Media > Use of Media

FANTHOMAS

INITIATIVE UNIVERSAL MEDIA, Oslo / undefined / 2010

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Overview

Credits

OVERVIEW

Effectiveness

The series is Norway’s most popular web TV show ever, with more than 10 million views in total and 800,000 average weekly views.

Fanthomas was voted the public’s favourite comedy at the Norwegian Comedy Awards.Fanthomas has 10,800 listings at YouTube alone and 100,000 Facebook fans.66% of viewers were below 20 years and 92% of all viewers identify Expert as main “sponsor” unaided. Unprompted top of mind is up 60%.More than 30% say they will visit an Expert store as result.Market share is up by more than 5%.

Execution

Fanthomas is an animated, humorous series. Created by a comedian, he is a mix of Donald Duck’s night-time alter ego, Batman and Norwegian “nouveau celebrity” stylist Jan Thomas.

Fanthomas is extreme, very odd and miles away from the traditional Expert approach. He would make the chain appear innovative, tough, playful and self-deprecating.

Expert was integrated into series via sponsorship vignettes, broadcast both alongside and separately from the show at vg.no.Crucially all product messages were tied to the events of each episode. When products such as hair dryers were used as weapons used by Fanthomas, that was advertised post-programme and via banner ads on the vg.no portal.The key to success was that Expert should be perceived as a natural “ingredient” of the program. For this reason all Fanthomas-related activity was restricted to Vg.no and no other media promotion was used.

Strategy

Expert Norge is an old school electrical retailer reliant on price-heavy advertising in press and DM. The approach did not appeal to young people.Our challenge was to boost Expert’s appeal among 12-25-year-olds. To connect with this new target the brand had to behave differently, ditch press, go online and give them something of value.We worked closely with Norway’s largest online newspaper to turn a cartoon concept into a youthful message: Norwegian superhero Fanthomas would become the perfect brand ambassador for Expert.Expert’s marketing needs were integrated into programme development to ensure the show was as much about the brand as it was about Fanthomas.

Each week it showed Fanthomas saving the world using a series of different gadgets. And each week Expert promoted the products he had used to strike fear into his enemies.

The adventures of Fanthomas were broadcast exclusively on Norway’s biggest internet newspaper, vg.no.

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