Thursday, August 7, 2008

Holly Willoughby and Fearne Cotton to front Nintendo ad campaign

Dancing on Ice host Holly Willoughby and TV and radio presenter Fearne Cotton are fronting a TV campaign to promote a new Nintendo DS video game, Girl Band, that lets girls become a part of a virtual rock group.


The TV ad, created by ad agency Audacity for Ubisoft, the videogame publisher behind Girl Band, breaks on August 9 targeting six- to 12-year-old girls.


In the TV ad Willoughby and Cotton are engrossed in the game and auditioning for parts in the virtual bands they are creating on their Nintendo DS handheld devices.


Willoughby, who is taking over from Cotton to present the ITV2 behind-the-scenes show The Xtra Factor when the show returns later this month, then reminds Cotton that she has completely forgotten about an interview she is meant to be doing with a real-life wannabe girl band.


A spin-off online campaign will give girls the chance to win a competition to have a song recorded, take dance lessons at the famous Pineapple Studios and do a photo shoot with their best friends for an album cover.


The pair have been signed by games maker Ubisoft to front a series of TV ads to promote a range of girl-targeted titles it makes under the Imagine brand for Nintendo DS.


Ubisoft's launch TV campaign, supported by a £2m ad spend, will be followed by another commercial breaking at the end of the month for the game Imagine Teacher.


Three more Ubisoft ad campaigns featuring Willoughby and Cotton will launch in the run-up to the key software sales season at Christmas.


Two of the ads will also be used in a cinema campaign targeting family films, such as High School Musical 3, City of Ember and I-gor, running from late October to early December.


Other Ubisoft titles to launch will include Dream Weddings and Movie Star.


Mark Slaughter, marketing manager at Ubisoft, said the company has developed a marketing approach based around the aspirational concept of "Live your dreams".


"Fearne and Holly were specifically chosen due to their complete fit with this territory and positioning," Slaughter added.


"They are great friends, are fun, friendly and positive role models. They also exist in the area of aspirational media."


Media planning and buying for the Ubisoft campaign has been handled by media agency Maxus with digital advertising by Candi International.


From : http://www.guardian.co.uk