2007 AWARD WINNER
IT & CONSUMER DURABLES SPONSORED BY
CAMPAIGN - Dance Factory
AGENCY - Ikon Communications
CLIENT - Atari Asia Pacific
SPONSORED BY
OBJECTIVES
Ikon needed to harness the power
of word-of-mouth and experiential
to promote Atari’s Dance Factory
game in a category already loaded
with options.
Ikon’s campaign had to highlight
the game’s unique selling point - it
generates dance moves to your own
music CDs, offering an infinite
variety of music to dance to - to an
audience with a limited attention
span, in an environment already
cluttered with ads.
Also, at $79.95 to $89.95,
Dance Factory blows the budget for
teens on an allowance, so Ikon’s
additional challenge was to win
parents over as well.
Atari had set a three-month
sales target of 3,900 units. It is
general practice for Atari to allow for
approximately 65% sell-through in
the first three-months - the key
period for each title, and Atari’s
initial order was for 6,000 units.
Ikon had considered various
media alternatives to launch Dance
Factory, but its budget was pulled.
The agency was confident,
however, the opportunity to experience
Dance Factory would set it
apart from its competitors in the
minds of kids and parents alike,
and it identified youth community
events as an untapped avenue to
connect with 13 to 17-year-olds in
the perfect environment.
CAMPAIGN
The big idea was to hold a Dance Factory competition as the main
attraction at NSW Police Blue Light
discos, enabling 13 to 17-year-olds
to experience the game first hand.
Blue Light discos provide safe,
healthy, supervised entertainment for
young people in an environment that
excludes drugs, alcohol and violence
- a perfect environment to associate
the Dance Factory brand with.
The insight was based on the
idea Australian teens have an
inherent fear of dancing and look
for any guidance available - cue the
Dance Factory competition. This
would turn dancing into a game
and play on the competitive nature
of teens
No traditional media was used,
instead Ikon created a new media
channel, which was integrated with
Police Blue Light magazines. The
strategy also went on to generate
positive word-of-mouth from teens
who interacted with the game and
saw it in action.
Since Atari was not an official
sponsor of Blue Light, there were
legal restrictions against displaying
signage around the area, so Atari
supplied Blue Light with wristbands
to give away - serving as a take-home
reminder to all who interacted with
the game.
The only cost to Atari was the
supply of a game console and copy
of Dance Factory to use for the
competition as well as nine
additional copies of the game to give
away as prizes.
The agency managed to develop
a launch platform in the absence of
a budget.
RESULTS
Actual sales of the game were 6,941
units in the first three months (82%
above the objective) and the campaign
delivered a true profit return of $9.12
for every $1 invested in marketing.
Dance Factory appeared at 22
discos across NSW. Some events
attracted up to 1,000 patrons, resulting
in a total of 15,235 teenagers
having a unique brand experience with
Dance Factory - at no media cost.
As there was no other media
support for the game, there was a
direct attribution of success to the
campaign insight and idea.
JUDGE’S COMMENTS
“In the face of adversity this
campaign delivered business results
by clearly partnering with an
organisation to get the product under
the feet of its target market.”
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