MediaCom Wins Adweek Media Plan of the Year for Pennzoil SXSW Activation

NEW YORK, Nov. 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Mamma mia! Adweek has named MediaCom USA winner of the Media Plan of the Year for its Pennzoil "Mario Kart Reimagined" activation at the 2014 SXSW festival.

On a live custom-made quarter-mile race track in the heart of Austin, Texas, Pennzoil created Mario Kart Reimagined, turning the legendary Nintendo video game into a real-life go-karting experience showcasing Shell's groundbreaking new Pennzoil Platinum® with PurePlus Technology™, the first full synthetic motor oil made from natural gas. Go-karts were outfitted with GoPros and RFID technology enabling classic game icons like the banana peel and red turtle shell to throw racers off their guard, while Pennzoil Power Ups served to increase the karts' speed and performance. SXSW attendees waited up to four hours to do their best Bowser or Princess Peach impressions behind the wheel.

In addition to generating over 1 billion earned media impressions, $2 million in advertising value and $5 million in PR value, Fast Company declared the activation "a Super Bowl-caliber hit," and The Daily Dot ranked Mario Kart Reimagined as "one of the biggest wins in SXSW history."

"One of the things that made Mario Kart great was that it enabled us to capture consumer attention at the biggest tech and innovation party in the world!" said Chris Hayek, Global Brand Director of Pennzoil. "Iconic brands like Twitter, Game of Thrones and Doritos have all hosted major product announcements at SXSW, and now Pennzoil is in that league of exciting breakthroughs.  And, of course, while everyone loves a fast go-kart, MediaCom's work at SXSW and earlier this year on the 'Breaking Barriers' documentary has also helped make Pure Plus our best-selling new product launch in over 40 years."

This is the second consecutive year that MediaCom has received the Adweek Media Plan of the Year Award; in 2013, the agency won Best Use of Branded Content for Volkswagen's "Beetle Shark Cage" campaign. This year's winning effort received the honor for Best Use of Alternative Media with campaign spending between $1-$10 million.

Adweek also recently named MediaCom USA's chief growth officer, Khartoon Ohan, to its Adweek 50 list, which honors "the movers and shakers beyond the world's top brands." Ohan has been a driving force behind the agency winning more than $1 billion in new billings this year from new clients including eBay, ADT, DSW, Tempur-Sealy and, most recently, the massive Anheuser-Busch InBev account and Merck's consumer care business.

"MediaCom is totally committed to creating not only the biggest, most brilliant work, but also to ensuring that content powers a fully-integrated communications system for each and every client," said Sasha Savic, CEO of MediaCom USA. "Mario Kart Reimagined, along with our unprecedented business growth this year, are both powerful proof points that our point of view is working. We want to thank both our clients and Adweek for the support and recognition that we are so humbled to receive.

Adweek's full Media Plan of the Year feature is available today in print and online.

ABOUT MEDIACOM

As "The Content + Connections Agency," MediaCom works with its clients to leverage their brands' entire system of communications to produce a step change in business outcomes. MediaCom delivers not just individual channel silo efficiencies, but also connected communications system effectiveness by developing and optimizing all content – defined as any form of consumer messaging – as the fuel that drives high-performing systems. MediaCom measures and quantifies communications systems across paid, owned and earned media through its unique Connected System Audit.

MediaCom is one of the world's leading media communications specialists, with billings exceeding US$29 billion (Source: RECMA 2013). It employs 5,800 people in 122 offices across 97 countries around the globe. Its client roster includes P&G, VW Group, Dell and Universal.

MediaCom is a member of WPP, the world's largest marketing communications services group, and part of GroupM, WPP's consolidated media investment management arm.

For more information on MediaCom USA, visit www.mediacomusa.com.

Find us on Twitter @mediacomus. 
Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MediaComUSA.
Join us on LinkedIn here.

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SOURCE MediaCom

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