Tic Tac® Mints Launches Interactive Advertising Components of Shake It Up™ Campaign

SOMERSET, N.J., Feb. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The iconic Tic Tac® brand launched today a series of interactive advertising and mobile experiences for its first-ever 360-degree marketing campaign – Shake It Up™.  The campaign, which encourages Millennials to break from the mundane and explore new, unconventional ways of doing daily activities, breaks new ground in the U.S. with the introduction of the Tic Tac® Viewr mobile application. 

The Shake It Up™ campaign comes to life through the brand's interactive TV, outdoor and print advertisements, highlighting quirky facts on routine daily activities, such as "Most Americans spend 13 years of their lives watching TV" and "Eighty-four percent of people always sleep on the same side of the bed."  The Tic Tac® Viewr mobile application enhances the traditional advertising experience, by enabling consumers to interact directly with the outdoor and print advertising as well as product packaging via a breadth of cutting edge, markerless augmented reality (AR) experiences.  The brand will also shake things up by debuting a three-tiered billboard featuring an AR experience with an unexpected social twist in the heart of New York City's Times Square.

"In listening to our consumers, we learned that they want to be surprised and entertained. Our response was to create a campaign that inspires them to spontaneously break up their routine," said Noah Szporn, category manager for Tic Tac® mints of Ferrero U.S.A., Inc.  "The 360-degree Shake It Up™ campaign goes beyond traditional advertising, especially through the mobile technology of the Tic Tac® Viewr app, which allows consumers to engage with Tic Tac® mints wherever they are through a medium that they never leave behind."

How the Tic Tac® Viewr application works

Consumers download the Tic Tac® Viewr app to interact with advertising or a box of Tic Tac® mints simply by pointing their device at the outdoor ads, print ads and packages.  It also provides colorfully illustrated, tongue-in-cheek tips on how they can shake up their everyday life. Each print and out of home advertisement offers different experiences, such as context on how long 13 years really is, or games that challenge consumers, for example, to move to the other side of the bed.  Tic Tac® Tibby is a playful experience that uses the box of every flavor of Tic Tac® mints as a background for a game where the user scores points by tossing Tic Tac® mints into the mouth of a 3D character.  Finally, the Tic Tac® Viewr app provides up to 20 unexpected, fast moving Shake It Up™ microgames to give every day experiences or sayings a fresh perspective.  The app was designed by Merkley + Partners and developed by Total Immersion with the goal of exciting the brand's Millennial audience by opening an interesting and different perspective on the world.

"The Tic Tac® Viewr app was born from the fact that Millennials are a digital generation who can't and won't live without their smartphones. The brand recognizes and celebrates this target's desire for exploration and discovery as well as their need for visceral excitement by entertaining them with this totally unique and interactive mobile experience," said Diane Hernandez, group account director at Merkley + Partners.

Tic Tac® Viewr is available for free starting today for iOS and Android mobile devices through the Apple® App Store™ and the Android Market.  The app is also available by texting "MINTS" to 313131.  Standard message/data rates apply.

Launch of the Tic Tac® interactive Times Square billboard
The Tic Tac® brand will brighten the streets of New York City in mid-February with the debut of its first Times Square billboard and a second mobile application featuring AR capabilities.  Consumers interacting with the Tic Tac® Times Square ad will be delighted to find that the application will create a personalized billboard with their image seen on their phones.  Consumers will have the opportunity to share the image on their Facebook page.

To learn more about the Tic Tac® brand's Shake it Up™ campaign and upcoming online and offline events, "Like" Tic Tac® on Facebook (www.Facebook.com/TicTacUSA), subscribe to the Tic Tac® YouTube Channel (www.YouTube.com/TicTacUSA) and follow Tic Tac® on Twitter (www.Twitter.com/TicTacUSA).

ABOUT TIC TAC® MINTS AND FERRERO
The Tic Tac® brand was launched in the U.S. in 1969 by the Italian confection manufacturer Ferrero and has been a leading mint brand for 40 years.  Tic Tac® is sold worldwide.  The Ferrero Company was established in 1946 in Alba, Italy.  The company's first product was made with hazelnuts and cocoa, resulting in the base ingredients for the world's #1 selling sweet spread on the market today – Nutella® hazelnut spread.  Since then the company has grown to become one of the world's largest confectionery companies with a vast global portfolio that includes high-quality products such as Ferrero Rocher® chocolates, Ferrero Rondnoir® dark chocolates, Raffaello® confections and Tic Tac® mints.  Ferrero products are distributed globally throughout Europe, North America, Australia, Asia and South America.  For more information, visit www.facebook.com/tictacusa or www.tictacusa.com.

ABOUT MERKLEY + PARTNERS
Merkley+Partners is a 180-person, New York-based advertising agency serving a wide range of major advertisers like Mercedes-Benz, all detergent, Ruth's Chris Steak House, O'Charley's Restaurants and smart car, in addition to Ferrero USA, the owners of Tic Tac. Merkley+Partners is able to offer full-service marketing solutions to its clients and is one of the few major agencies that continues to have media planning and digital as part of its core offering in addition to traditional advertising services.

ABOUT TOTAL IMMERSION
Total Immersion (www.t-immersion.com) is the global leader in augmented reality. Through its patented D'Fusion® technology, Total Immersion blurs the line between the virtual world and the real world by integrating real-time interactive 3D graphics into a live video stream. Leading the augmented reality category since 1999, the company maintains offices in Europe (France, Germany and UK), North America and Asia. Total Immersion supports the world's largest AR Partner network, with a diversified portfolio of over 120 best of breed solution providers worldwide.

Since its inception, Total Immersion has led the industry in AR technology with over 1,000 executed augmented reality solutions for Fortune 500 name brands and organizations and partnerships with the world's most prominent technology companies including Adobe®, Intel®, KDDI, Texas Instruments Incorporated and HP.

SOURCE Tic Tac brand