Mortein turned the fly season into a $10,000 manhunt for its mascot Louie the Fly

Pest control is a low-engagement category, and Mortein owned a notorious national icon, Louie the Fly, that it wanted made relevant again — even to younger audiences.

Wanted posters sketched by a specialist FBI sketch artist, an interactive app that scans killed flies, Louie's mugshot as a ticker tape inside other Reckitt brands' VOD ads, six-second social videos of animated Louie goading users, fly posters across Sydney and influencer 'chief fly hunter' Luke Falzon.

The campaign ran for three weeks from December 4, 2023 across radio, social, VOD and OOH; no sales results were reported.

Campaign Brief reported on December 5, 2023 that Havas Host and Reckitt, in partnership with Havas Red, had transformed billions of pesky flies into flying ads for Mortein with the 'Louie The Flyhunt' campaign, inviting Australians into an experience that blends traditional manhunt tropes with cutting-edge technology.

Set against the opening of Australia's fly season, the campaign cast brand mascot Louie the Fly as Australia's most wanted: wanted posters crafted by a specialist FBI sketch artist went up nationwide, and Havas Host built an interactive app guiding participants to scan the flies they killed — with a $10,000 bounty for the skilled fly hunter who eliminated Louie himself.

The media innovation reached into Reckitt's wider inventory: a news-style ticker tape of Louie's mugshot ran inside other Reckitt brands' VOD ads, six-second social videos had an animated Louie goading users — 'you couldn't find a bread loaf in a bakery' — fly posters hit Sydney, and social sensation and outback expert Luke Falzon was appointed chief fly hunter. ECD Justin Ruben said the campaign gave Aussies the chance to finally kill Louie for themselves; Reckitt category marketing manager Ilaria Lucheschi said the idea leveraged a distinctive brand asset in a low-engagement category.

The mechanic converts the category's core user action — killing flies — into the media itself, with every scanned corpse an engagement.

It re-centres a decades-old brand asset, Louie the Fly, in a campaign designed to reach younger audiences.

The manhunt format stretched across owned and paid inventory, including ticker tape inside sibling brands' VOD ads.

Your mascot is owned media: making the pest the prize turns the audience's existing behaviour — swatting flies — into participation in the campaign.

The three-week campaign ran from December 4, 2023 across radio, social, VOD and OOH, with the $10,000 bounty still on Louie's head at the time of reporting.