ApeTV has won Sky’s £250,000 Out of the Box interactive advertising competition. The prize was awarded for a proposed campaign for Weetabix Weetos.
Ape’s proposal is aimed at raising awareness of the Weetabix Weetos brand among children aged between five and ten by inviting them to enter an interactive spy school.
On completing tasks, users can register as a Weetos Spy and receive a free spy pack by post. To help measure the impact on product sales, the application will include hidden levels that can only be unlocked using a code found in boxes of Weetos. The interactive campaign is expected to air in early 2005.
Interactive agency ApeTV is a division of the Allmond Partnership, one of the UK’s largest media planning and buying companies.
The Out of the Box competition was launched by Sky to stimulate creative innovation in interactive advertising. The challenge was to develop a creative concept that demonstrates the most imaginative, innovative and successful use of interactive advertising to build business, in any sector, using the unique qualities of the medium to maximum effect.
The prize provides application production and hosting by Sky Interactive and he interactive airtime premium on Sky Media channels to a total value of £250,000.
The judges chose the Weetos campaign for its “highly imaginative and ambitious approach to the medium”.
“Sky launched Out of the Box to push forward interactive TV’s creative boundaries,” said Ian Shepherd, managing director of Sky Interactive. “Ape TV has more than fulfilled that ambition with an engaging and entertaining campaign. We are delighted to have found such a worthy winner among a high standard of entries from a wide spectrum of interactive TV specialists and mainstream creative agencies.”