Insight
In 2014, Heineken was gearing up for its 12th edition of the Heineken Green Room (HGR). This award-winning music platform had been thrilling crowds in Singapore since 2002 but the increased number of international music acts hitting these shores meant the Singapore music scene had become saturated. With party-goers spoilt for choice, how could Heineken reinvigorate this franchise and continue to be cutting edge?
Music is a key pillar for Heineken in recruiting and driving closeness with younger TA. However, in recent years, many more bespoke music experiences have been springing up, each with its own unique considerations for the TA. In addition, many brands were leveraging on music to try to engage consumers. The need for engagement with the audience and stand out from the rest became ever more evident when content was demanded in a real-time and agile fashion.
The brand’s high affinity with electronic music meant it had to connect with the local Electronic Dance Music (EDM) fans. EDM was different in that it could lend itself to anyone’s voice and a universal language. With EDM being so niche, Starcom MediaVest Group's challenge was to take it wider to all music fans, generating wider interests. It needed to make this event more exciting, get more people involved, more intimately and deliver the right content to the audience using the right platform in real time in order to offer a world-class experience for them.
Strategy
The core target audience were 18-34 year old electronic dance music (EDM) fans. They sought their own identity while longing for a sense of belonging with like-minded peers. They craved unpredictable music events that enabled them to have an energetic, collective experience and surprising elements in their music.
The agency had two powerful insights – derived from an understanding of music, social media and behavioural science:
1. Music has the power to transport you - cognitive connection evolved from the ability to glean emotion from motion
2. People loved to share updates about themselves - ‘defining yourself to others’ being a primary motivation.
The media strategy stemmed from 2 key insights of the audience:
- They feel music has the power to bring them to where they want to be
- Their use their social platforms to tell the story of their lives the way they want the world to see them.
The agency would elevate Heineken’s status from the top authority on music events to the ENABLER of unprecedented music experience and innovation. At the heart of the experience, we designed the ultimate launch pad to new frontiers of the dance music—The Transporter.
With the idea of co-creation of content at the heart of the campaign, it created music tracks in real-time through socially crowdsourced voice samples and made it shareable as well as amplified it through selected media. Social influencers also help to widen and amplify the experience.
Execution
PRE-EVENT – CUSTOMISED PLAYLIST, CONTENT CREATION: SMG reignited the love for HGR by bringing people back to when it all started. This was done through a first-of-its-kind collaboration with a key media/music partner – Spotify by creating playlists featuring former HGR DJs. This nostalgic approach attracted EDM and HGR fans. It invited the audience to create their own music with invite cards that encouraged contribution of voice samples. Music opinion leaders (Sandra Riley Tang, Narelle Kheng, Darryl Yong, Linda Hao) were engaged to raise awareness by sharing visuals of the interactive media kits on Instagram.
DURING EVENT – LIVE VOICE SAMPLES, IGNITE BOTTLE LAUNCH: The Spotify collaboration continued throughout the night. The agency also gathered voice samples from attendees via live sound recording pods. As every sample was tagged to its contributor’s social handle, the event was greatly amplified via social media. DJ Intriguant creatively remixed the voice samples into a dance track in real-time, creating a piece of exclusive content that pumped to the beat of the hearts of EDM lovers. Influencers posted photos of the multi-sensorial elements at the event on their social platforms, engaging their followers to be part of the experience. At the peak of the party, Heineken unveiled igNITE - an interactive bottle with micro sensors to enhance party experience.
POST EVENT: When the night was over, the music played on. An exclusive single featuring the live samples was released on Spotify, ensuring social sharing and conversations were sustained. It also generated a piece of video content post-event.
Results
EDM FANS LOVED IT. With over 12,000 engagements generated, Heineken continues to represent EDM (Electronic Dance Music) with much pride, promising fans only the best music experience.
THE INTERNET LOVED IT. Through all paid, owned and earned social media across different platforms, it hit a total impression of 2.2 million throughout the entire campaign. The on-ground activation saw active participation amongst music lovers interacting with the voice samples pods and utilising the hashtag. The post-event video garnered >320,000 views.
THE MEDIA LOVED IT. The campaign generated more than 4.5 million impressions, and was featured in 182 publications, earning more than S$620,000 ($435,257) in PR value.
The brand’s closeness and authority achieved double-digital increase at 20% and 15% respectively with the overall brand equity score standing at an all-time high 7.7 .
There was a huge amount of engagements on social media with a feedback ratio of more than 4.8%.