Run Cactus Kid, Run by Oasis
Strange, astonishing, rich, complete, surrounding, big. Here are the few adjectives I would use to describe the “run Cactus kid, run” campaign by Oasis (the fruity drink not the band …).
I let you read its Wikipedia page, the mechanism of the campaign is fully described. You will see how many digital leverages have been activated, with no less than 8 different personal sites (myspace, flickr, youtube included).
The campaign has been launched in June 2008 in the UK, by Mother and the online content was created by digital advertising agency, Glue London.
The action is now coming to its last stage, where the brand ask for the audience to decide how it ends. And once again the way they chose to communicate is original. Here is a page on The Sun site:
I like the Art Direction, and I like the way Oasis took a risk. That will certainly brings some sexiness, fun and … spiciness to the brand. Finally, the copy reminds me of some British ads for alcohol (forbidden in France…), very creative and well executed.
I’ve actually heard some of my friends from the UK complaining about how “stupid” this ad campaign was and also saw a lot of talk about it on message boards but regardless to whether the actual ad subject is worth paying much attention to, it got people’s attention and got them talking - you can’t ask much more from a campaign.
Thank you Nick for these information. It is true the ad generated controverse. On forums people like or hate it. As I have not been exposed to the all campaign, I certainly didn’t experience the campaign the same way. But as you say, the brand managed to emerge in a tough competitive market. I am not sure about the UK, but in France, according to Millward Brown brand analysis tool BrandZ, Oasis underperforms on the -35yo, & on internet users. It is a brand you rather do not want to be seen drinking versus Coke for example, and it is definitely not setting trends. A quick look at PartnerZ shows the brand gets its worst results on Sexy, Rebellious and Different items. And one can easily imagine it is even more difficult for a non carbo drink, versus sodas. So for all these reasons I reckon Oasis made a good job with this campaign, which is a nice try to answer these issues.