Flash Web Development with Fallon — A Meeting with Phil (Mickelson)
Partner Program Web Project Launches Major Ad Campaign
Partner profile
Since Fallon’s founding in 1981, they’ve been guided by one simple idea: Outsmart. It’s never gone out of style. It’s never become irrelevant. It’s never been a more accurate description of their mission, their people, their clients.
Client profile
Crowne Plaza is The Place to Meet — whether you’re holding a sales convention, board meeting or informal get-together with associates. Crowne Plaza provides meeting services that include a 2-Hour Response Guarantee, Crowne Meetings Director and Daily Meeting Debrief.
Project profile
The Flash-based website Sierra Bravo and Fallon created is an initial piece of Crowne Plaza’s “The Place to Meet” integrated campaign — and the online campaign leads into a similarly-themed TV ad campaign. This was Sierra Bravo’s second of several Partner Program projects working with Fallon.
The search for Phil’s co-stars began January 3, 2008 with a series of invitations posted in major golf publications and distributed to Crowne Plaza hotel guests at all U.S. properties encouraging avid fans to visit ameetingwithphil.com. At the web site, consumers were invited to submit a story or video for a chance to participate with Phil Mickelson in a national TV ad campaign.
Objective
Crowne Plaza wanted to bring online visitors to the idea of visiting their hotels for meetings. Fallon’s objective was to create a buzz with a fun online campaign that would plant the seeds for a follow-up TV campaign — and find a web development partner to do the programming to fuel their creative concepts.
With Sierra Bravo as their technical partner, Fallon and Crowne Plaza set out to create a website that would allow users to post and view video submissions, play an interactive version of mini golf as Phil Mickelson, and invite others to join and partake in the interactive “A Meeting with Phil” experience.
For Fallon and Phil, the online campaign was the fist domino to drop, as it would serve as the teaser of an eventual television campaign. The online contest to win “A Meeting with Phil” would lay the groundwork for branding, messaging, and even a graphic look and feel.
Solution
As viral marketing doesn’t spread by itself, the online Flash-based content would have to be engaging, and the means for visitors to pass it along would need to be simple and intuitive.
With a built-in viral marketing component, visitors refer friends to try their hand at games and watch Flash videos, meaning more and more traffic for Crowne Plaza — with much of it coming from visitors who would not otherwise be there. The campaign effectively gets people thinking of Crowne Plaza as more than just a hotel to stay at, but also, as a place to book business meetings and events.
Contestant videos are posted for viewing and email distribution on YouTube, the standard-bearer in video-sharing. Fallon appreciated having the techies of Sierra Bravo work with the techies of InterContinental Hotels Group — Crowne Plaza’s parent company — to work through the necessary online security compliance as relevant to the viral marketing aspect of the campaign.
There are four groups of people eligible to win A Meeting with Phil: Fans who submitted advice for Phil’s game; spectators who have been hit by one of Phil’s golf balls; people who happen to look like Phil, and: admirers who consider themselves Phil’s biggest fans. Chosen candidates met with Phil in his hometown of San Diego — at Crowne Plaza, of course.
As Fallon’s interactive producer, Steve Sutherland was the link between Sierra Bravo and Fallon’s designers and art director. “Sierra Bravo provided a great Flash-based solution and the integration was done well, matching our design nicely,” said Sutherland. “We appreciated how the Sierra Bravo development team was accessible and responsive throughout our project and could always be reached when we needed them. They kept us in the loop so we could keep our client informed throughout the web development process.”
Results
After its initial success as a web campaign, the TV campaign, also titled, “A Meeting with Phil,” made its debut April 17 and features unscripted, humorous meetings between Phil Mickelson, golf commentator and journalist David Feherty and several golf enthusiasts. The campaign launched on the Golf Channel and also runs on network TV during PGA Tournament events through September.
This integrated marketing campaign is an extension of the Crowne Plaza’s first national television advertising campaign which was launched in April 2007.
“Our new marketing campaign will continue to emphasize our brand positioning as ‘The Place to Meet’ and amplify our association with golf to build awareness among golf enthusiasts,” said Gina LaBarre, vice president, brand management, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts. “We’ve elevated our overall golf affinity marketing strategy this year by making one of the greatest golfers in the game the centerpiece of our campaign.”
“Sierra Bravo came up with great solutions, and I would say they were cost-effective and certainly fair,” said Sutherland. “They were a great team to work with — always open and responsive to changes we wanted to make along the way. Our client’s customer-facing site was heavily trafficked and they received nearly 700 video submissions.”
The website content was refreshed once during the contest, again after the contest, and once again when the television commercials hit the air. Crowne Plaza Hotel & Resorts wanted a consumer-facing site that would drive user submissions, promote their hotel and its affiliation to golf, and acknowledge their customers by giving them a voice.
“On all fronts, this project was a success, and we will be happy to work with Sierra Bravo on future projects,” said Sutherland.