2013 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

Energizer launched a new brand platform - ‘that’s positivenergy’. To take this beyond traditional advertising, they held Night Races worldwide to donate a million solar lights to people living without proper electricity. Our challenge was to launch the positive energy platform in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Lebanon and UAE where Night Races would never work. The average summer temperature here is 45°C, and there is no culture of running outdoors, let alone at night. We had to find a way to engage families and young professionals, and get them excited about batteries. Yes, batteries.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

Our solution took the thrill of running outdoors and brought it indoors. We created Light Racer - the region’s first Kinect-based game in which the player becomes Mr Energizer and lights up the world of toys, cameras and consoles. At the end, we explain how Energizer supports the solar project of One Million Lights. Then the player sees his ‘in action’ picture and score, which is posted to our Facebook page. Our stand was outside hypermarkets, so shoppers could see others having fun and join in. The activation was held in 9 malls across 6 countries over 21 days.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Rarely does a mall activation set a new benchmark in the Energizer network. More than 3,600 people played the game in 6 countries over 21 days, with nearly 40,000 spectators. Compared to the 3,004 pictures uploaded to Facebook, the number of fans went up from 608 to 51,597 within the same period. More importantly, the client confirmed the engagement level was above 50% at all times. Besides consumers, sales were moved as well. Distributors reported a rise in every single market and on the first day of the Kuwait launch, all Energizer batteries sold out. That’s positivenergy.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Activations for a functional category like batteries are an uphill task. Compound that with objectives of a) spreading positive energy and b) communicating the CSR partnership. By using new technology, we built a brand experience indoors that could be replicated across markets, even Saudi Arabia. The game integrated product benefits by getting players to run over triggers that lit up devices and collect Energizer battery power ups for a high score. The Facebook photo feature then extended the activation online to reach a larger audience. By personifying the brand in action, Light Racer truly brought positive energy to life.