Joint Cannes Bronze for Ogilvy and Cinevation

Dirol Whitening's chewing gum has an active ingredient that whitens teeth. The client brief called for a launch communication to draw attention to this property and lend credibility to the teeth-whitening claim by actively demonstrating the product's USP.

"The youth market is inundated with advertising messages and tends to be very cynical," comments Bridget Johnson, creative group head at Ogilvy. "To grab their attention, communication targeting youth must intrigue, reward or entertain."

The big idea was to demonstrate that Dirol Whitening made teeth whiter than white. Ogilvy and Cinevation worked together to pull off an entertaining campaign that engaged with the audience and left Dirol top of mind. They opted for cinema as the medium. "Specifically because it provided a controllable lighting environment for this experiential commercial," adds Marisa Torrani, director, Cinevation.

Patrons entering the cinema received complimentary packs of Dirol to sample. Once in the darkened cinema environment, patrons were exposed to a contagious laughter track encouraging them to laugh and smile. With the help of reflected UV light, audiences were surprised and entertained by seeing each other's teeth standing out super white.

"The message worked hard in that our target market were not merely passive onlookers, they became integrally involved "demonstrators" of the benefit of the product," adds Bridget.

"The impact and efficacy of this activation was made stronger by the cinema environment which is captive, ensuring that each and every patron unwittingly co-operated with the activation, making the total effect overwhelmingly impactful, involving, credible and interactive," say Marisa. "What could have been a standard straightforward, unemotional sampling exercise was turned into an interactive, fun and humorous activity involving and encompassing each and every person in the target audience."

Dirol Whitener achieved maximum impact on an extremely limited budget. Word of mouth and amplification via PR exposure was used to leverage the budget.