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Kiran Aditham
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Kiran Aditham is a Business Management grad from the University of Central Florida, Aditham earned his stripes as a freelance writer in music/arts publishing.

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Features

Disney and Klipmart Join Forces for “Shag”-adelic Online Ad

Written on
March 16th 2006
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by Kiran Aditham  |
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It’s hard to dispute that the majority of online movie ads, save for the nifty rollovers and the occasional Flash trimmings, are anything but direct replicas of the film’s theatrical/TV trailers. While this type of promo indeed serves its purpose, Disney decided to do web audiences one better with a few of its most recent film campaigns.

Just like the company did with The Pacifier and its star Vin Diesel last year, Disney is adopting a truly interactive strategy to promote its latest offering, the remake of The Shaggy Dog starring Tim “The Toolman” Allen. Disney once again teamed up with online video ad mainstays Klipmart to produce creative that feature video shot only for the Internet combined with outtakes from the film, none of which were seen in any other promotion including trailers.

“There’s a much higher interaction rate [with these types of ads],” Klipmart’s Director of Marketing Chris Wilson tells ADOTAS. “If someone sees the same spot they see on TV, they’re not going to get interactive with it. Everything spikes dramatically with original content.”

The primary unit for the campaign (above), which “helped draw significant audiences” by launching just prior to the film’s March 10 release, is a 728 x 300 banner which is transformed as the silhouette of Tim Allen moves across the banner changing from a man to a dog. When rolled over by users, the banner expands to 1/3 of the screen and launches video of Tim Allen shot exclusively for the ad. He introduces the film and invites user to clip on paw prints, each of which launches a preview segment from the film, again, selected and edited just for online play. By clicking through, viewers are transported to an official Disney site for the film.

“Just like DVDs with extra features, you’re seeing exclusives,” says Wilson. “You’re interacting with green-screened characters and talking to them. [They’re] introducing them to what’s going on in this unit, it’s something a bit more personalized. It’s more laid-back. Tim Allen [for example] says ‘hey, shouldn’t you be working now?’ It’s a little more playful.” Along with Tim Allen’s witticisms, the ad unit also includes a feature called “Shaggify Yourself”, which allows users to upload and insert their own photo and see what they look like transformed into a dog.

Metrics haven’t been calculated at this point, but Wilson expects the ad — currently found on Yahoo, Real, Nick, MSN, AOL, and Cartoon Network among others — to be live for a few more weeks. If anything, its concept lies in something fundamentally missing in online movie promos. “This is about building relationships with your viewers,” Wilson explains. “They can relate to the movie a little bit more, and have a little bit more fun. It’s not just Disney, but it is an emerging trend. Original content is much more impacting.”



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