The total audience of US power traders is comprised of a group of approximately 2,000 "type-A" males, aged 25 to 35. Our job was to persuade this audience to negotiate the buying and selling of power online, rather than over the telephone via third-party brokers. The objective of the launch campaign was to build awareness for HoustonStreet among traders and encourage them to register on HoustonStreet, in order to be ready to trade the day the platform went live.

After the success of the initial launch in the electricity market, MicroArts implemented similar campaigns to support the launch of trading platforms for crude oil and refined products in the US, and for electricity trading in Europe.

• Create and introduce an entirely new brand into the energy industry.
• Establish HoustonStreet as the premier entity for online trading of wholesale energy products.
• Integrate offline and online communications and create a consistent brand experience across all communications media.
• Encourage traders and trading houses to complete a relatively complex registration process online, using the MicroArtsdeveloped registration interface.

To generate excitement, MicroArts positioned HoustonStreet as "The most powerful online trading vehicle," and used a 427 Cobra as a visual metaphor for the brand. The campaign kicked off with a series of three teaser posters, supported by viral "movie" clips distributed via email. While we wanted to announce the coming of HoustonStreet, we couldn't tell the whole story for fear of stealing all the thunder from the simultaneous PR campaign.Teaser communications urged traders to visit the teaser Web site and sign up to be one of the first to take an online ‘test drive'. Nearer to the actual go-live date, a series of dimensional mailings containing a 1/18-scale model Cobra, a wrench, and a set of car keys were delivered. Each mailing contained a personalized vehicle identification number (VIN) that would register the recipient to win a $35,000 Cobra replicar. Sending three mailings, with three different numbers, drove repeat traffic to the now live marketing Web site. Requiring traders to visit specific content areas in order to register their VINs helped further their knowledge of the platform's capabilities.

The launch campaign culminated in the giveaway of a real Cobra at PowerMart '99, the key industry trade show. By now, more than half of the audience was signed up to trade online. At PowerMart, the trade show booth strategy was to reward HoustonStreet traders by making them feel part of an exclusive community.

Consequently, the trade show booth incorporated a private "members only" club, recognizing registered traders and encouraging fence sitters to join.

After the platform for trading wholesale electricity, HoustonStreet went on to launch similar platforms for the trading of crude oil and refined products, as well as one for trading electricity in Europe. MicroArts tailored the original campaign to address these audiences, using an AM General Hummer as the most powerful trading vehicle for the oil market and a Dodge Viper for the European market.

These launches incorporated audiencespecific Web support that included an interactive, programmed learning game in which traders could "strike oil" on HoustonStreet to win a trip to Hummer's off-road performance driving school, and developing a dedicated multi-lingual Web site for European traders.The European launch also featured an international, five-a-side soccer tournament between teams of traders from various countries including England, Germany and Holland, held during EMART, a huge European energy trade show.