Teens are creating ads for Ban Deodorant... who knew?

Summary: Who better to design ads than the targeted demographic itself? Kao Corp. embraced this philosophy in its "Feel Ban Fresh" campaign, a contest in which teens 12-20 designed and submitted ads for Ban Deodorant. The winning ads - chosen from a pool of 4,000 submissions - will be displayed in US Weekly this spring. The campaign drove traffic to the site and created a buzz for the product, but more importantly, it actually helped increase sales: by November 27, sales had risen 13.6%, after an abysmal three-year decline. P.J. Katien, Ban's assistant marketing director, recognized that the success of this initiative relied on "getting [a consumer] to feel like she is involved. No more one-way messaging."

Analysis: Ban's not the only brand getting a whiff of success. For its Converse label, Nike also eschewed traditional one-way advertising and instead engaged customers by encouraging them to create content. The company received 1,800 24-second videos for its Converse Gallery. Although Nike won't release its sales figures, marketing managers indicates that they're pleased with the results: after a 14-month series of user-generated ads, the company has decided to bring back another run of user-generated ads. How's that for a fresh-smelling campaign?

Resources: Wall Street Journal, FeelBanFresh
Simon Beins Writer/ResearcherHeartbeat Digital

http://www.heartbeatdigital.com/intellibeat/displayAlert.asp?page=241