2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

Branded content is continuously growing as a tool to build brands within the GCC and Levant, yet many advertisers still do not create clear integration between product and programming. For Chrysler Middle East this was not the case. The sponsorship of Arabs Got Talent (AGT) wove the Chrysler 300C seamlessly into the program as well as creating branded content that formed a creative bridge between show and brand. The program had restrictions in terms of sponsorship. As an example it was forbidden for the judges and co-hosts to endorse a sponsoring brand. Despite this restrictions, we were able to creatively side-step them with the creation of branded content in the form of a documentary, featuring the co-host Qusai.

Results

Chrysler Middle East sponsored Arabs Got Talent (AGT) for the 2nd successive year. The sponsorship platform provides significant reach and visibility for the Chrysler brand. Instead of airing a generic TV spot, the objective was to establish a connection between Chrysler and AGT, enabling a clear association between brand and program, increasing the brand awareness among young arabs. To achieve this we partnered with co-host of AGT, Qusai, to turn the Chrysler 300C into a musical instrument, sampling extensively each and every sound from the car. The campaign followed the format of the show. During the ‘Audition’ stage our 4-week TV campaign aired individual chapters each week following Qusai and our sound engineers exploring, identifying and ‘sampling’ the sounds of the Chrysler 300C. The culmination of the 4 chapters was the final 60” TVC of which the soundtrack was composed, arranged and produced using only sounds from the Chrysler 300C. To support the TV campaign, the region’s first playable posters and the world's first re-targetable press inserts were created; allowing users to play the Chrysler 300C like a musical instrument from the printed material connected via Bluetooth to the user’s smartphone which became the speaker/amp. This concept was complemented online via a digital banner campaign on YouTube and across the Google Network, in which the user could play the car's sounds using their smartphone as a piano keyboard after connecting it to the banner, via Google Channel Connect. A promotional campaign in showrooms rewarded people test driving the Chrysler 300C with a Performer Kit containing a playable poster with headphones. Finally, all the sounds sampled from the car, were mastered in a professional software musical instrument and sent to top influential music producers and hip hop artists across the region and internationally, as a Direct Mailing piece.

We partnered with AGT’s co-host, Qusai, to help uncover the talent of the Chrysler 300C by turning it into a musical instrument, detailing the whole process as a five-parts documentary. This engaging TV content took viewers on a 5-week journey that mirrored the format of AGT. During the show’s audition phase, in fact, we aired the chapters about the sound sampling process, while during the show's live phase, we aired the 60” TVC, of which the soundtrack had been composed, arranged and performed using only, and exclusively, sounds from the Chrsyler 300C.

Even though the campaign only went live on January 3rd, within 8 days Facebook video views exceeded 2million, worth 4 years of streaming time, and the test drive requests increased by 286% year on year. The campaign also achieved some regional and global ‘firsts’: - the world’s first re-targetable print ad and promo kit - first car model to be turned into a professional software multi-patch musical instrument - the region’s first playable posters