What began as a contest for young creatives at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival has resulted in a world premiere video on World Cancer Day!
Last June, we gathered some of the best young creative minds in the industry at our Games Advertising Workshop at Cannes. During the session we challenged 3 teams to come up with their best idea for a pro bono campaign for for Stand Up to Cancer. The winning concept featured a celebrity gamer doing a music video that debuted on Xbox LIVE and challenged gamers across the globe to Stand Up to Cancer. Today, World Cancer Day, that video premiered.
The Up2 You + Me music video features Jim Parsons, who plays Sheldon Cooper on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory. In the video which was created by Jessie and Zach Selwyn, Jim plays 13 different characters.
The point being, it's up to all of us to stand up to cancer. The campaign encourages users to support SU2C by texting, calling and visiting the organization's website to donate. Through the Massive Network these messages are targeted to gamers in-game across many Xbox game titles.
In addition, Xbox LIVE members are able to download the SU2C theme and gamer pics to show their support for the cause through the Xbox LIVE community. The Up2 You + Me Video will air throughout various popular Xbox LIVE games where users are able to donate via text.
Just as the fight against cancer requires teams of people working together, this campaign was very much a group effort. We teamed with DDB Los Angeles every step of the way. Executive Creative Director Matt Reinhard, who was on the ground in Cannes to judge the submissions, Jefferson Burruss, who in this capacity as director of digital and online and Judy Wang, Account Executive, helped see the campaign through from concept to execution.
The DDB team worked closely with our account teams across Microsoft Advertising to get the Stand Up To Cancer campaign delivered to the Xbox LIVE and Massive communities in a compelling way. And to all the creatives who took part in our Cannes workshop, thanks for joining in to learn more about games and entertainment advertising at Microsoft. I hope to see most of you again at Cannes 2010!