Multimap uses Aardman for new online campaign

by Sarah Crawley-Boevey, Media Week 11-Aug-08, 15:45

LONDON - Multimap, the Microsoft-owned mapping website, has launched a digital ad campaign designed by digital agency LBi.

The site, which has undergone a redesign in recent months, is using animated characters from Wallace and Gromit creators Aardman Animations in the ads.

The campaign features a pair of pigeons getting involved in all manner of misadventures to illustrate Multimap’s Bird’s Eye location-finder service.

Users are invited to ask the pigeons to find certain landmarks, but the animated birds instead end up having accidents and misunderstandings.

Jim Cruickshank, director of mapping, shopping and local for Microsoft EMEA, said the characters were a fun way to highlight specific features that follow the redesign of the site.

The campaign is the first since Microsoft acquired the Multimap business in December 2007. LBi is continuing to work on the business, following an original deal struck with Multimap when it was an independent company.

The agency produced concepts, user experience specifications, architecture and graphic design for the site’s redesign.

The site offers travel directions, information and street-level maps of Europe, USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, as well as road maps of the world, Bird’s Eye photography, and links to location information such as hotels, restaurants and entertainment bookings.