DDB Singapore blocks the sun
On July 22, 2009 this century’s longest and most dramatic solar eclipse plunged large swathes of India, China and Japan in total darkness. DDB Singapore’s idea was to claim this eclipse on behalf of our clients Johnson & Johnson for their Neutrogena Ultra Sheer sun block.
The agency built a digital campaign around the thought: For 6 minutes and 39 seconds (the duration of the eclipse) the moon will protect you from the sun, but for the remaining 500,000 minutes you need Neutrogena Ultra Sheer sun block. They used two blogs, 21 viral videos, twitter, facebook, flashmobs and a variety of sampling events to drive traffic to a website, sunstopper.sg
On the morning of the eclipse, DDB streamed the eclipse live from China to the site and at the appropriate time, claimed it for Neutrogena Ultra Sheer sun block. They spent US$9,000 and 30 days, and got an estimated US$300,000 worth of publicity for the brand. Approximately 10,000 people watched the live streaming and brand claim.
Title: Project SunStopper
Weblink: www.sunstopper.sg
Client: Johnson & Johnson Neutrogena Ultra Sheer
Client Contact Name: Michelle Lin, Neutrogena AP Franchise Director
Creative Directors: Neil Johnson, Joji Jacob, Jeff Cheong
Art directors: Teng Run Run, Martin Loo, Alfred Lim, Juliana Li
Writers: Vanessa Goh, Teng Choon Yeng, Dawn Yang
Technology: Ciaran Lyons, Ng Chee Sheng, Kelvin Lam
Producer: Daphne Ng
Account Servicing: Kim Das, Aivonne Chong, Aisha Lo, Azny Juffri
12 Comments
A once-in-a-decade kind of idea that should have been stylishly milked but fell short. Some of the executions on that blog were extremely puerile. I remember one which had 2 creatives from the agency trying to create a solar eclipse at home. Apart from the hammy facial expressions and ambiguity of purpose, it left me squirming in discomfort with the lack of content….I mean, you created a childish solar eclipse in your room…so frickin what….whats that got to do with Neutrogena?
An idea with great potential that just wasn’t given the mature thought it deserved.
this is an awesome idea!
i particularly like the final video.
“An idea with great potential that just wasn’t given the mature thought it deserved.” This said by someone who didn’t have the idea – and isn’t mature enough to understand it.
A powerful, simple idea, that didn’t need a massive budget to execute in times like these. Well done!
We may have to create a new category for this work….how about ‘Digital Campaign for the sake of doing a Digital Campaign’?
Not one of the vids has the ‘viral’ factor that would make someone want to forward it to a mate with a note saying…”this is cool check it out”.
I’m told that the only people forwarding this frantically to their facebook pals were the team responsible for the work. That’s kinda sad.
i saw part of this on contagious. nice one. thanks for sharing, CBA.
You’re wrong 11.27. And you are being very harsh in your comments. Ok, agreed, it could have been a bit edgier but on the whole it’s not too bad.
I heard about this from a friend and it had my attention and I don’t even use sunblock.
Don’t forget if Campaign Brief Asia only put brilliant ideas up on their site there would only be about 5 postings a year.
7 out of 10 DDB.
A once-in-a-decade kind of idea that should have been stylishly milked but fell short.
this reminds me of a story from way back in 2006:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/10/tech/main1789525.shtml
I mean, you created a childish solar eclipse in your room…so frickin what….whats that got to do with Neutrogena? .
I agree completely! That’s just like equating a gorilla playing drums and chocolate! or caveman and car insurance? Heck, everyone knows gorillas don’t eat chocolate. And cavemen don’t even drive!! Sheesh. What next? a global recruitment for some bum to sit on a beach and blog?
A gorilla playing drums = Happiness = Brand promise of Cadbury’s Chocolate.
Bum caretaker of an island who blogs about it = First Hand experience of the Island.
Creating videos on a bunch of fragmented topics making pop corn with solar power/making bulbs light up/Capturing sunlight in a bottle/bunch of people staring up at the sky and calling it a flash mob/creating a solar eclipse for dumbos/the sun god of Egypt) = Sunblock?
Anyways, this seems too have touched a nerve as a lot of the agency folk are down here defending this work but fear not….I can see at least one Grand Effie on the cards next year…and we all know why (wink wink).
You have just got to love 9.10pm’s optimism…he/she just mentioned these Sunstopper virals in the same breath as Cadburys Gorilla and best Job in the World.
A quick check on youtube reveals that all 21 (gasp!) Sunstopper videos show between 5 and 666 views. The average is probably 50-60 views per video….a pretty dismal showing that’s there for all to see. (Or in this case, not see.)
Cadburys Gorilla has 3,960,470 views. Best Job in the World has 81,062 views.
Case closed.
and yet, in this roomful of creative brilliance, not a single person thought of hijacking the world’s longest eclipse for sunscreen me included. and that is the truly sad part of this whole thing, don’t you agree?
As the ancient Chinese scholar Xin Fu once said, “got peanuts better than no peanuts”.
Looks like the moon didn’t just get in the way of the sun…it also got in the way of doing some nice executions on what is, on paper, a really nice idea.