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The agency has created five characters - Alex, Boris, Paul, Kara and Jenna - to personalise IBM's core brands of Lotus, Tivoli, WebSphere and DB2.

The creative aims to grab consumers' attention and draw them to IBM's brands by offering a fly-on-the-wall view of the characters' lives.

The online campaign, which kicks off in the UK on 15 October, is called "players" and forms part of a broader worldwide campaign with executions also running across Germany, Italy and France.

The first wave of activity will run online, with creative developed by Ogilvy Interactive. A series of five banners introduces each of the characters, and lead to a more in-depth information page.

The information page about each character is an interactive version of an office, which allows users to explore each character's world with IBM offering discounts. The life of each character is expanded as the campaign rolls out.

The offline campaign begins at the end of the month with a third phase of advertising activity earmarked for the first quarter of next year.

The campaign was written by Richard Woodruff and art directed by Jerome Muguet.