To engage fans of Mountain Dew’s limited edition sour grape drink Pitch Black II, Tribal DDB Dallas created a cloaked spectacle at www.pitchblackexperiment.com. The Pitch Black Experiment features Cliff, a Pitch Black II enthusiast. To celebrate the beverage that is only available for 90 days, Cliff has covered the windows of his home and removed all sources of light for 90 days of darkness. The II attached to the soda’s title not only denotes the second limited release of the dark purple concoction, but also a reformulation.
In the intro on the site, Cliff explains that this experiment is meant to be a great exploration, like those of Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gamma and Ferdinand Magellan. Throughout his confinement, Cliff will no doubt run into difficulties and that’s where the Internet audience can help. He has set up six Web cams, one in each of the following rooms: the living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, game room and garage.
With the mouse, a viewer clicks on one of the cams and then helps Cliff find whatever he is looking for in the dark room. To find an object, participants click around the black screen until they happen upon it. If you can’t find the object in time, Cliff will find it himself.
TAKE TWO WITH A TWIST
This is the second year that the interactive agency has worked on an Internet project for this beverage from Pepsi-Cola. Last year the shop created a virtual haunted house online for interested parties to peruse. The original thought on the drink was that it was a Halloween product, but last year sales of the beverage increased around Labor Day, as they do for many Pepsi products. This year the agency repositioned the grape-flavored soda in a broader way, explained Scott Johnson, executive creative director of Tribal DDB.
Though last year there was some television support, this year traffic is being driven to the site with banner ads, point-of-sale promotion and word-of-mouth. “The interesting thing here is to take a step back and really think about how interactive advertising works differently than television, for example. By the time somebody has made the decision to come to the pitchblackexperiment.com, they’re sort of already in our club if you will,” Johnson said.
He went on to explain that with a relationship in place, this audience isn’t going to the site to have someone sell them a product. “They’re coming there to get what we call return on involvement–give me something that makes me feel good about the investment of time that I’m making here to visit your site and see what you’re saying– so we’re pretty much at that point in the entertainment business and we want to do something that’s relevant to our brand and is going to connect with our target audience.”
Providing pleasing content and fostering good feelings allows the agency to “build a deeper connection [for people] with the brand so they are going to feel good about all Mountain Dew products as they go forward,” Johnson continued. “At the same time, we’re trying to provide entertainment content that is compelling enough so that they’re going to want to forward it to a friend or tell a friend about it when they’re riding around in their car or talking on the phone. And that’s how they become evangelists for the brand and bring new people into this club we’re talking about that is Mountain Dew or Mountain Dew Pitch Black, so it’s very different than television where you sort of interrupt other entertainment and get someone’s attention [to have them] say, ‘maybe I’ll try that.’ ” The target demographic for the project is primarily males who are 18-24 years old.
DEWING IT IN THE DARK
The concept to have Web cams that don’t show anything except occasional static had a clear tie-in to the product and is the idea (out of about six concepts) that the client gravitated toward. It’s an unexpected angle and exactly the surprise element that the creatives desired. “We want to grab these young people who are our target audience and shake them by the lapels and say, ‘Hey, this is something cool that you need to look at.’ “
Over the course of three days, the red-headed host, Paul Peglar–the actor who plays Cliff–recorded more than 800 audio clips, which included his requests to site visitors (“help me find” such and such, etc.)
“The talent, to his credit, was a real trooper and kept his energy up and executed it with his great sense of humor; he’s a real quirky guy who did a good job,” Johnson noted. With great enthusiasm, Cliff engages in activities that range from shaving to hanging crown molding to looking for his favorite beverage.
Peglar was right for the part because of his lack of sophistication. For Johnson, the gangly, goofy actor’s less than polished presentation made the project look appropriately rough and homemade.
To add more diversity to the experience, the site is mapped so that a viewer’s interactions with Cliff change according to the time of day. “There are several layers that determine what kind of content you get,” Johnson related.
Additional credit at the agency goes to Joel Kuntz, art director; Matt Smith, copywriter; Andrew Langley, multimedia developer; Michael Carpenter, associate creative director; and Dave Gibson, creative director.Art Haynie directed out of Angel Films, Los Angeles.
