Award-winning newspaper campaign showcases interactive multimedia: way cool
The Herald Express News and Media of Plymouth U.K. took first place in the international newspaper association IFRA's competition on “cross-media advertising projects” for a way cool online automotive promotion.
Called “Mod My Motor,” the campaign - which was inspired by MTV’s “Pimp My Ride” program - asked auto enthusiast readers to submit their cars and tell the newspaper why they should win the prize of a £5,000 car makeover. The term “modding” in the U.K. refers to the process of gradually adding features to ordinary cars and is a multi-million pound industry.
The Mod My Motor Web site is an example of how interactive multimedia can be used to make a newspaper campaign particularly engaging. The site is centered around an animated game where you “drive” a car towards various upgrade stores: the audio shop where you add a new sound system: a garage to choose new hub caps, exhaust vents, tinted windows and more; and the spray shop where you can color your car and add funky decals. Once you’ve gone through the game, you can submit your car. (The competition is now closed and the winners are listed on the site as well.)
The entire journey is accompanied by a hip-hop tune (it gets annoying after the 17th play). Accessing the winners is via a graffiti-strewn elevator interface. Mod My Motor even adds product placement links as you navigate your car though the site.
The Herald Express, which is known online as ThisIsSouthDevon.co.uk, went all out to promote the campaign. All entries were featured in a special 12-page print supplement and of course online. The prime audience target was young people aged 17-30. The Web site was developed internally and was aimed at gaining both new readers and a new type of advertisers.
A viral campaign to launch the competition began several weeks before the site went live, including teaser ads online and in print. Advertisers in the game also promoted the site. Voting was online and via in-paper voting coupons designed to generate newspaper sales. There were also local radio ads and interviews.
This is one of the coolest deployments of interactive multimedia we’ve seen for a newspaper campaign and one that should be looked at seriously and – where possible – emulated by other media groups. Two thumbs up to the Herald Express.
You can check out the site here: http://www.modmymotor.org/
The Herald Express's award was for the category of small newspapers with a daily circ below 100,000.
