Sunday, August 22, 2010

Chocolate Milk: The Official Drink of Halloween


Agency: Draftfcb
Client: MilkPEP


MilkPEP has positioned its chocolate milk as the Official Drink of Halloween since 2006. In 2009, MilkPEP focused its message on bone health using skeleton-themed artwork. The campaign was directed primarily at retailers, with an additional component designed to reach into local neighborhoods and communities where kids and families were participating in Halloween activities.  

Retail sampling and event kits were distributed to more than 25,000 stores featuring the new bone health message. In addition, Spanish-language kits were developed with a tie-in to Dia de Los Muertos – Day of the Dead, a Hispanic holiday similar to Halloween.

Haunted-house tie-ins and community events material were provided to dress up their stores with banners, pennant strings, a tablecloth, balloon, reproducible handouts, artwork and temporary tattoos. Additional program support included a national Milk Mustache ad featuring Heidi Klum, a national ad launch, satellite media tours, PR and a 25-market tour of events.

For consumers, MilkPEP introduced the Halloween-themed “Make Your Own Milk Mustache ad” contest on its whymilk.com website. Kids and consumers were able to upload their pictures, apply a chocolate milk mustache and then pick from a host of Halloween-themed bodies. A sharing application allowed them to pass their creations along to friends and family.

The program was a huge success, more than doubling MilkPEP’s sales in the flavored milk category to 9 million, up from 4.8 million in 2008. Retail POS generated nearly 155 million impressions. Approximately 250 personalized Milk Mustache ads were created during the promotional period, while more than  1,000 “Event in a Box” toolkits were distributed for local marketing initiatives. 

American Airlines: 2009 Digital Holiday Card


Agency: The Marketing Arm
Client: American Airlines

American Airlines

As a result of a tough 2009, American Airlines wanted to use its holiday card to say thank you to its customers without a promotional message and to encourage them not only to look forward to the future, but to shift their perspective during the holiday season. From this idea came the message “look up.”

The airline also sought to generate at least $150,000 in donations to AA-supported charities while generating positive word of mouth about the brand. They wanted a campaign that was engaging, viral, inspiring, and uplifting, while capturing the airline’s personality.

On December 10, AA emailed a holiday email to more than 14 million customers, inviting them to click through and watch the two-minute animated holiday card, which was designed to take American Airline-centric images and themes and weave them into an experience that struck the right balance of thanks, optimism, holiday and branding. The card also encouraged recipients to “look up” and find hope, promise and optimism in the coming year.

After viewing the card, recipients could help others look up by giving to one of three AA-supported charities: USO, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and Miles for Kids in Need. They did. The microsite received almost 500,000 visitors without any incentive. The average click-to-open rate was double that of 2009’s one-off emails.

Overall, about 6,000 customers donated almost $200,000 – and 14 million miles to AA charities.  The holiday e-card received more than 30 media placements, including stories in the Chicago Tribune (print and online), Business Week, Tradingmarkets.com, and travel blog Jaunted.com.