IQ News: Swatch, AtomFilms March to Different Beat

Among the pillars of cyberspace are globalization, e-commerce, and real-time communication. Now Swatch, the Biel, Switzerland-based watch manufacturer with more than 270 million units sold in its 17-year history, wants to use the Internet to sell its own definition of real time. Together with AtomFilms, the Seattle-based platform for short films, animation and digital media, the two companies have started Flash.Beat, an international flash animation competition offering $45,000 in prize money and a chance for winners to create a multi-million dollar online advertising campaign for Swatch's Internet Time Beat watch collection, premiering later this summer. "We really think we have something unique here," said Andrea Caputo, head of Internet development for Swatch. "Instead of some agency and TV programmer deciding what [ads] they want to make and users to watch, the creation of our online campaign will be a much more democratic process." Swatch has perhaps borrowed a page from United Colors of Benetton, the Treviso, Italy-based marketer, which for the past 15 years has turned conventional advertising on its ear by incorporating political and social causes in campaigns designed to eliminate geographical borders and promote diversity, while selling color and fabric. Swatch, in turn, wants to solicit the concept of a unified "Internet Time" zone in an effort to sell more time pieces. Here is how it works: Instead of a conventional 24-hour day, Swatch divided the virtual and real day into 1,000 beats. Each beat is equal to one minute, 26.4 seconds. Thus, instead of the traditional high noon (12 p.m.), Swatch equates it in Internet Time as @500 beats. Moreover, the company positioned its Biel corporate headquarters at ground zero, meaning that a day in Internet Time begins at midnight Biel Mean Time (BMT) or @000 Swatch beats. The Biel Mean Time (BMT) was inaugurated as a legitimate start/finish timeline on October 23, 1998, according to the company's Web site. For global browsers accustomed to dealing with a plethora of international time zones, Swatch has streamlined the process by standardizing its Internet Time based upon only one time zone: Central European Wintertime in Biel. For example, if it's 6:07 p.m. in Los Angeles on Mother's Day, Internet Time is Monday morning @88 beats. Conversely, if it's @80 beats Internet Time on May 15, it's actually between 5:55:12 p.m. and 5:56:38 p.m. in Los Angeles on May 14. "This isn't a gimmick," said Caputo. "Internet Time signifies the true value of the Net, which is communicating with people globally regardless of time zones or borders." Interested animators can participate in two categories: Long Flash Animation, in which the concept of Internet Time must be incorporated in a spot ranging from one to two-minutes in length, and Short Flash Animation, whereby contestants must include the Swatch logo and express a "recognizable concept" in a spot ranging from 15 to 20 seconds. Submissions will be graded for duration, originality, use and synchronization of animation, motion, and aural and visual effects, according to contest rules. Deadlines for entries uploaded either to www.swatch.com or www.atomfilms.com is June 26. A panel of advisory judges, including actor Peter Fonda, will select the winners from a group of finalists, whose material can be viewed on the sites starting July 3. Winners will be announced July 31, with $20,000 and $10,000 awarded, respectively, to the first- and second-place finishers in the Long Flash competition. The Short Flash winner and runner-up will receive $10,000 and $5,000, each. Swatch believes the animation competition is more a communication and branding exercise versus strictly a sales catalyst, according to Caputo. Long an advocate for innovation, Swatch approached AtomFilms last year about a collaborative media effort following president Nick Hayek's interest in the site. Getting a call from Swatch was almost too good to be true, according to Michael Comish, European managing director for AtomFilms. "I was trying to figure out how to reach the right person at Swatch," said Comish. "I couldn't believe it when they contacted me." n

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IQ News: Swatch, AtomFilms March to Different Beat

Erik Gruenwedel

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Erik Gruenwedel