The Archer Group strikes gold with Wawa campaigns

Interactive marketers win 4 awards in Philadelphia Ad Club contest

March 20, 2009

WILMINGTON, Del. — Successful campaigns promoting Wawa, Inc.’s renowned coffee and hoagies earned the Archer Group one gold Addy Award and three silver awards at the Philadelphia Advertising Club’s 2008 ADDY Awards Celebration.

The Archer Group’s work on Wawa’s “Coffeetopia” promotion merited a gold award for best online campaign and a silver award for web site excellence in the consumer flash category. The Wilmington-based interactive marketing firm also received silver awards for banners for Wawa’s Hot Turkey promotion and for the microsite developed for Wawa’s “Hoagiefest” campaign.

“The Coffeetopia and Hoagiefest campaigns were tremendous successes,” said Lisa Wollan, Wawa’s Head of Consumer Insights and Brand Strategy. “They represented a powerful collaboration between our interactive agency, the Archer Group and our traditional agency, the Richards Group, to develop campaigns that seamlessly merged the full range of media opportunities. The Archer Group has shown us the value of an enhanced online presence, and these awards affirm the quality of their work, both artistically and as marketing tools.”

“The Wawa brand offers us such great opportunities online. We are fortunate to have such a powerful brand and partner willing to let us take these chances creatively. The high praise from our peers in the advertising industry in the form of these awards is a great compliment,” said Lee Mikles, the Archer Group’s co-founder and CEO.

The Archer Group’s effort on the Coffeetopia campaign included creating a microsite where visitors could create their own custom blend of Wawa coffee and share it with their friends. Another option allowed visitors to import an image from their webcams into an image of a cup of Wawa coffee; these artistic creations could then be used as desktop backgrounds or be emailed to friends. Another aspect of the campaign enabled visitors to determine their “coffeality,” a lighthearted personality assessment based on their preferences in coffees, creamers and sweeteners. Regional radio celebrities posted their own favorite Wawa coffee combination for all to see at www.wawacoffeetopia.com. The Archer Group also created and placed online advertising on Web sites frequented by Wawa’s target demographic.

Hoagiefest, a campaign, promoting Wawa’s popular Shorti® hoagies, employed a 1960s music festival theme with customized jingles and pastel-hued artwork reminiscent of the legendary graphic designer Peter Max. For the campaign, the Archer Group created Wawa’s first-ever microsite, www.hoagiefest.com, which immersed visitors in an animated music festival atmosphere and created multiple viral marketing opportunities, including music downloads, instant-message icons, computer wallpaper and a special Hoagiefest music player.

Earning a silver award in the banner category was an innovative banner for Wawa’s Hot Turkey campaign. The video banner featured a traditional Wawa advertisement stacked on top of an ad for a fictitious ‘Bob’s painting company’ in which ‘Bob’ climbs the ladder in his ad and takes a Wawa hoagie from the ad above.

Wawa operates 570 stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

The ADDY Awards competition is the industry’s largest and most representative competition for creative excellence. Sponsored by the American Advertising Federation (AAF), the awards are designed to honor advertising excellence and to cultivate the highest standards in the industry. The three-tiered competition starts at the local event with the Philly Ad Club and the 210 AAF member clubs around the nation. The local Gold winners advance to the 14 competitions regionally. Winners of the District competition then advance to the National competition.

About The Archer Group
The Archer Group offers end-to-end internet marketing solutions, from marketing strategy, Web site development, e-mail marketing, search engine marketing and more. The company has been recognized regionally and internationally for outstanding work, receiving 30 awards in the last three years alone. The company helps regional and national clients create more value from their internet and digital marketing efforts. It received a 2007 Superstars in Business award from the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce and was named to the Inc. 5000 as one of the nation’s fastest-growing small businesses in 2008. For more information, visit http://www.archer-group.com.