Avans University in Netherlands has a communication and multimedia graduate programme. Two of its students — with the unpronounceable names Mathijs Kraal and Bas Uytdenhouwen — recently decided to take on a few biggies of the ad world in spectacular fashion. They, along with friends Hester Naaktgeboren, Jeroen Bijl and Bart van Delft, formed a group called ‘De vijf nan morgen’ and put together a cross media offensive in the form of a hoax. After a certain amount of publicity was generated for the ‘real’ campaign, they intended to step out from the shade and present themselves as the brains behind the act.
The idea was to create a stealth campaign that would create positive publicity for a randomly chosen company. The campaign would be executed independently without notifying the company. After an analysis of all kinds of brands from various countries — some widely known, others local — the group picked peripherals major Logitech. They also had a specific product in mind: The Microgear TM Precision Scroll Wheel, which was patented by Logitech and introduced in 2006.
The mouse offers users a ‘free wheel’ option, removing the clicks after each scroll. The result is precise scrolling, 50 times faster than any other mouse! Taking into account the fact that Logitech frequently aims its products at gamers, the group decided to base their campaign on a ‘record-breaking’ mouse.
They came up with The Scroll Wheel Challenge.
It was simple enough. Challenge people to use their mouse wheel to scroll as fast as possible in 30 seconds. Each click registered as one scroll, which was used to calculate the average scrolls per second. After 30 seconds, players could compare scores with others. As Logitech’s Precision Scroll Wheel was superior, it was assumed users with a Logitech under their palms would win by a large margin. This would cause them to be noticed on the high score list. Of course, players were encouraged to keep playing even without a Logitech mouse.
For those who were more enthusiastic than fast, a second ‘Style’ competition was also created. The ‘Style Award’ was all about scrolling in original ways, filming or photographing this, and uploading the videos. Winners were judged by visitors to the site.
The budget for promotion was obviously minimal. So, the group approached popular blogs and communities, created a video promo and uploaded a few viral videos on YouTube hoping for a snowball effect. It worked — over 50,000 unique visitors from more than 100 countries, with 2.5 million hits!
Two weeks after launching the game, it was time for branding to come into the picture. Players with the new Logitech mouse occupied 8 out of the top 10 positions, confirming the company’s claims. On Tuesday, April 7, 2009, the winners were to be presented and a new season of gaming announced. Or so everyone thought. The rabbit was finally out of the hat on April 10, when loyal gamers returned for the new season. They were greeted by a new home page, introducing De vijf van morgen. Over the last couple of weeks, their site had been tracked by a whole lot of people.
Here’s the kicker though: Logitech has yet to contact them. Maybe that’s a good thing!
— Contributed by Atin Dasgupta @ Beanbag Media, Bombay.
Thank you for noticing our graduation project! And sorry about the unpronounceable names.
I feel like it would be fair to me to name the other three students who worked with us: Hester Naaktgeboren, Jeroen Bijl and Bart van Delft.
Thank you, Bas. And yes, will add those names at once
Thank you!