2009 PRO Awards: Battle of the Bands & The Quest for the Crystal

Agency: ESPN
Client: Paramount

For the DVD/Blue Ray release of the movie Indiana Jones: The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Paramount partnered with ESPN and capitalized on the excitement of college football.

A promotional contest gave fans the opportunity to vote on two things: the college band they thought did the best job of playing the Indiana Jones theme song and the college football team they thought would win the national championship. They could also enter a contest for a chance to win a trip to the ESPN-televised Bowl game of their choice and a Harrison Ford-autographed Indiana Jones DVD box set.

Paramount engaged two film crews to record seven of the leading college marching bands in the U.S. to create original video content for a Indiana Jones-themed microsite on espn.com. The site also offered movie trailers and purchase information. Band clips were used in “get out the vote” TV and online ads that ran during live college football programming and other promotions. A commercial featuring Indiana Jones movie footage integrated with footage of the bands playing the movie’s theme song was run during key programming periods. Still shots were placed in ESPN magazine.

In all, the campaign received a significant amount of cross-media exposure before and after the DVD release. Nearly 2.9 million page views of the Indiana Jones experience were viewed and more than 57,000 people entered the sweepstakes. To date, the DVD has sold more than 6 million copies.