M&ms Chocolate: "FIND RED (Movie)" Online Advert by Proximity Canada

Type of Entry: Use of Promo & Activation
Category: Best Use of Other Digital Media in a Promotional Campaign
Advertiser/Client: MARS
Product/Service: CHOCOLATE
Entrant Company: PROXIMITY CANADA, CANADA
Sales Promotion/Advertising Agency: PROXIMITY CANADA, CANADA
Executive Creative Director: John Gagné (Proximity Canada)
Associate Creative Director/Copywriter: Rene Rouleau (Proximity Canada)
Associate Creative Director/Copywriter: Jon Ruby (Proximity Canada)
Associate Creative Director/Art Director: Jeffrey Da Silva (Proximity Canada)
Associate Creative Director: Ari Elkouby (Proximity Canada)
Copywriter: Ryan Lawrence (Proximity Canada)
Associate Technical Director: Darrin Patey (Proximity Canada)
Developer: Iftikhar Ahmed (Proximity Canada)
Developer: Edwin Locke (Proximity Canada)
Information Architect: Patrick Jordan (Proximity Canada)
Director: Chris Hutsel (Soft Citizen)
Vice President/Account Director: Chris Perron (BBDO Toronto)
Account Director: Priyanka Goswami (Proximity Canada)
Account Coordinator: Jesse Abrams (Proximity Canada)
Agency Public Relations: Shari Balga (Proximity Canada)
Describe the brief from the client:
We never received a brief for the game. But we did know that our client, Mars Canada, was always looking for new ways to drive awareness of M&M’s online by delivering the brand benefit of IRRESISTIBLE FUN to a target audience of college-age, Internet-savvy, male and female Canadians.
Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation:
When we heard that the Google Street View camera car was coming to Toronto, Canada, and we considered M&M’s ongoing strategy, it gave us an idea.
What if we placed large, red M&M’s in windows in Toronto to get them inside Google Street View?
Three of the M&M’s made it in and we had created a first-of-its-kind, digital treasure hunt with hidden M&M’s inside Toronto inside Google Street View where we challenged Canadians to find them. Players who found all of the hidden M&M’s had a chance to win a red Smart car.
Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results:
The purpose of this game was simply increasing awareness and interaction with the M&M’s brand.
In just 30 days, this Canadian promotion got: 8.4 million PR impressions, over 7 million QR Code poster views and over 225,000 Twitter impressions. Total impressions came out to over 15.6 million.
Besides the obvious buzz this game mashup generated, the most impressive result was that the average time spent on the site was over 19 minutes. That’s 4 times the industry average.
Most importantly, the game was IRRESISTIBLE FUN... just like M&M’s.
Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service:
Considering our target spends a majority of their free time online, it’s not surprising that they found our method of engagement (regular deployment of clues) to be particularly appealing.
For four weeks, players received clues on the website, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and using YouTube annotations. In the real world, there were QR code wild postings as well as package UPC codes that unlocked special clues with Stickybits.
Overall, players had the opportunity to go as deep as they wanted into the game by using as many of the media channels as possible.