Advil and MuchMusic have teamed up with Newad for a high-tech campaign on campuses across Canada.
The campaign uses Newad’s near-field communication (NFC) capabilities and centres around a contest to promote Gossip Girl, which airs on MuchMusic.
Using NFC-enabled smartphones, students can interact with the ads for a chance to win a trip to New York and Los Angeles, or one of 10 weekly prizes. They can also receive discount coupons for Advil and participate in live chats on a mobile site.
“It’s as simple as enabling NFC and then tapping your phone [on the ad] where it says ‘tap here.’ Then you’re automatically directed to the URL that’s in the back end of the message,” said David Vance, Newad’s director of sales, indoor advertising, Central Canada.
The campaign takes Advil “to a new level of interacting with a younger demographic,” said Vance. “Most people think of Advil as headache relief for older people, but with students there’s a lot of stress on campus. Gossip Girl is about young urban adults [and there’s] a lot of drama and a lot of headaches associated with the series, so there’s a good relay there.”
The eight-week campaign is deployed in colleges and universities in Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Regina, Charlottetown and Halifax.
