Local Theory Creates TV Show, Viral Videos, Web and
Mobile Presence for Nokia Cannes Lions Sponsorship
Integrated campaign documents 'Young Lions' creative competition for worldwide audience
New York, NY - The Young Lions were back at it this year at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival, using all their creativity and professional know-how, as well as top of the line Nokia N95 phones, to create viral videos for a worthy cause. Documenting the process - and simultaneously leveraging Nokia's high profile role at the Festival - was New York based creative and production company Local Theory.
This is the second consecutive year that Local Theory has worked with Nokia to develop an integrated content campaign built around its sponsorship of the Young Lions, the Festival's on-site competition for advertising creatives age 28 and under. As the lead sponsor, Nokia provides Nseries phones capable of recording DV-quality video to all the teams in the film competition.
Working under Local Theory creative director Howard Pyle, the company created a special site on Nokia's Nseries.com (www.nseries.com/cannes) and produced all its content - over 100 viral videos documenting each of the 26 teams. In addition to the online and mobile content and live blogging from the festival, the campaign's content is also being edited by Local Theory into a TV special for MTV that will air internationally in early 2009. The show is a follow-up to Short Film Shootout: Cannes, Local Theory's MTV special for Nokia about the 2007 Young Lions film competition.
Local Theory relied on its expertise in creating engaging viral and mobile communications to develop the overall Nokia presence in Cannes. The company developed a broad, multiplatform initiative that touched on everything from the web to mobile devices to social networking.
"It was a huge undertaking, and at times we were going nonstop, but a single strategic goal drove everything we did both during and after the Festival," says Pyle. "We're keeping the Cannes creative community engaged in the competition, and positioning Nokia as a key player in the creative process - and we're doing it with a message that's perfectly tailored to the various communications channel we're employing."
Building on 2007
Last year's effort, which was initially planned as a combination of social networking, SMS and viral videos, generated so much content that it was expanded to include a half-hour TV special, Pyle explains, which ran on MTV channels around the world in January, 2008.
For this year's Young Lions competition, the creative teams were tasked with making a 60-second viral video for MTV Switch, a climate change initiative created by MTV. This year's brief differed somewhat from last year's, which was designed to motivate young people to find ways to "switch off" and cut their energy consumption. The '08 assignment was to focus on "switching on" - showing the MTV audience cool and fun ways to have a good time without using lots of juice.
Pyle and his team knew they had to find innovative ways to build on last year's campaign. They not only had to showcase the Young Lions competition and make it central to the Nokia storyline, but also had to bring the Festival delegates - advertising professionals from around the world - into the process of creating content for both the TV special and the web site.
"The core concept here was that Nseries devices are vital creative tools," he says. "We wanted to capture the creative process that the Young Lions teams went through in Cannes, while also getting the delegates to interact with the brand in a way that would demonstrate how Nseries devices can play a key role in the development of their own creative ideas."
Tricked-out camera phones stole the show
Local Theory's solution was to develop an onsite experience that gave Festival delegates a reason to experiment with the devices. The Nokia booth at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, dubbed "The Cannes Experiment," was equipped with 50 modified Nseries models, customized by hand and fitted with an array of lenses, from wide-angle to telephoto to Holga lenses.
"We handed out these really cool tricked out phones and gave everyone an hour to go and shoot something that we could use in the TV special," explains Pyle. "We gave them little mini creative briefs to tackle, with the best clips being considered for inclusion in the TV show. And the response was great - people were drawn to these devices, and best of all they were talked about all during Festival. In that respect, I think we were very effective at reaching our goal, which was to communicate the vibe of what Nokia Nseries is all about and to show off the brand in a context of pure creativity."
Team coverage begins at 11
Local Theory's coverage of the Young Lions teams rivaled the media's obsession with Obama. The teams were followed from their starry-eyed arrival in Cannes, through the creative briefing by MTV's John Jackson, during their bleary-eyed creative, production and post production process, and then through the nail-biting announcement of the winners and runners-up.
Working with a team of professional videographers, Local Theory also conducted on-camera interviews with each team, to get a sense of their background and approach to using technology to help solve creative problems. To fully document their creative and production process - and to do so in a manner that would appeal to the younger demographic that MTV reaches and which Nokia has targeted - Local Theory also embedded young French film students with each team and equipped each with their own Nokia N95 phones.
Pyle collaborated closely with Nokia's Afdhel Aziz, a senior marketing manager for sponsorships, on campaign strategy, online development, the onsite experience as well as the viral and TV video content. New videos will be posted on the Nseries site throughout the summer and into early fall, leading up to the formal announcement of the TV special's air dates.
Acting as lead agency for the campaign, Local Theory coordinated with Momentum, IPG's promotions agency, which managed Nokia's booth at the Festival. The booth was the central hub for The Cannes Experiment, where delegates could handle the N95s and sign up for an opportunity to try one out.
See for yourself
To get an overview of what Local Theory set out to do in Cannes, check out Pyle's segment on the Nseries web site. You can see it here. For a clip on Aziz talking about The Cannes Experiment, click here. To check out the Nokia Young Lions channel on YouTube, click here.
For Pyle, The Cannes Experiment is another example of Local Theory's media-driven approach to solving clients' communications and branding challenges. "A big part of our philosophy is to take advantage of the ability of different forms of media to reach people in different ways, and create appropriate content for these channels," he notes. "In Cannes, we were able to do that for Nokia in a manner that totally supports the brand's promise to consumers. And that's what it's really all about today."
About Local Theory
Local Theory creates integrated content and campaigns that seamlessly merge online, viral, mobile, broadcast and traditional media. The company, founded by digital media innovators Howard Pyle and Jonathan Stern, has an extensive background in everything from Internet and mobile media design and production to traditional print and broadcast strategic development, concepting and execution. Its client roster includes Freemantle Media, Nokia, National Geographic, World Wrestling Entertainment, Intel, Blue Man Group and others. For more information, got to www.localtheory.com.
Media Contact:
Howard Pyle, Local Theory, 646-386-9600 x701,
Anthony Vagnoni, AVagnoni Communications, 973-493-8736,
