Title	YOURFONE SONGCONTEST - CONTENT-MARKETING ROCKS!
Brand	YOURFONE GMBH
Product/Service	TELECOMMUNICATION
Category	A06. USE OR INTEGRATION OF MUSIC
Entrant Company	PILOT Hamburg, GERMANY
Contributing Company	SASSENBACH ADVERTISING Munich, GERMANY
Contributing Company 2	BEEBOP MEDIA Hamburg, GERMANY

Name	Company	Position
Carsten Riemann	Pilot Hamburg Gmbh/Co. KG	Director Strategy
Sabine Krug	Pilot Hamburg Gmbh/Co. KG	Executive Producer
Judith Sylla	Pilot Hamburg Gmbh/Co. KG	Chief Editor
Christof Gruber	Pilot Hamburg Gmbh/Co. KG	Operation Manager
Jennifer Michalla	Pilot Hamburg Gmbh/Co. KG	Account Manager
Jürgen Irlbacher	Pilot Hamburg Gmbh/Co. KG	Creative Director
Charlotte Bruch	Pilot Hamburg Gmbh/Co. KG	Editor
Daniel Lantelme	Pilot Hamburg Gmbh/Co. KG	Editor

The Campaign

Branded Entertainment still is a new tool in the marketing mix of companies and brands. Thus, this recent field needs clarification with regard to its structures and the involved parties (e.g. the brand itself, the publisher and the protagonist). Furthermore, whenever the branded entertainment approach concerns music, you have to deal with different types of regulation (e.g. labels, publisher, GEMA etc.). However, according to pilot this effort is profitable for all parties of these projects. In times when communication to the target group gets harder – because of a fast changing media market (digitalization, defragmentation) and dynamic communication models (communication via social media) – you have to offer more than advertising – for example relevant content. With this specific offer (e.g. "music" for a younger target group) a brand can benefit from a high level of interest, attention and commitment regarding the topic and your brand identity. Thanks to this approach, brands turn away from their traditional push communication, spending a lot in paid media – to a pull communication generating content for earned and owned media.

Results

Our main objectives were to provide a new sound for the commercial activities of Yourfone, to generate relevant content for the platforms, to engage with the community and finally, to be placed as a lifestyle, music brand within the target group. In the first instance, there was a band registration process with over 600 participants. The community selected four of them as finalists – being part of the web TV series. These bands got the task to compose the new Yourfone sound within the next 12 hours. We were close to them during this relatively short period of time accompanying them with our camera, distributing and promoting this video content among the Yourfone community and on big platforms, like, for example, MyVideo. The four final songs were performed live on stage in Grünspan (Hamburg) for the first time. The Yourfone community was directly on-site voting for the final song via SMS-based voting. The winning band called “Pari San” and their song is going to be the new sound for the Yourfone commercial. All songs of the four finalists were produced, supported and promoted by Yourfone. Thus, the “Yourfone Songcontest” is much more than just a competition, it rather is a win-win scenario and a sustainable solution for all parties involved in the process.

Every mobile provider offers cheap tariffs. That’s why the mobile service provider Yourfone decided to take an innovative approach in its national campaign. The young company has been focused on its users from the very start, so one of our aims was to ensure the active involvement of the Yourfone community. At first, the community was actively involved in the selection of the finalists for the web TV series. Then, in the final live event, the community voted for the winner via SMS-based voting. Most importantly, we wanted to produce great content especially suited for the target group.

Who will record the song for the new ad campaign? Musicians from across Germany took part in the “Yourfone Songcontest”. MyVideo acted as the hub, while Facebook, popular sites for musicians and YouTube generated traffic and stimulated commitment of the target group. The result: more than 600 entries and four finalists. The web TV format was promoted on MyVideo.de, on other related websites and via TV and cinema adverts. The successful campaign generated 13.7 million TV contacts and 6.2 million net online impressions. In addition, the web TV episodes were viewed 1.4 million times and 330 PR measures led to 22.5 million impressions.