SHARK WEEK: TREASURE TWEETS (DISCOVERY CHANNEL, USA)
Volkswagen and Discovery Channel teamed up again for the themed Shark Week last month. The partnership consisted of VW building a unique shark cage, called the Volkswagen Beetle Convertible Shark Cruiser, to glide around underwater and take pictures of sharks. To create awareness of marine life, Volkswagen also committed to donate $2 to the Surfrider foundation each time the hashtag #VWSharkWeek was tweeted. The campaign is called “Treasure Tweets”. Surfrider is a charity devoted to marine life.
Users were pointed to the campaign when looking at the 360-degree panorama photos of the “Subaquatic Roadt Trip” Volkswagen created. Here, users needed to find a treasure chest hidden in one of the pictures. It redirected the users to the dedicated website where the campaign was explained.
Shark Week, the Surfrider foundation and VW’s charity initiative were also promoted through Volkswagen’s Twitter account.
COKE ZERO 400: SPRINT 60 UNLIMITED HASHTAG RACE (TNT, USA)
Sprint launched a social race during the Coke Zero 400 NASCAR race in early July. Fans were asked to tweet their favorite driver’s number in combination with the hashtag #Sprint60 as often as possible in the last 30 laps of the original race.
The more tweets a driver received, the faster his virtual car drove in the social race. The driver with the most mentions received $10,000 which were donated to a charity selected by the winner.
The social race ‘Sprint 60 Unlimited’ was set up in cooperation with never.no. It was aired during a 60-second advertisement segment in the final moments of the original race in a split-screen mode. The race was promoted on-air in short commercials to drive more attention.
THE NEWSROOM: VINE THE LINE (HBO, USA)
For the second season of The Newsroom, HBO launched a Vine-based social initiative titled ‘Vine the Line’. Fans were asked to use the video app to create short clips with a reenactment of their favorite quotes from the series.
Afterwards, the clips needed be shared with the hashtag #VineTheLine. HBO released a social video wall (powered by Mass Relevance) on its social TV platform HBO Connect featuring these fan videos. Selected fans could win a signed script from Aaron Sorkin, the creator of “The Newsroom”.
VAST MEDIA tracks and benchmarks interactive and multiplatform initiatives of broadcasters and producers worldwide. Check out all of their MIPBlog posts here! And don’t miss MIPCOM’s Second Screen Workshop, October 10, hosted by VAST MEDIA’s Matthias Puschmann (full session details).
