Energizer teams with Latin acts for staying power

By Leila Cobo

MIAMI (Billboard) - The Energizer Bunny, that very recognizable icon of durability, aims to better reach Latinos via a music-driven advertising campaign.

Dubbed Musica Que Sigue y Sigue (Music That Goes On and On), the campaign features spots with well-known Latin acts penning what Energizer calls "their longest song ever." The ads drive consumers to the sigueysigue.com site, where they can download each full track for free, as well as get ringtones, behind-the-scenes footage from the filming of the commercials and contribute to creating the "longest song in the universe."

The Sigue y Sigue campaign officially kicked off during the Latin Grammy Award telecast November 8 with a series of TV spots featuring Mexican pop group Camila and merengue singer Elvis Crespo. Spots are also running on various Web sites, including Batanga.com and Univision.com. In 2008, the campaign expands to add regional Mexican norteno legend Conjunto Primavera, and the spots will rotate throughout the year.

Although Energizer has been advertising to the Latin market for more than a decade, this is its first Latin music-centric campaign. It also marks the first time that Energizer has aligned with specific artists.

Each of the acts chosen not only will appear in the Energizer spots, which were all shot in Mexico, but also will pen a song expressly for the campaign. Those songs will belong to Energizer for a year and will be available only on the sigueysigue.com site.

To date, the site has registered "tens of thousands" of visits per week, according to Grupo Gallegos group account director Montse Barrena. The advertising agency created the notion of crossing the Energizer Bunny with different elements -- in this case, music. Because each artist and song falls under a specific Latin genre, "it was a great way to reach out to different parts of our target," Barrena said.

Grupo Gallegos, in turn, turned to Batanga to help implement the campaign and find the right acts to fit the bill.

One of the biggest requirements, said Frank Valencia, general manager of Batanga's live division, was finding acts that could create an original song and, literally, "the longest song of their career. I was pretty surprised at how receptive these artists were."

Reuters/Billboard