Media strategy

SAM D’AMATO MEDIA PLANNER OMD

The campaign for “Action Man – The Final Combat” was largely successful because the client was brave enough do the unthinkable.

They handed control of the TV ad over to the most important stakeholders Hasbro has – the kids.

TV broadcasters, through shows such as Big Brother, Pop Idol and The Big Read, have demonstrated innovation in the way they maintain audience involvement, in the face of fragmentation and proliferation of media choice. Media planning, however, tends to continue looking at TV purely in terms of “targeting” and “optimisation”.

To truly engage kids in the Action Man brand we needed to go beyond this approach.

The strategic idea was built on a simple insight: in kids’ play worlds they have the power to control their heroes. So, what if we gave them that power? The result was an industry first that reflected the innovation of broadcasters – we let kids direct the creative end.

To do this we ran a cliffhanger ad, whereby the evil Dr X was left hanging over the very death ray he planned to destroy the Earth with. Kids were then asked: “Should Action Man try to save Dr X?” Merchandising, marketing and PR followed the TV idea, rather than the commercial or product. The focus of stage one of the communications activity became getting people to interact with the TV campaign rather than simply to expose the product.

An important business outcome of stage one was the incredible support shown by the trade.

Incredibly, Argos, Toys R Us and Asda ran “vote flashes” (calls to vote) in their catalogues. Since catalogues are the basis upon which many a child’s Christmas decision is made, and that Argos alone distributes about 10 million issues, the support was incredible.

Stage two’s challenge was then to reveal the kids’ choice. It had to be an appointment to view and press interest (17 million combined reach, including the Daily Star and Financial Times) helped ensure this. On the first weekend of the reveal we ran a roadblock across the channels.

A 60-second time length was initially used to heighten cutthrough and showcase the kids’ choice.

With regards to the level of interest, the number of votes received was greater than the third place book in the BBC’s The Big Read and not too far behind Pride and Prejudice, which finished second. Jane Austen would have been nervous, I’m sure.

So, ironically, in a world of iPods and 3G, it was a 36-year-old traditional toy that re-examined the way the TV medium could be used. Oh yes – boys aged four to seven may look sweet and innocent, but about 100,000 voted and they decided Dr X should fall into the death ray.

This strategy was among those highly placed at the Channel 4 TV planning awards, organised in association with Media Week.