Friday, January 19, 2007

And Now You Know...The Rest Of The Story.

You have very likely already seen these circa-2003 Reebok TV commercials. I recently watched the entire series of ads again and still find them entertaining, even four years later. Take a look at two of the most popular "Terry Tate - Office Linebacker" spots below...my commentary follows after the jump. Oh, and there is some minor (PG-13) language here so consider yourself warned:

Episode 1 - Terry's World

Episode 2 - Draft Day

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant! Hey Office Space fans, did you catch the "...cover sheet on your TPS reports..." line at 1:55 of the first video?

Of course these ads were universally acclaimed, on a critical level (2003 Cannes International Advertising Festival "Golden Lion Award" winner, 2003 Association of Independent Commercial Producers award winner, etc) and by the public (most TiVo-ed commercial, most popular 2003 Super Bowl TV ad according to Wall Street Journal poll, voted Funniest Super Bowl Ad Ever by several Internet surveys), resulting in Reebok also being named Ad Week's Reebok Interactive Marketer of the Year as well as “Marketer of the Year” by Footwear News.

Reebok's Terry Tate campaign was also one of the first significant TV-to-Web crossover success stories. After a nine-year hiatus from advertising during the big game, Reebok released the first Terry Tate spot during Super Bowl XXXVII. The day after the first 60-second spot aired on January 26, 2003 the online version of the ad was being downloaded 20 times per second from the Reebok Web site. There was also a seven-fold increase in Reebok's online store traffic where the company began moving Terry Tate-related merchandise like bobblehead dolls and shirts. By June 2003 over 800,000 visitors had registered at www.reebok.com. Approximately 12 months after the commercial was first posted online Reebok passed the 20-million download mark for its series of Terry Tate ads.

After the initial success of the Terry Tate campaign, Reebok began using television not as a primary message-communicating medium but instead to channel traffic to its Web site where visitors could participate in various online promotions. For example, before the 2004 Super Bowl Reebok promoted a new Terry Tate spot via teaser ads on MTV that resulted in 250,000 Web site downloads on the first day...without the substantial expense of investing in an actual television commercial during the Super Bowl telecast.

Very interesting indeed. What is most thought-provoking to me however is the back story behind the Terry Tate concept, something I am guessing very few people are aware of or really appreciate...even Reebok’s VP Global Marketing at the time of the Terry Tate campaign described its success as a "complete accident" when asked if he anticipated such a positive outcome.

In 2000, Rawson Marshall Thurber was a USC Film Production student and director wannabe who created his own original short film pilot based on the Terry Tate character. Thurber then spent the next two years trying to sell the concept in partnership with Hypnotic, an LA-based production company. By the time Reebok was contacted, a total of four Terry Tate shorts had been produced, each with an average run time of four minutes. While the Reebok team believed the Terry Tate concept held potential, the realization dawned very quickly that the only suitable venue for running these long-form commercial treatments was online...and an award-winning campaign was born.

This obviously worked out well for Reebok in the end but what about Mr Thurber? Well, since the *overnight success* of his Terry Tate creation, Rawson Marshall Thurber has gone on to direct his first feature film screenplay, a little project called "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" for 20th Century Fox. In addition to directing TV advertising pieces for Right Guard, Toyota and GM Goodwrench he is also currently tapped to bring "Magnum, P.I." to the big screen for Imagine/Universal Studios. Not bad...

The moral of the story? I personally find it inspiring whenever an individual is able to successfully pursue his (or her) dreams and hit it big in their chosen field . The best part though is that now we are solidly in the year 2007 and there is no longer the same necessity to hit the pavement for two years flogging your film concept or television pilot. Anyone with something to say, a decent Web connection and the desire to make it happen for themselves can put their ideas out there for the world to see, possibly becoming the next Rawson Marshall Thurber in the process. Web publishing is a really powerful equalizing factor and viral marketing is definitely the way to go. Yes, I am talking to you out there so what is the holdup? Get ready, get set, go!

Good night and good luck.

No comments:

Post a Comment