Panasonic keeps it real with edgy Viera viral video by Inbox Digital

Panasonic is launching an integrated campaign focused at demonstrating Viera Plasma’s superior image quality in large screen format with consumers who are looking for the latest technology and quality picture, enjoy watching TV as a social event with friends and attach status to owning a large TV.

The campaign is being supported with a viral video contained within a microsite (hedidnotseethatcoming.com) through digital communications agency, Inbox Digital - a member of Digital Marketing Group plc, the AIM listed digital direct marketing company. The agency won the work following a 2-way pitch and having previously created the successful Panasonic virals - Gyrorunner (www.gyrorunner.com) and Taxi Snapper (www.taxisnapper.com) – both aimed at promoting its Lumix digital camera range.

Inbox Digital was briefed to create a fun viral that consumers would want to spend time interacting with, pass on to their friends and associate with the Panasonic brand and Viera product.

John Dixon, head of brand communications at Panasonic, says ‘Using inspiring creative and a format that’s spot on for our audience, Inbox Digital has come up with a killer campaign that will spread the word about the Panasonic Viera as the cool and must-have ultimate large screen Plasma television choice for those in the know.”

The film opens with two trendy-looking guys in their early thirties sitting in a spacious loft-style apartment which is dominated by a top of the range Viera plasma TV. The cool, relaxed character Dan invites his slightly less cool mate Ben to check out his new plasma and flicks to a wildlife programme. State of the art CGI effects are used to make animals jump out of the screen, reflecting the hyper-real image quality. A specially written soundtrack has been produced to build suspense, as well as a voiceover provided by comedian Phil Cool. The film ends with the line “Only Viera plasma makes it real’.

The campaign microsite contains 10 key facts on plasma, explains the technology behind it and encourages the consumer to buy a plasma by directing them to the Panasonic online shop and to their local dealers. Visitors are incentivised to sign up to receive the Panasonic newsletter with a competition offering the chance to win 42” Plasma by answering questions about the product itself. In addition to viewing the video, visitors can look at the outtakes or view a gallery of stills from the video shoot.

Oli Christie, creative director at Inbox Digital says, “This viral film has been a huge success with over 1.5 million views. It has been posted over 20 timnes on YouTube and we've made people realise that when buying a large screen TV, plasma is the only way forward."

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Panasonic has launched a new viral game built by Inbox Digital to promote its Lumix range of digital cameras. 

www.taxisnapper.com 

Taxi Snapper follows the hugely successful Lumix Gyro Runner which has been nominated for an NMA award and has had over 1.7million plays to date. This new game promotes the latest models launched in the Lumix digital camera range focusing specifically on Panasonic’s unique Optical Image Stabilizer (OIS) technology and zoom functions. 

The game takes its inspiration from the recent television ad featuring a boy who spots his dream girl in a taxi cab driving through the streets of Barcelona, and quickly takes a photo of her telephone number in perfect clarity.

Gameplay involves snapping the passengers in moving taxi cabs, using the arrow keys. Extra points are scored for accuracy. Players can play as a boy or a girl and a bonus car appears at the end of each level containing the dream date.

While promoting the range, the game also acts as a data gathering tool, profiling the age and gender of players, and encouraging registration to the Panasonic CRM database. Pass level 3 and you’ll get a £25 voucher for use in the online store. Plus players can enter a prize draw to a camera from the Lumix range.

From the game, players can click to view the TV ad online and visit a microsite dedicated to the Lumix digital camera range.

John Dixon, Head of Brand Communications at Panasonic comments, “We are very pleased with our second game from Inbox Digital. The striking design and innovative gameplay create an intriguing and addictive format which will build on our past successes and promote the new Lumix models to a large online audience.”

Oli Christie, Creative Director of Inbox Digital says, “Taxi Snapper revives some great retro gaming controls to achieve a completely new style of game involving both moving targets and automatic zooming. This, when mixed with the stunning creative, has produced a very strong promotional format for Panasonic online.“

Panasonic UK has appointed Inbox Digital to handle its eCRM business after a pitch against four other agencies.

Inbox has been briefed to provide communications strategy, data planning, creative and development for all of Panasonic’s online relationship marketing campaigns.

Click here to view Lumix microsite

Initial activity will include building the marketing database for all offline and online data along with tactical acquisition campaigns and the eCRM program.

The intelligent use of data will be at the heart of activity and future campaigns will focus on highly tailored and integrated communications across Internet, email and mobile channels.

John Dixon, General Manager Brand Communications for Panasonic, comments, ‘"The Internet is a growing focus for us as a large percentage of people actively use it to research their decisions. We were looking for a partner who could develop our CRM strategy across all digital channels and we selected Inbox based on their ability to combine customer insight with great creative ideas."

Gary Stevens, Managing Director of Inbox added, "Many brands are either unaware of just how much intelligence they can get from their online data or they just don’t have the means to use it. Highly tailored and customer centric dialog has driven the development of offline DM and with the right infrastructure, the same principles can apply online."