opens 3/6/09): This film, adapted from the critically-acclaimed graphic novel by Alan Moore,… Read More
Trailers Weekly: “Need For Speed”, “Muppets Most Wanted”, “RoboCop”, “The Wind Rises”, “Sabotage” November 23, 2013December 11, 2013Trailers Weekly is a feature in which we bring you the most popular and talked about trailers of the week. Sharing trailers is a classic viral practice, and trailers are still the most mainstream way for people to learn about movies. We’ve got trailers from Need For Speed, Muppets Most… Read More
Abrams’ Secret New Project Could Mean More Viral For Us November 6, 2009November 6, 2009When folks around here think of viral marketing, they think of Cloverfield. After all, MovieViral recognizes the film as one of the primary inspirations for the website. When folks think of Cloverfield, they probably think of its producer J.J. Abrams. It is necessary then to report any and all news regarding his upcoming projects,… Read More
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