GOLD WINNER: Philips Cinema 21:9

Client: Philips
Entrant Company: Tribal DDB Amsterdam
Entry Category: A Global or Multinational campaign running in several regions
Names to be credited with submission:
VP Head of Integrated Marketing Communication: Gary Raucher
Director Digital Marketing Communications Television: Nourdin Rejeb
Executive Creative Director: Neil Dawson
Creative Directors: Chris Baylis, Andrew Ferguson
Strategy Directors: Han van Dijk, Sean Chambers
Account Leads: Neil Robb, Sandra Krstic
Art Directors: Mariota Essery, Maximilliano Chanan
Copywriter: Carla Madden
Agency Producers: John Reardon, Jeroen Jedeloo, Iwona Echt
Technical Lead: Jan Willem Penterman
Production Company: Stink Digital London
Director: Adam Berg
Director of Photography: Fredrik Bäckar
Producers: Mark Pytlik, Daniel Bergmann, Stephen Brierley, Simon Eakhurst
Lead Developer: Ian McGregor
Editor: Paul Hardcastle, Trim
Music/Sound Design: Michael Fakesch
Post Production: Richard Lyons, Redrum Stockholm
Colorist: Jean-Clement Soret, MPC London


Marketing Situation: At the movies we don’t just watch films, we truly experience them through the big screen. Movie lovers agree that black bars on 16:9 widescreen TVs take away a big part of the magical experience. Philips created the world’s first cinema proportion TV, the Philips Cinema 21:9, to watch movies at home as they were meant to be enjoyed. This unique LCD TV has the perfect aspect ratio that matches with the original 2.39:1 film format used by directors. Combined with Philips’ Ambilight, which can be best described as surround sound for the eyes, consumers can have a real cinematic experience at home.

Despite heavy competition in the television market and increasingly lower prices, Philips wanted to generate a sustainable competitive advantage. The revolutionary Philips Cinema 21:9 is the flagship of the complete Ambilight range. The challenge was to enable Philips to own the idea of the cinematic viewing experience at home by creatively using the internet to let movie lovers experience the unique product features themselves. This would also put Philips on the map as an innovative LCD TV brand. The ultimate goal was to stimulate sales in Europe and emerging markets like Russia and China.

Insights: The Philips Cinema 21:9 is aimed at true movie lovers. This large group (over 35 million in the European target countries) consists of “frontrunners” and “trendsetters” who watch DVDs weekly, go to the cinema monthly or download films on a regular basis. They may be males between 25-49 years old, couples or young families.

Picture and sound quality are important to them when watching a movie, and a large screen is preferred. Quality and innovative design are among their top selection criteria when buying new electronics. According to Philips consumer research, 60% of the target audience expects to buy a Philips Cinema 21:9 via large retail chains, while 15% expects to buy online. As a result, online is a very important channel to reach the target audience.

In the campaign period, top market focus included: Benelux, France, Germany, United Kingdom and Russia.

Digital Media Strategy:A revolutionary product needs a revolutionary campaign. Working with the theme of ‘Seeing is Believing,’ the strategy was to create a unique online cinematic event that movie lovers would like to experience and share with friends. Movie lovers would also be astonished by the three main features of Philips televisions—Ambilight, Cinema 21:9 and Picture Quality—all of which tie to the act of filmmaking.

Instead of a traditional TV commercial, Philips launched the Cinema 21:9 with “Carousel”, an interactive experience to fascinate film lovers with insider techniques and directorial insights.

The experience opened with a seamless tracking shot, one long take, within which viewers could find behind the scenes glimpses with experts talked about their craft and the decisions they made while filming the shot. The DOP discusses lighting, the Director talks about the 21:9 format, and the VFX supervisor offers his view on why picture quality is so important.

To allow for more interaction, a frozen time film, shot using a state of the art motion control rig, gave the audience control upon interaction and allowed them to move the camera back and forth, frame by frame. The score, composed by Michael Fakesch, was composed as a linear piece then handed to a flash music developer to distort as the user moved back and forth through time, frame by frame. This was designed to pull the audience in and hold them there longer whilst they try to unravel the mystery of how the film was made.

The audience was able to trigger the three behind-the-scenes educational scenes from the film’s timeline. When the user clicks on the timeline, the films within the film are revealed. The timeline unfolds and expands, the postproduction disappears, an expert walks in and reveals that actors were holding their position whilst a motion rig captured them in frozen time. In addition to the interaction within the film, the ratio of the film itself could be changed at any time. This simple but effective comparison tool conveyed the spectacle of the new Philips 21:9 TV. The other elegantly simple piece of interaction is Ambilight on and off: in the words of the DOP, “You really miss it when it’s not there.”

A final point is the dynamic title sequence. Instead of a traditional loader, we crafted a title sequence that corresponded to the speed of the user’s internet connection. The slower the connection, the longer the sequence.

The site offers different options to easily share the experience with friends via social media like Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft Live. Visitors could click through to www.Philips.com/tv for more extensive product and retail information.

Worldwide Best Practices: Give the Internet something it will like. If you look at video platforms, the comments on the most successful videos are often ‘how did they do that’ followed by, ‘that’s amazing.’ Tap into this online aesthetic. Invest in production and less in media. In the age of Youtube, production values speak volumes, and people want to see high-end content and share it with their friends. Put a piece of compelling content at the center of the campaign, and the rest will follow

Results: Within the first month after launch, the campaign gained superb results. This was purely based on buzz, without a media buy.

The campaign received positive responses from movie lovers all over the world. Within hours after launch, there were hundreds of postings on Twitter. Celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Kanye West became ambassadors and shared the experience with their fans. Rapper 50 Cent paid homage to ‘Carousel’ by using the film in his new music video “OK, You’re Right’ (2.7 million+ YouTube views).

Consumers uploaded the ‘Carousel’ film on YouTube, resulting in over 650.000 views and more than 2.000 positive responses in the first month after launch. Trade press reported extensively about the campaign, which later got picked up by film and consumer technology sites. A Google search on “Philips Carousel” resulted in over 400.000 hits. “Philips Cinema 21:9 TV” was mentioned on 560.000 websites. Over 25.000 weblogs posted a news item about the campaign. Again, this has all been accomplished without a media buy.

Even without active promotion via paid media, there has been a maximum reach created within the target audience. The enormous amount of free publicity shows that consumers were truly fascinated by the interactive film and the Philips Cinema 21:9 TV. This repositions Philips as a frontrunner in the television market.