12. Lessons from The Digital Industries
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Editor's Notes
The Ogilvy Digital Lab is a hub for partnerships, research, education and knowledge sharing around new media and innovative communications. Ogilvy became the first communications agency in the world to establish a global network of digital labs in March 2008, with London opening the doors to its own Lab in November of that year. It aims to introduce clients and Ogilvy employees to new technology to inspire, enhance and deliver great creative solutions to business and marketing problems. The Lab can offer clients services such as strategy workshops and trend-monitoring. Alternatively, the Lab team can create for a client a ‘Lab in a Box’; a bespoke package which might include building a physical Lab space in the client’s offices, reinforced with its own ‘Lab’ identity, an online community, and a tailored calendar of training modules and events. By being at the bleeding-edge of technology the Labs also acts as a key pull metric to attract digital talent and retain staff.
 
The dedicated showrooms are utilised for presentations, pitches, events and as a learning and creativity centre for Ogilvy staff and visitors. It’s a focus area for developing innovative ideas across disciplines and media in a future facing environment where the sky’s the limit!
 
The Lab is self funding, with cash flow generated through Ogilvy speaker opportunities as well as through mutual beneficial Lab Partner showcasing initiatives. Other revenue streams include client workshops, client based labs such as Unilever Lab, and Ogilvy consultancy. Ogilvy Digital Labs is not just being about innovation with new technology, but innovation with new business revenue models. The funding generated through these partnerships is then used to drive the main objective of Ogilvy Digital Labs – creating an environment where clients and agency alike are introduced to new technology to inspire, enhance and deliver great creative ideas.
 
With hubs in New York, Beijing, Singapore, Los Angeles, Tokyo, London and São Paulo, that global commitment is indicative of the increasing importance of technological development for Ogilvy clients.
 
 
What is the Digital Showroom?
 
An internal source of Partner information and services; serves as inspiration and access to the latest and greatest in digital
A digital extension of the Ogilvy Labs
A database of all Ogilvy digital Partners’ contact details (past/current/future)
A showcase of Partner-generated case studies
A Producer resource for tracking of on-going relationships with Partners
Fanta challenged Ogilvy Advertising to create a campaign that targeted the teenager consumer market and their knowledge of digital. Using the mobile platform in its broadest form Ogilvy brought to life the vision to create more play in the world and in doing so give teenagers something they need. A mobile application was developed, which used high frequency Mosquito sounds to create an imaginative new language which adults cannot hear. It turns a teen repellent into a teen advantage and in doing so it inspires more ‘Play’ in the world.
The WAP site had 75,000 hits in the first week. The WAP address is now on 50 millions cans. The application has been downloaded 180,000 times – with minimal promotion – since it was launched in December of 2008.
Currently we are know that there has been approximately 1 million downloads to date.
*Won a Cannes Silver Lion in Media.
fanta clip
The Dove One-Minute Film Project: "Daughters" and "Evolution"
Executive Summary
The story of "Evolution" and its sister film "Daughters" is a wild one. The films were developed to promote a series of Real Beauty Workshops and online tools for girls and their mothers/mentors, developed by Dove in the second year of the Dove Self Esteem Fund. In a few short weeks, the films have blasted far beyond the original modest goal. They've dramatically raised the profile of Dove, all around the world, as a brand that lives what it believes.
In order to view the videos below, you will need to download the latest version of Flash Player for your browser. You can get the latest version from Adobe by clicking here.
Client Brief
Dove's 2006 white paper revealed that Moms have a greater influence on their daughters' self-esteem than either media or celebrities. We believed this news would come as a surprise to mothers living in our fame-obsessed culture where kids notice every lowered centimetre of Paris Hilton's jeans. This information became the foundation for our work.
Ogilvy Toronto's brief was media neutral, the challenge to develop big, bold activation. We wanted to provoke moms into owning their own power, motivate them to participate in the workshops, and make them aware of and use the suite of tools and resources available through campaignforrealbeauty.ca.
The tools and resources were to be found online. Registration for the workshops was only available online. We figured that the driver could also exist online.
Hence the One-Minute Film Project: a series of short viral films that tackle self-esteem from a variety of angles. And are tools, themselves.
The Films
Film 1, "Daughters" is a short documentary in which young girls/women speak frankly and emotionally about the impact of modern beauty culture on them. Alienation, low self-esteem and anorexia each play a role in the lives of these real girls from Toronto and Halifax, as they share their wise-innocent views with us.
Film 2, "Evolution", is a mesmerizing demonstration of the simple truth that even models don't look like models. They're a fabrication of hair stylists, make-up artists, photographers, lighting guys, retouchers and other magicians, all of whom we used to make the film. Our model was shot by a high-end fashion photographer, and PhotoShopped within an inch of her life. We stabilized her head, incorporated over 100 retouching files and created a time-lapse effect to make visible just how distorted our perceptions of beauty are.
3 1/2 minutes of powerful film is all it takes to understand the damage inflicted on girls by peer pressure and beauty stereotypes. 3 1/2 minutes is all it takes for moms to realize their critical role in helping their daughters navigate the complex work of manufactured images. And that Dove has the tools to help them.
The Distribution
With a goal to touch over 70,000 lives with almost no media budget, we felt our best option was to drive to the website where our target could immediately engage with the tools and resources. The interface of campaignforrealbeauty.ca was restructured to enable the user to easily navigate the tools and resources, as well as view and share the films.
The films were released in a number of ways:
• On the landing page of campaignforrealbeauty.ca with the entire page being revamped to reflect the look and feel of the films
• Email with a link to the film to:
o Homebasics subscribers (250,000 consumers)
o Dove opt-in subscribers (100,000 consumers)
o Relevant purchased lists
• Online teaser ads with a click through to the website, hosted on relevant sites such as mochasofa.ca, Rogers women groups, 24/7 Canada.
Posting it on Google video and YouTube.com
PR Support
• PR support was originally intended for the workshops only, but due to the overwhelming response of the film pick-up in the US, it was revised to include a push behind "Evolution".
Results
Workshops attended to capacity in the large cities and greater than expected in the smaller locations.
The first day "Daughters" was up on the site and the email blast released, there were 10,000 hits - the normal amount received in a month.
"Evolution" had over 2 million views and 22 postings after only 2 weeks on YouTube; it was the most viewed spot its first week out; and received compliments in the comments by the founders of YouTube themselves!
It was the most viewed video story on cnn.com on October 24.
It was on the cover of the Toronto Star on October 24, the leading daily newspaper in Canada's largest city.
Evolution has been the talk of the talk show and news program circuit, seen on:
• The Today Show
• CBS Early Show
• Good Morning America
• The View
• Inside Edition
• Entertainment Tonight
• Geraldo
• ABC News website cover story and a webcast
• The Ellen Degeneres Show
• CNN Entertainment News
• Global News Morning
• City TV 11pm news
• TQS (in Montreal)
• Canoe (Quebec)
• Journal de Montreal
• Cyberpresse
• E Talk Daily
• Fashion TV
• Markeing Magazine (Canada)
No media money was spent on "Evolution". It aired as content in the most expensive space going: TV program air time where it was given repeated showings, the model interviewed, and credible hosts dug deep into its message.
This jump from virtual to mainstream media is truly remarkable. It was this that ensured the Dove message got to its true target, rather than just the entertainment-seekers on YouTube.
 
Within a month of the release of "Dove Evolution" on YouTube, a parody called "Slob Evolution" was posted. The spoof shows an attractive young man going through a "slob" makeover. The result is an overweight, middle-aged man. The tag line: "Thank God our perception of real life is distorted. No one likes to look at ugly people."
