WILMINGTON, Del. — When Wawa markets launched its Hoagiefest promotion on June 9, it unveiled a campaign developed through a unique collaboration – bringing together the marketing minds of the regional convenience store chain, its Texas-based advertising agency, a West Coast musician/songwriter and the interactive marketing skills of the Wilmington-based Archer Group.

The campaign, promoting Wawa’s 6-inch “Shorti” hoagies, employs a 1960s music festival theme with customized jingles and pastel-hued artwork reminiscent of the legendary graphic designer Peter Max. In addition to the in-store, billboard and radio advertising, which were created by Wawa’s advertising agency, The Richards Group, Wawa called on the Archer Group, its Internet marketing agency, to create the retailer’s first-ever microsite and banner ads for Internet use.

The microsite, www.hoagiefest.com, immerses the visitor in an animated music festival atmosphere and creates multiple viral marketing opportunities for visitors to share Hoagiefest with others. In addition to information on the summer hoagie promotion, the microsite offers music downloads, instant-message icons, computer wallpaper and a special Hoagiefest music player that visitors can embed in their MySpace or other social networking pages.

“The music festival theme, with its feel of peace, love and hoagies, gives us a great opportunity to highlight the Shorti, one of our fresh-food stars, in a summerlike atmosphere,” said Lisa Wollan, Wawa’s head of consumer insights and brand strategy.

By employing both traditional and new media to deliver its message, Wawa hopes to reach a larger audience and, through the music downloads and IM icons, “thrill and delight all our customers,” Wollan said.

John Carmichael, brand management team leader at The Richards Group, said the campaign combines the best elements of advertising in both the online and offline worlds. “Wawa was enthusiastic about our early ideas on how to have fun with the music festival theme and we all realized it presented tremendous opportunities for online advertising,” he said.

The Archer Group and The Richards Group worked together to refine campaign elements and recruited Parry Gripp, frontman for California rock band called the Nerf Herder who is known for an album of jingles titled “For Those About to Shop, We Salute You.”

“Wawa wanted one jingle for the campaign. Parry wrote four, and based upon the quality of the jingles, they decided to use three,” said Todd Miller, the Archer Group’s director of creative services.

While The Richards Group is placing Hoagiefest outdoor and radio ads in markets between Philadelphia and Richmond, the Archer Group is targeting online sites operated by the regional print and broadcast media, as well as sites like weather.com that attract large numbers of visitors within Wawa’s market, Miller says.

“The Hoagiefest collaboration demonstrates a convergence of size and geography that is occurring more frequently in 21st-century marketing,” said Lee Mikles, CEO of the Archer Group. Wawa has nearly 550 convenience stores in the mid-Atlantic states. The Richards Group, based in Dallas, is the largest independent branding agency in the nation with more than 700 employees and annual billings in excess of $1.25 billion. The Archer Group has about 30 employees and Parry Gripp is an independent entrepreneur.

The Archer Group, with its growing roster of regional and national clients in the entertainment, financial services and other industries, often provides Internet marketing services to clients that employ another agency for their traditional advertising needs.

While electronic communications have made irrelevant the distance separating the companies’ offices, members of the Archer and Richards Group teams “are together at Wawa’s offices fairly often,” Carmichael says. “We have a lot of interaction.”

“We love the Archer Group and the work they’ve done for us,” Wawa’s Wollan says. “The Archer Group and The Richards Group work so well together. The new Wawa Web site that Archer created is wonderful, and the microsite is a great extension to it.”

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 20 awards in the last two years alone. The company helps regional and national clients in the banking, entertainment, pharmaceutical and energy industries, as well as non-profits and the Delaware Tourism Office, 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. For more information, visit http://www.archer-group.com.