Formed in 2000 and based in the heart of England’s capital, New Media Maze is a full-service agency that not only emphasizes creative and strategy, but maintaining healthy, enduring client relationships in the process. The proof is in the pudding, as the firm has built a growing, premium roster of entertainment/lifestyle brands including 20th Century Fox, FHM, Ubisoft, and NBC Universal.

Low-key and laid-back, yet knowledgeable and forthright with his industry views, Smith sheds light on his company’s fluid culture, the challenges of converting clients to the interactive space, and the differences in marketing and technological trends in the UK versus the US.

Hi Dave, so what’s the general strategy and culture of New Media Maze?

About 6 years ago, we fell into the entertainment industry, and so we’ve been working with Universal Pictures, but also a whole host of other entertainment clients and helping them to achieve their online marketing objectives. We take a full-service approach to online with our clients, so the idea when we set out was to act like a client’s outsourced online department or online marketing department. When they come to us, we would help them with all the different elements of the online marketing mix.

We’re based in central London and we’ve split the company into four key departments and the first of those departments is the strategy team. We have a dedicated strategy team who work with all of our clients to develop the direct online marketing strategy for different objectives. We then have a client management team who works with all of our clients to keep them happy. We then have an online marketing team who are more operational than strategic to actually undertake the work.

And then we also have a rapidly growing production team who builds our websites, creates online advertising units or develop the viral marketing elements. Then, we built onto that a team in India who do our hardcore technology work. So if we have something that’s really, really techie to do, or that we don’t necessarily have the skills, we would outsource to them. That’s brilliant, and we’ve been working with them for about five years now.

Where in India?

In Pune. They’re great. And then on top of that, we take the dynamic network approach to business which is that we don’t claim to do everything and are quite open with clients about that. We have something quite open with clients. So if there’s something that comes through that’s very technical like a really complex 3D game or something that the client requires, we’re quite happy to go and work with other agencies on that. We have this dynamic network of agencies that we also work with and outsource to when necessary.

When you read “Still Sexy at Sixty”, a few things come to mind: Bea Arthur twenty years ago, Angelina Jolie thirty years from now, or the classic and the always-hot ’46 Packard Clipper today. In any case, what you may not guess right off the bat is that one of Italy’s favorite two-wheelers, the Vespa, has reached this ripe, yet still vibrant age group.

And just to cement its hip factor, the mod-friendly scooter’s Pisa-based manufacturer Piaggio announced last week that it’s enlisted the services of UK agency New Media Maze to create an online viral campaign that will help drive traffic for the Vespa LX as part of its marketing drive. “We were brainstorming ways of communicating the fact that the Vespa LX is still sexy at sixty,” Dave Smith, Managing Director of New Media Maze tells ADOTAS. “One of the themes we explored was the Kama Sutra, and one of our creatives changed that to Kama Scooter. Whilst we presented several ideas to the client, we knew immediately that Kama Scooter would win out.”

Smith describes the microsite setup, saying, “The web site contains an interactive book detailing 9 new sexy positions involving the Vespa LX. Visitors to the site read about the positions in the book, and then watch a short video clip featuring two gorgeous catwalk models enacting each position.” He adds, “The videos are all very erotic but work safe, so we’re already seeing a huge viral spread as men send it to each other.”

Oddly enough, however, the site neglected to include the classic “Send to a Friend” form because as Smith explains, it doesn’t need it. The site also lacks any real interactivity apart from mini video clips—filmed by Studio Film—of two models on fairly visible strings and studio fans blowing their hair working the hot for each other, girl-on-girl style. Call me a tough critic, but while they may be two attractive women playing the interchangeable roles of pleasured and pleasurer, it certainly doesn’t mean the viewer has to buy their acting skills.

But given the 16+ male demographic this campaign hopes to reach and the ‘sex sells’ motif, it’s hard to imagine they give a hoot about any Oscar nomination. And while the puppet strings may be as effective as those in N’Sync’s “Bye Bye Bye” video, Smith spreads only good words about the feedback they’ve been getting over the last week.

“We love it, the client loves it, and we’ve had amazing feedback from our peers,” he says. “In terms of feedback from the general public it’s been mixed, with about 95% loving it and 5% not. The Vespa brand is a highly emotive one, and existing customers tend to care dearly about it and can have very fixed views on how it should be represented. As such, there’s been massive debate in blogs and forums around the world about the merits of the campaign.

Smith adds, “We’re obviously delighted to have created something that not only is viral but has kicked off huge traditional ‘word of mouth’ at the same time. Stats-wise, we’ve clocked up just over 130,000 uniques since launch and we’re expecting that to grow exponentially in the coming weeks.”

But given that they’re not running ads to get the word out, this should be an interesting test for word-of-mouth marketing. We’re just glad they didn’t hire the Golden Girls for the roles, even if Bea can still hang with the big boys…er…women.

As Smith eloquently summarizes, “I’ve been dying to see sexy women flying around on wires and getting off with each other, and now I’ve fulfilled that fantasy. Thank you Piaggio, we’re confident this will ‘take off’ on the net”.”

No, thank you.

Scope the new Vespa LX, or just two women on strings with feathers at: www.kamascooter.com.

What’s the one (or two things) missing from our beloved Subservient Chicken? A hint: it’s something uber-hot British model Charlotte Marshall (pictured) could tell you a thing or two about. In classic chicken fashion, FHM, with the help of both UK-based digital communications agency Outside Line and New Media Maze, have put their noggins together to push the magazine’s annual “Top 100 Sexiest Woman” with an even sexier viral campaign.

Microsite visitors can “chat” with Marshall, one of last years Top 100 winners, in a handful of behind-closed-door locales and eye-catching ensembles (or lack thereof) and answer four questions based on the user’s favorite female attributes. She’s then ready and willing to help you narrow down the perfect mate from FHM’s Top 100 Sexiest barrel-o-hotness including such names as Jennifer Garner, Angelina Jolie and Alyssa Milano. The game was built using Flash 8 and incorporates embedded video footage of our favorite FHM model which is designed to run as smoothly as possible in all browsers.

Jamie Vickery, Account Manager at Outside Line explains to ADOTAS, “The main purpose of the game was to encourage people to vote in this year’s FHM 100 Sexiest Poll. We wanted to create a fun, yet sexy and intimate environment where FHM readers could interact ‘live’ with High Street Honey, Charlotte Marshall.”

Vickery continues, “After the user has voted they are treated to some intimate bonus footage of Charlotte dancing, kissing and allowing you to get a little closer. Two extra bonus clips are unlocked if the user sends the game to a friend and one final clip is revealed if the user enters a secret keyword,”

Regarding the “secret” keyword, Vickery adds that “it is being seeded in various message boards. Hundreds of keywords have been entered into the game to try and anticipate as many user responses as possible.”

In order to get the word out, FHM tapped New Media Maze to help drive the campaign through online PR. On top of their efforts, the campaign creators at Outside Line even created a MySpace page to increase awareness of the game to their target demographic which is predominantly (and not surprisingly) 16-34 year old males. Outside Line’s Vickery additionally offers, “We are seeding the game in forums and message boards and will target a wide range of communities including news & entertainment, sports/lad, girls /fashion and music & lifestyle.”

As for how well the campaign is being received thus far—not that anyone in their right mind would be running away from Ms. Charlotte—Vickery tells us, “In the first five days, the game had been played over 60,000 times. Early reports suggest that figure is rising rapidly but I do not have updated figures as of yet.”

The microsite, which Outside Line plans to promote on AOL and Mirror among other sites, went live on Wednesday, March 8th and will run until voting officially closes on April 13th 2006; final results will be announced in the June issue of FHM.

Get your vote on and meet Charlotte Marshall in the…er…flesh.