CHALLENGE

Every day major ad agencies are bombarded with pitches from Internet marketing technology and service providers. Rich media ad tech provider bluestreak needed a way to stand out from the crowd. Stefan Tornquist, bluestreak Director of Marketing Communications says, "Our marketing goal was to get agencies to recognize our name and identify it with something."

CAMPAIGN

bluestreak's agency of record, Lowe Lintas, knew the top two ways to impress agency execs with a service is to show them that their peers are already happy customers, and to show off with high-visibility, highly-creative campaign.

So they convinced some of bluestreak's higher-profile customers to appear in ads with their hair styled (thanks to the wonders of Photoshop) in blue mohawks. Jonn Behrman, CEO Beyond Interactive; Steve Lynch, Creative Director Digitas; and Paula Brooks, Managing Partner of Media Services at Margotes all agreed.

First the ads in all the obvious print magazines, such as Ad Age, Industry Standard, Revolution and Wired. Next, Lowe Lintas upped the campaign's impact by buying billboards in Manhattan near Time Square (and loads of agencies) at 7th and 52nd, and directly across the street from Ogilvy at 9th and 48th.



RESULTS

Although offline campaigns are hard to measure in terms of specifics, Tornquist says, "I suspect the campaign made a big difference." In fact bluestreak received calls from some Ogilvy execs offering themselves as models for future campaigns! Plus, Digitas asked for the 50-foot wrap featuring Steve Lynch so it can be hung inside their offices.

NOTES: bluestreak lucked out on their timing. Due to the dot-com slow-down, billboard sales in central Manhattan have been lagging this Winter. So, bluestreak received several months of free exposure after their paid term ran out because the billboard companies didn't have any new campaigns to replace their ad with.

However, Tornquist expects that billboard bargains won't be around for long. He says, "By mid-to-late summer it will heat up again. I'm sure that the markets are going to rebound very quickly."