The Simpsons Take Over the World

Posted on | February 1, 2008 |

Literally. Over one year in the making and hardly a rock unturned. The Simpsons came out swinging in 2007 with a campaign that touched on almost every aspect of marketing and advertising in the book–from traditional media to online interactive, experiential and cross-promotions. The Simpsons Movie generated a charging bandwagon, and, aside from the green movement, may have been the most crowded house on hype street in 2007.

Here are some of the tactics that stood out for us:

- Create your own Avatar tool. In this day and age, everyone needs their own avatar,  and, we’ve got to admit, this is pretty darn groovy.

- In almost 20 seasons of The Simpsons, the location of Springfield has never been revealed. In the Springfield Challenge contest, 14  Springfields across the U.S. competed to host the official movie premier. The winner?  Springfield, Vermont.

- Every die-hard Simpsons’ fan dreams of becoming a part of the Simpsons’ legacy. In this contest, people were given the  opportunity to have their dreams come true by being animated as a Springfield resident.

- One of our absolute favorites: this giant chalk drawing of Homer next to Cerne Abbas, symbol of fertility.

- The conversion of 7-Elevens to Kwik-E-Marts was brilliant. Only a select handful of locations got the full experiential recreation, but stores across the country carried Buzz cola and other Simpsonized items. (Fig 3)

- The Simpsons’ line of Vans provided limited-edition kicks to fans of both the TV series and the shoe line.

- X-Box, Simpsons style.

-This fashion spread in Harper’s Bazaar was one of several creative magazine integrations. Entertainment Weekly also published four Simpsons’ covers.

-The Simpsons took to the air with a JetBlue partnership. Among other creative integrations, JetBlue highlighted travel destinations with specific Simpsons’ characters. (Fig. 6)

The absolute magnitude of this marketing campaign could not have been achieved without the brand power of The Simpsons and the relationship our society has had with the show for almost twenty years.  The marketing campaign for The Simpsons Movie fully capitalized on this relationship, getting millions of people to buy a heap of Simpsonized stuff—and setting  a new bar in Hollywood.

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