The following is what happens when the creative team at GoMobile has a brain child, and stays at the office past midnight to nurture it. The ADDY Awards are the world’s largest advertising competition, sponsored by the American Advertising Federation (AAF). After having taken home the Gold for our Miller Chill campaign in 2009, we were snubbed this year and took it kind of personally. Feeling a little left out, we decided to turn to our fellow Addy Rejects and create, for all of us, a safe place to discuss our feelings. A haven if you will. And with that… www.ADDYRejects.com was born.

While attending our local ADDY award ceremony in Seattle, we distributed fake ADDY Reject business cards to our friends and colleagues and, with a pat on the back, offered them support of they needed it after the award ceremony. Our crew also congratulated the winners with a building illumination outside the event, which was updated with all local ADDY Gold winners. A special ADDYRejects Twitter congratulated winners, consoled losers, and an emergency hot line (which conveniently went to voicemail) allowed distraught advertising professionals to vent their frustrations.

If www.ADDYRejects.com looks a little …different… aesthetically, than our other work… well, good. We had a lot of fun taking a time machine back to the internet circa 1996 and had many laughs at those who participated via our Guestbook.

In October of 2005, Pacific Northwest Ballet took a chance on a start-up company with stars in its eyes and dreams of breaking through the media clutter by taking brand experiences to the streets. After a successful scrolling billboard campaign for the 2005 Nutcracker season, we had an idea for the following year that would really shake things up. We convinced PNB that to really bring the magic of Nutcracker to the city of Seattle, they should allow us to build a live, physical representation of the show that would cruise around and visit events in a mobile glass showroom. The fact that they trusted us to depict Nutcracker in the same traditionally high standards that the city has come to expect from the professional, nationally-recognized ballet company was a Christmas miracle in itself!

Since that year, we’ve been in competition with ourselves to step up our partnership with PNB, developing new ways to excite families in Seattle and encourage them to make Nutcracker. That’s meant developing the “Feed the Nutcracker, Feed the Community” campaign in 2008, which now in it’s second year has raised over 1,000 pounds of food and diapers for families in need, and expanding our presence by unleashing Nutcracker street teams to the famous Macy’s Holiday Parade to pass out ticket coupons to those who donated what they could.

Now, in 2010, we feel it’s only fitting to look back on one of GoMobile’s first clients, one that believed in our vision and one that we have been proud to work with each and every year.

The average college student spends nearly $1000 on textbooks each year – a number that is rarely questioned, as students think that buying from their campus bookstore or online is their only option. BookRenter.com contacted us to develop a ground-level guerrilla marketing campaign that doubled as a wake-up call for college students about the high cost of textbooks while engaging them in real, one-on-one conversations about alternatives.

After meeting with the BookRenter.com team and gathering a feel for their brand and their goals, we developed a campaign that played off the familiar visual of a campus protest. We handled all aspects of the campaign, including concept, design, management and execution. We targeted University of South Florida in Tampa, University of Texas in Austin and San Diego State University in January, as students were starting a new quarter and requiring new textbooks. During our conversations with students, we distributed $5.00 off coupons for each school with a special tracking code that allowed BookRenter.com to see the jump in sales from the campaign, individual to each school.

“Typical college protests usually focus on a polarizing topic that can pin students against each other, but the issue of overpriced books is one that resonates with ALL students and unites them, and it was a topic that once brought up, got a lot of strong reactions from frustrated students,” said Jamie Hall, Marketing Associate at GoMobile. “As a recent graduate, I was angry that a service like this didn’t exist for me!”

In just one week at each school, over 23,000 coupons were distributed with a substantial jump in BookRenter.com online orders!

The holidays are supposed to be a time when families get together to share gifts and quality time with each other. With December being an important month in advertising, it’s not uncommon that the holiday spirit is lost in all the long nights, short deadlines, stressed clients and awkward social events. We know this more than anyone, so this year we vowed that if our ad agency friends couldn’t find time to celebrate, we’d bring the holiday celebration to them! We created the Christmasmobile – a roaming cozy Christmas lodge complete with all the makings of a traditional family gathering: a (faux) deer head mounted over a cozy fireplace, vintage lighting, and seating that puts you way too close to your weird Uncle Sal.

And what Christmas celebration could you last through without copious amounts of alcohol? We brought along Starbucks Coffee and hot chocolate, with Bailey’s Irish Cream and Peppermint Schnapps to ward off any Scrooges… or at least make them drunk Scrooges very quickly.

We really let the guerrilla out of its cage for the launch Duvel Green, a unique ale released by Belgian brewing company Duvel. We were asked by San Francisco’s Real Branding to mutually create and execute a complete guerrilla marketing campaign that took to the streets in New York City, Chicago & San Francisco during the month of December. We used a derivative of Geocaching, an outdoor activity that uses geographical points (usually latitude & longitude) to create a treasure hunt for participants, to dictate the vision for the entire campaign.

The goal was to create ground-level buzz for Duvel Green through multiple mediums that got people talking with the ultimate reward of tasting the golden ale for themselves. To do this, we installed over 100 wild postings (with over 2,000 posters) in the 3 cities, infiltrated metropolitan cores with over 180 brand ambassadors distributing 25,000 coasters which doubled as VIP passes to exclusive Duvel parties, and lit up the cities with building illuminations at night, all connected by identical brand messages. The result was a coherent campaign that filled up bars serving Duvel Green in each market – some even to the point of tapping out, with standing room only! We also gave away over 1,000 of Duvel Green’s signature glasses over the 3-week campaign to those who tried the beer themselves, and estimate total interactions and impressions at over one million. After consuming many a Duvel Green over the course of the campaign, our team’s grown quite addicted to the brew and we’d like to push for more frequent availability in our home city of Seattle!

To download the official GoMobile/Duvel Green press release, click here.

Dear Friends, Affiliates and Colleagues,

It has come to our attention that a campaign is coming to the Northwest by way of Las Vegas, NV promoting an adult entertainment establishment on a mobile billboard vehicle. Although we respect the right to freedom of expression, we at GoMobile want to make it impeccably clear to our clients as well as the public that we are in no way affiliated with this campaign, its vehicle, or the company behind it.  The vehicle is not a GoMobile Network vehicle, and it is in no way associated with GoMobile and any of its 60 affiliate markets across the country.

For over four years we have been no strangers to pushing the envelope with our signature glass-walled 3D mobile showroom vehicles, however we at GoMobile are held by a strong set of uncompromising moral standards that dictate what we put in front of the public.  We will continue to be led by these morals in the future in everything we do, and thank you for your continued support of GoMobile, our clients, and our work!

Sincerely,

Chris Schuler
President, GoMobile