2011 Gold Best use of social media or viral

01 Dec 2011

Client Nissan Motor (GB)

Team Sav Evangelou – Executive Creative Director, Paul Jason – Deputy Creative Director, Tom le French – Senior Art Director, Daniel Bort – Planning Director, Paul McCarroll – Senior Copywriter, Damian Smyth – Business Director, Dhrubo Paul – Technology Lead, Sarah Webster-Forbes – Producer, Brad Bateman – Account Director, Rakesh Chadee - Designer

Other contributors La Roux – Celebrity, Spotify – Media, Koko – Venue, Remix Galaxy – Music technology

What is wonderful about this work? We provided a dynamic social platform for thrill-seeking young males to mix and share a track, recruit friends to vote for them and work alongside genuine stars. We reached 10 million people, one in six of the population. Before we launched, Juke had a three-month waiting list. Afterwards, it was four months!

What details of the strategy make this a winning entry? How could we engage a young, male, thrill-seeking audience when they associated Nissan with their parents? We needed to earn the right to talk to them and position the Juke as a cool urban trend-setter. Our targets don’t watch much TV or read newspapers; they’re out with their mates. They’re competitive. We needed to engage them directly. Nothing expressed their energy as powerfully as music, which indexed at 150+ in our research. But music promotions are ubiquitous and ubiquity is the reverse of the Juke’s individuality. So we turned away from plastic pop and invited them to create, share and showcase their own music with influential music creators. By choosing a respected band, we were confident music bloggers would write about us, minimising traditional banner ads and spreading the buzz through social channels.

How did creativity bring the strategy to life? Behind the Hit offered the opportunity to create music online – and perhaps find yourself in a professional studio alongside Grammy award-winning band La Roux, preparing for a performance at a top London venue. We partnered with Spotify, Virgin Red Room and other music-focused digital spaces. Bloggers and earned media wanted a piece of the action. Soon people were flocking to the microsite, mobile site and iPhone app. After uploading their track, entrants became our advocates, imploring Facebook friends and Twitter followers to register their support. Thousands of tracks were narrowed to 12. La Roux picked their favourite to be remixed in the studio. On the night, long queues snaked round Camden’s famous Koko Club. The gig was a sell-out and in a world first, Spotify streamed it live across the net.

Results There was an 8% uplift in awareness of Juke among our target market (and a 12% uplift in prompted awareness among Spotify listeners). 17% of Spotify listeners would be more likely to consider the Juke for their next car purchase and 27% associate the marque with music. 10.7 million users saw the digital campaign – 30% over target – and 96,074 engaged with it. Earned media coverage extended from specialist sites to national press and even to broadcast media. Maybe most important of all, we’ve found a way to engage our audience directly, who promoted their own content, spreading the word among their peer groups.

Judge's comment:“Nissan cleverly used social media to change perceptions of the car among a much younger, male audience. It created hype, buzz and got people to go to the event. 10.7 million unique users saw the digital campaign – that’s one in six of the UK population!” Wanda Goldwag, True North Human Capital

Other contributors La Roux – Celebrity, Spotify – Media, Koko – Venue, Remix Galaxy – Music technology

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2011 Gold Best use of social media or viral

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