The MARYLAND LOTTERY presented us with the challenge of attracting a new younger more skeptical consumer target and introduce them to the message that playing the Maryland Lottery was fun. We solved that by creating a blind viral ad campaign. There were no clues that the campaign came from the Maryland Lottery until it was revealed a month later.We launched the month-long “BovineUnite” teaser campaign based on an underground revolutionary cow uprising on April Fools’ Day. The Baltimore/Washington area were covered with revolutionary style posters, billboards and web banners. Street teams in cow suits started to appear, but leading normal lives along with everyone else. They read their papers while riding public transportation, shopped at the mall, worked out in gyms. When approached they just said “moo” and handed over a card with the BovineUnite url.
GUERILLA MARKETING
The website BovineUnite.com was the underground hub of the Bovine Unite movement. It was a site created by cows, informing their cow brethren to prepare for “C-Day,” May 25th, the day when a bovine uprising would occur. That would be the day where cows would finally have their revenge/fun. The site featured video of clandestine meetings of the secret cowncil, weekly video updates of the guerilla team’s infiltration of human society, and of course, the site featured a bovine national anthem.
WEBSITE 1
WEB BANNERS
In addition, to get visitors to come back, the site featured a bovine blog with daily updates on how the C-Day preparations were coming along. The site bulletin board received hundreds of posts with people speculating who was behind the BovineUnite movement.
The campaign was an instant viral sensation. Within four weeks, it reached far beyond the Baltimore/Washington area. It became a worldwide mystery.
On C-Day at 8:58 p.m., major TV networks ran this spot. It was the first incident of human tipping. Cows finally had their fun, too. That was the way the Maryland Lottery launched their new ad campaign and the Bovine Bucks scratch-off ticket. (Following the launch, TV spots were tagged with the scratch-off ticket promotion.)
TV
After the initial C-Day TV spot, coverage on the story of the cows continued at LetYourselfPlay.com. The bovine revolution was gaining momentum with incidents like drive-by-milkings and beef thefts. Even Governor Erlich of Maryland called a press conference about the ongoing bovine situation. Other fun details on that site included another chance for Maryland Lottery tickets to be winning tickets, and an online game where you could race on a souped-up tractor, tipping farmers, squirting them with milk, and collecting bales of hay to earn points.
WEBSITE 2
THE RESULT
Overall, the BovineUnite campaign gained the Maryland Lottery results that were far more reaching and successful than they ever expected. The Bovine Bucks scratch-off-tickets and the second chance ticket winner promotion resulted in 1.6 million dollars in sales and $400,000 in revenues–more than double of what they were aiming for. Among 18-34 year olds, BovineUnite received more web traffic in Maryland than Burger King’s Subservient Chicken and BMW Films.
Besides earning free media attention from TV stations, newspapers and hundreds of blogs, BovineUnite earned a nomination and made it to finalist at the Webby Awards and Art Directors club. It also won at the WebAwards, Addy’s, etc.