Smashing, Baby, Yeah!

In subtle protest against the uber-hype surrounding one particular science-fiction film that shall remain nameless--no matter what wars it may spark among certain stars--IQ has bought into the marketing hype surrounding another movie, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Its traditional marketing campaign mockingly set the movie up as The Next Best Thing to said sci-fi flick, and its online marketing campaign has been nothing short of ace. Various companies jumped on the "alternative" bandwagon with wacky, over-the-top Web promotions. Austin distributor New Line Cinema tapped New York-based togglethis to craft Interactive Austin Powers, a series of 12 rollicking, animated and audio-enhanced e-mail sent to desktops every week allowing users to click and blow away fembots, disrobe Austin and tumble Dr. Evil out of his motorized chair.

Movie sponsor Virgin Atlantic wrapped up a groovy promotion in which it gave away 1,000 tickets to London on www.VirginShaglantic.com, a co-branded Web site. (Users were asked to play a digital slot game, spinning a Big Ben clock to score three Virgin logos.) It recorded 18 million hits during a 10-hour-long online game-a-thon. In the first hour alone the site registered 5.5 million hits--more than 500 hits per second. Phoenix-based NeoPlanet and San Francisco agency Lot 21 provided software and design respectively for an Austin Powers-branded-browser window, so PC users (and eventually Mac users) can download Austin images and personalize their browsers with shagadelic colors and images. Oh, behave!

COPYRIGHT 1999 BPI Communications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group