Case Study

Brief

Energy company Shell wished to drive awareness of its service stations with a powerfully creative campaign that engaged its diverse range of customers. To create a big impact and foster interest in its diverse audience, Shell tasked creative agency DSB&K, media agency MediaCom and rich media provider EyeWonder to develop an attention-grabbing ad unit to run on the homepage of T-Online.de—one of Germany’s highest-reach Websites.

Strategy

The interactive campaign was centered in using the most recognisable features of the brand to tease and trigger interaction, with color and motion elements engaging viewers and driving the audience to action.

Execution

The campaign combined a floating element, a synched roadblock and a rollover expandable unit in one ad experience. When users first landed on the homepage of T-Online.de, the floating teardrop-shaped ad appeared in color over the site content, which faded to black-and-white to shift attention to the ad’s message. After a few seconds, the floating unit became part of the synched roadblock and disappeared behind the site content, which returned to full color. Users could then roll over the roadblock to expand and interact with the content.

Results

User response proved the campaign highly successful: interaction rates reached over 50% in total and 11% in unique, respectively. The ad generated over 400,000 clicks with a click-through rate of 1.40%. In addition, viewers spent an average of 29.54 seconds interacting with the ad, almost the full length of a TV spot with the distinctionof being an active rather than passive experience.

These results fuel the growing realisation of the effectiveness of rich media in generating excitement and enthusiasm among online audiences for any and all categories of brands, bringing it closer to the enjoying experience advertising can be.