Celebrating Star Wars Day

ROLES
CONCEPT CREATION : CREATIVE DIRECTION : CLIENT FACING

MEDIUMS
CONTENT : GUERILLA PRINT : OLA : SOCIAL : SWEEPSTAKES
EXPERIENTIAL EASTER EGG HUNT

THE BRIEF
Find a relevant and engaging way to connect Verizon to the Star Wars universe and facilitate celebration of Star Wars Day (May the Fourth).

THE STRATEGIC ANGLE
Connecting the Verizon DROID Turbo phone to StarWars by converting public perception of "these aren't the droids you're looking for." To "this is the DROID I'm looking for"
THE CONCEPT: #CaptureTheDROID
In a Galaxy not so far away,..Droids containing valuable Intel to both the Rebel Alliance and The Galactic Empire have been discovered across America. Neither the Rebels or the Empire have enough manpower for a thorough search, so fans have the opportunity to get their first with a chance to keep one for themselves.
THE POSTERS
We wanted to create two poster designs that represented messaging from both the Rebel Forces and the Empire. The idea was to create propaganda style wanted posters. My team's two very talented Art Directors (Laz Marquez & Michael Camarra) designed two posters each.
The final drafts were so awesome that Lucas Films not only approved all of them with no changes, but also requested copies for them to put into the Lucas Archives!
Laz's were used for wild-postings that were pasted around Manhattan to drive awareness of the Local Activation.
Michael's were used for the flyers placed in comic book stores, the National Sweeps landing page and a congratulations card to the Local Activation top prize giveaway.
THE NATIONAL SWEEPS
DRIVING AWARENESS WITH 3 ANIMATED SHORTS
Starting from May 2nd we released daily animations. The story-arch was shaped to segue seamlessly into the Local Activation stunt we did on May 4th.
THE STORY
We chose three locations across the US that resembled environments in the Star Wars universe. Each animation came with a riddle which fans had to solve to guess which location in the US R2 was in.
WATCH
In the first animation R2 has just landed (in Kitty Hawk resembling Tatooine), as he motors off screen a couple of Jawas appear from behind a Dune. In the second (Redwood Forest resembling Endor) the Jawas ambush R2, recreating the famous scene where they stun him. The third, they take R2 to China Town in Manhattan (resembling Coruscant) to sell him to the highest bidder.
Still frame from the third animation
The three animation posts with the Redwood Forest riddle underneath
The Sweepstakes landing page where fans were driven to answer where they think R2's location is.
THE LOCAL ACTIVATION
On the morning of May 4th we let the real R2 and three of his Jawa captors loose on the streets of Manhattan. We pre-selected 4 well known locations where we could post clues as to their whereabouts and wait for the fans to find us
THE PRIZES
Just like the national sweeps, our top prize in each location was a DROID Turbo phone and an all expenses trip for two to San Diego Comic-Con. The first fan to find them and speak the password provided in the posts "This is the DROID I'm looking for!"
As word started to spread, the group was mobbed at the last location, ending up with 9 fans racing to the Jawas at the same time, resulting in a specially prepared quiz round to sort the Fan from the boys.
The user journey we used to help our clients understand the Local Activation process.
The first post that was released to drive awareness of our May 4th actiavation to fans
MAY 4th CLUES
On the day we posted photos of R2 and his captors in front of key landmarks that resembled things from the Star Wars universe. We created an image template that gave the key information and then a riddle in the post copy.
Above is a couple of Aaron's posts. He was our most active winners who after getting to one location too late chased our team van down the street shouting the password, when that didn't work, he jumped a cab and followed us to the next location to make sure he was the first.
Here are our approved street team t-shirts and Van design
Our farewell post to let fans know when the show was over
THE SAGA CONTINUES
Fingers crossed the success of our quick turnaround activation allows us to continue this concept to the next phase, where we aim to use our lucky winners as the central characters to the next chapter at San Diego Comic-Con...
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