Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Yosemite Sam" in English language version.
The traditional rivalry between Coke and Pepsi has become animated. The "flavour drink" brands owned by each company, Coke's Fanta and Pepsi's Mirinda, have an advertising agency in Singapore: enlisted the sales help of some influential characters: cartoon characters to be exact. Fanta has been using Disney characters in its advertising for the past few years, and now, whether by coincidence or not, Mirinda has counter-punched by using the only cartoon heavyweights capable of going toe-to-toe against Disney: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and other Looney Tunes luminaries from Warner Bros. The campaign is the largest marketing push ever for Pepsi-Cola International's flavour drink brand, and stems from a US $15 million licensing partnership signed earlier this year between Mirinda and Warner Bros. Mirinda's "Bugs campaign" is running in all corners of the globe where the soft drink is consumed which means just about everywhere except North America, Africa and continental Europe. Mirinda is spending more than US$4.1 million on the campaign this year. What's unusual about the worldwide media blitz is that it originated from an advertising agency in Singapore, Ogilvy & Mather. In the Asia-Pacific region, more than a year ago, Mirinda, a 10-flavour line of soft drinks whose most popular variety is orange, realised that it lacked a strong identity in many countries. "It had had four campaigns in four years, but with very little impact," says regional management supervisor of Ogilvy & Mather, Singapore, Peter Wilken. "There was no brand identity, and no investment in [advertising] except in Thailand. We were charged with getting things moving." A total of six different O&M offices in the region submitted creative ideas for a Mirinda relaunch, after the client had determined to hitch its ad wagon to the Looney Tunes stars. "We tried to think of a creative project that could run regionally, to exploit the Looney Tunes characters, led by Bugs Bunny," says Wilken. BURIED TREASURE: Mirinda ads: classic slapstick from Bugs. Bugs was deemed the Mirinda ads' most universally popular character. ("Elmer Fudd did not test so well," he says.) With advice from Warner Bros. Merchandising in Sydney, O&M's Singapore office came up with a creative strategy revolving around Bugs and friends. The Singapore concepts were chosen because they remained true to the original Warner Bros. cartoon style without letting the sales message get lost in the animated shenanigans. "We wanted to use the originality of the Warner Bros. characters in a way that would distinctly promote Mirinda," says Wilken. "Bugs has been successful for 50 years, so there is substantial borrowed-interest to be had." The agency had a budget of about US $650,000 to produce three cartoons this year, although the third spot will not be produced until late in the year." That's only about one-fifth what it would cost to produce a campaign like this in the US," says senior writer at O&M, Clive Morris. Flix Animation of Sydney, a Warner-approved graphics house, contributed the animation (by Peter Luschwitz). The voice-over artist was also approved by Warner: Keith Scott, a Mel Blanc soundalike who lives in Sydney. The campaign targets children aged 10 to 14, with a secondary appeal to parents, who may have grown up on the classic Looney Tunes cartoons. O&M's creative approach was bound by the strict guidelines which Warner Bros. imposes on the use of Bugs and company, including how the characters are to be paired (for instance, Tweety Bird may not be paired with Wile E. Coyote, and so on). "We made the commercials classic slapstick, 100 per cent visual, with no language barriers," says Morris. "We wanted to make this a Mirinda commercial, not a Bugs commercial." This is reflected in the first two spots. In one, a thirsty Daffy Duck tries to steal Bugs' can of Mirinda, and ends up being handed a stick of dynamite by the crafty Bugs. The final shot features Bugs holding a can of Mirinda rather than his carrot and saying the tagline, "You can't out thinka Mirinda drinker." The other features Yosemite Sam and Bugs, with Sam doing a classic fall off a cliff (after hovering in the air for a couple of beats until he realises that he's no longer standing on solid ground), as he hunts for a buried treasure trove of Mirinda. Both commercials were produced in versions of 15 seconds and 30 seconds, with two versions featuring either a can or bottle of Mirinda. The bottle versions are for such countries as Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, where the product is sold in bottles. The international rollout began in February, when the commercials began to air in Malaysia. This was followed in April by Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore. Australia, Pakistan and Bangladesh began in May, with Taiwan, Korea and the Canary Islands in June. The campaign broke in New Zealand in August. South American countries are scheduled to begin running the campaign late this year, Indonesia will begin next year, and there are no exact dates yet for the Middle East. In the Asia-Pacific region, the estimated media expenditure (in US $) is: Thailand, $1 million; Philippines, $600,000; Korea, $700,000; Malaysia, $500,000; Singapore, $250,000; Taiwan, $700,000; Australia, $250,000 and New Zealand, $100,000. In Asia-Pacific, the Bugs relaunch has helped Mirinda boost its sales so far this year by 18 per cent (excluding the Philippines, where the industry is suffering from a 27 per cent price increase). According to a tracking study, advertising awareness and brand awareness for Mirinda are up substantially in each country where the campaign is running. "The campaign is even more successful in countries where the Looney Tunes cartoons themselves are running on TV," says Wilken. He notes that Korea has only recently begun to air Bugs Bunny cartoons, and therefore he "borrowed interest" of the commercials is lower. Yet Wilken says that in Singapore and the Philippines, the target groups of 10-to-14-year-old children have given the commercials an approval rating (in copy testing) of 80 to 90 per cent. "This beats the all-time high established by the successful 7-Up Fido Dido campaign in the Philippines," says Wilken. You can't out thinka Mirinda drinker! The campaign has also seen some public-relations tie-ins, coordinated by O&M PR, in various countries. Earlier this year, the "Mirinda Motorcade" came to Malaysia, Singapore and Bangkok. The motorcade comprises four Looney Tunes cars: the Bugs Bunny Limo, the Daffy Duck Dragster, the Road Runner Rocket and the Sylvester Catillac. In a sense, the cars are Warner Bros.'s version of the famous "BMW Art Cars". During exhibitions in each city, the motorcade includes magic shows, music request booths, photo-taking sessions with Bugs and fellow cartoon stars, children's plays and cartoon shows. The motorcade is sponsored by Mirinda Orange. "This is a model case study of a totally integrated campaign," says Wilken. "It's brand image-led, with aggressive sales-promotion and public relations activities."
