Advertising For The Small Screen

Consider Burger King’s infinitely simple text-to-win promotion, breaking today with a TV push from Crispin Porter + Bogusky and a mobile component by VML in Kansas City, Mo. Faithful servants of the King who buy one of the chain’s Chicken Fries will find on its packaging a mobile code that, when submitted via cell phone, enters them to win one of 20 trips for two to Super Bowl XL, among other prizes.

“We like the immediate-gratification aspect of it,” says Gillian Smith, senior director of media and interactive for Burger King. “And we’re reaching consumers when they’re out, and about to make their purchase decision. If they’re watching [a spot] at home, for them to make the jump to get in their car or walk to the nearest store is unlikely.”
Burger King has had its fingers in various Dutch apple pies of the emerging mobile space. In July, the company posted downloadable ringtones on its Web site. And in November, just 22 days after the video iPod’s debut, Burger King and partner VML made user-created content available for free download on Heavy.com; one humorous film showed a customer wearing a Burger King mask and asking for BK menu items at a McDonald’s drive-thru window.

Heavy.com recorded 210,000 downloads of the 12 films available and 13 million streams from the November launch to Dec. 31, according to co-CEO David Carson. A similar effort, a machinima series created by Heavy.com for Sony’s God of War video game, racked up more than 1 million downloads by PSP users in its first three weeks.

While some streaming video services, such as MobiTV, allow advertisers to buy 30-second spots, some agencies are discouraging clients from using mobile media in that way. TV spots may include a level of detail that can become muddy on a square-inch screen. But, most importantly, by repurposing TV ads for mobile viewing, advertisers may miss out on more nuanced ways to connect with their niche audiences. “Nobody wants to download a commercial,” Carson says. Some devices, like the PSP and video iPod, even allow consumers to lock out commercials and download only what they want.

“With broadcast, the whole thing is repetition,” says Eric Baumgartner, ecd at VML. “With mobile, you can give them something of value, and then they’re engaged with that through the download process. The engagement now goes from 30 seconds to 10 to 15 minutes. Why not spend that much time with your customers?”

For creative shops, the potential creative outlet promised by portable video devices and cell phones with ever-widening screens and better audio is pushing many toward downloadable video. Unilever’s Axe last year sponsored a series of Web films downloadable to Virgin Mobile’s Slider Sonic phones via Heavy.com. As part of its pitch for BMW’s creative account, New York independent Anomaly included a demonstration of how the car maker’s seminal Internet film series could work on mobile devices, says founding partner Jason DeLand.

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