New York, NY (September 9, 2003) –The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today launched the next wave of its 2003 integrated branding campaign, “Superheroes,” aimed at helping marketers understand how best to integrate interactive advertising into their own marketing plans. The campaign, devised by award-winning, marketing communications agency Euro RSCG MVBMS Partners, showcases successful case studies from world-class brands such as Frito-Lay and Volvo. The most recent creative execution was unveiled at the IAB Advertisers Forum held today and tomorrow in New York.
The new “superhero” creative unmasked today features the Director of Advertising for Visa USA, Jon Raj, and profiles Visa’s success at creating demand among football fans for its official NFL card. Visa’s interactive campaign yielded a 40% increase in awareness of the Visa official card of the NFL and a 51% increase in user preference over other cards.
“Visa is extremely proud of the success we had promoting the NFL card and this campaign offers the opportunity to further highlight Visa’s cutting-edge and forward-thinking approach to marketing,” said Raj.
The IAB campaign profiles marketing “superheroes” who have tapped the potency of interactive in tandem with an overall marketing plan. Using a stylish, witty motif that overlays photos of each executive onto a “superhero” costume, the copy lists their “superpowers” – the campaign innovations that specifically contributed to achieving brand objectives and meeting brand goals. The ads encourage corporate marketers to explore the power of interactive advertising by downloading complete “superhero” case studies at www.iab.net/superhero.
The first wave of the “superheroes” campaign was launched in print, outdoor and online media on May 28, 2003. The first two “superheroes” profiled were Cammie Dunaway, then Vice President and General Manager of Marketing for Frito-Lay, Inc. (now Chief Marketing Officer for Yahoo!), and Phil Bienert, Manager of CRM and e-Business for Volvo Cars of North America LLC.
In addition to advertising, the campaign theme extends to a variety of integrated marketing strategies including e-mail marketing, public relations and deployment of the theme at IAB events such as the IAB Advertisers Forum.
“Interactive advertising revenues have risen quarter over quarter since Q4 2002, and we are confident that continued illustrations of interactive’s power will only continue this upward trend,” said Greg Stuart, President and CEO, IAB. “The tangible proof and creative examples of success highlighted in this campaign enable marketers to better plan and implement a media-agnostic campaign.“
“The “superheroes” campaign is truly an industry effort,” continued Mr. Stuart. We are grateful to all of our partners in this effort including Euro RSCG MVBMS Partners who donated all creative, production and media planning in concert with Media Planning Group, the top-tier media outlets who generously donated inventory from their site or publication as well as Eyeblaster, Unicast and Viewpoint for their rich media services.”
Media companies and online publishers donating advertising space include: 24/7 RealMedia, Advertising Age, AdForum.com, AOL, MediaPost, MSN, Netcreations, The New York Times Digital, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal and Yahoo!. Atlas DMT is providing all ad serving, tracking and analytics and Dynamic Logic is conducting an AdIndex study to measure the impact of the online advertising component.
“Our association with the IAB has been a happy meeting of the minds,” said Ron Berger CEO, Euro RSCG MVBMS Partners. “Our agency is dedicated to furthering companies’ business goals through integration, and the IAB campaign has allowed us to bring this philosophy to bear on one of the advertising industry’s most forward-thinking organizations.”
About the IAB
Founded in 1996, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) represents the leading companies in the interactive space. Membership includes companies that are actively engaged in, and support the sale of interactive advertising in addition to being responsible for selling over 75% of online advertising in the United States. IAB members include AOL, CNET Networks, DoubleClick, MSN, Google, Overture, The Walt Disney Internet Group, Yahoo! and over 100 others. On behalf of its members, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices, fields interactive effectiveness research and educates the advertising industry regarding the use of interactive advertising. For more information on the IAB please visit www.iab.net.