Agency/media operation
Bates Canada
Client
Pfizer Canada
Brand
Listerine PocketPaks
Budget
Less than $150,000
Media used
Cinema
Interactive
Timing
Jan. 21 – Feb. 17, 2002
Media team
Lynn Mayer, SVP, director of media planning, Bates Canada
Jason Leung, media planner, Bates Canada
Christina Stronge, media associate, Bates Canada
The background
The Listerine PocketPaks CineScrambler promotion was ground breaking. Never before undertaken in cinema, it provided a totally new experience for the moviegoer. As such, it was ideal for Listerine PocketPaks, a brand that, since its launch in the summer of 2000, has embraced all that is futuristic and hip.
Historically, the strength of the cinema medium has been the larger-than-life impact delivered against a captive, demographically and psychographically desirable audience.
The Listerine PocketPaks ‘Be A Hero – Get in on the Action’ CineScrambler promotion turned the traditional movie-going experience into an all-encompassing interactive one. Movie patrons in the greater Toronto area interacted not only with the screen but also with Listerine PocketPaks themselves in-theatre (literally via the distribution of samples and figuratively through the design of the CineScrambler itself) and then again at home through an exciting online sweepstakes component.
But what ultimately made CineScrambler such a perfect fit for Listerine PocketPaks was the media team’s insistence on mirroring the product itself in the card and its carrier. The carrier was designed to be an exact replica of a Listerine PocketPaks container, and the turquoise CineScrambler card slid out just like a translucent strip of the product. A completely singular approach for a highly distinctive brand.
A CineScrambler is a card which, when held up to a seemingly blank red screen, reveals images – in this case, prizes won.
The plan
Imagine that you are the media team on Listerine PocketPaks, charged with not only reaching youthful, urban consumers where and when they are concerned about their breath, but always doing so in ways that deliver the same ‘wow’ factor as the product itself.
An ideal place to deliver on these objectives is in the cinema environment. Not only is the target audience comprised of avid moviegoers, the in-theatre experience is one where close proximity to others heightens one’s concern about breath. And where else but at the movies can you surrender to the fantastic, the amazing and the moments that make you go ‘wow’?
Here’s the scene: you’re at a Cineplex theatre with a bunch of friends. From the moment you walked in, you were encouraged at every turn to ‘Be A Hero – Get in on the Action.’
When you bought your movie ticket, you were given one of 300,000 branded handouts describing how to take part. Highly visible P-O-S materials showcase CineScrambler: 6-foot tall standees, posters, and danglers at the concession. On the TV monitors located throughout the lobby, 10 30-second promotional spots run every hour. Outsized TV screens located above the concessions air the newest Listerine PocketPaks 60-second commercial.
Now you’ve bought popcorn and drinks at the concession and have been handed a Listerine PocketPaks CineScrambler card along with a sample. While you’re sitting waiting for the movie to start you watch the on-screen slide show. A CineScrambler slide appears. Suddenly, people around you are turning to each other, saying ‘I won, I won!’ You hold up your own CineScrambler to the screen and…
The first slide is a Listerine PocketPaks branded visual, using the same creative that has been carried through on all the standees, posters and danglers. The second slide asks you to pull out your Listerine PocketPaks CineScrambler card and get ready to play. The third slide displays Listerine PocketPaks branding above a large red background, against which the CineScrambler card is held to reveal an instant prize (popcorn, drinks, candy). The fourth slide tells you that you can claim instant prizes at the concession.
You can also take the CineScrambler card home to enter the online sweepstakes for chances to win the grand prize of a Sony Trinitron TV, a DVD dream system and 10 action movie DVDs from Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment and Lion’s Gate Films.
The results
What really made this work for the brand was the piece you held in your hand. CineScrambler and Listerine PocketPaks were woven together seamlessly, each enhancing the other. No other brand could own and execute this promotional idea like Listerine PocketPaks.
And it turned out to be a huge success. Of 650,000 moviegoers exposed to this unique Listerine PocketPaks CineScrambler promotion, more than 60,000 actively participated, unable to resist the opportunity to ‘Be A Hero’ and ‘Get in on the Action.’
The Judges rave…
‘An interesting and effective integration of product and medium allowing consumers to interact and become engaged with the product – a home run in my mind.’
‘Capitalizing on the intimacy and altering the experience in the context of a strong brand-centric promotion make this a winner.’
