Winners & Shortlists

THE BEATS PILLS

Short List
TitleTHE BEATS PILLS
BrandBEATS BY DR. DRE
Product/ServicePORTABLE WIRELESS SPEAKER
Entrant Company R/GA London, UNITED KINGDOM
Advertising Agency R/GA London, UNITED KINGDOM
Credits
Name Company Position
Rodrigo Sobral/Tara Greer R/GA London Executive Creative Directors
Chris Sullivan R/GA London Executive Producer
Iain Robson R/GA London Executive Creative Director
Pete Jupp R/GA London Design Director
Sanam Petri/Tim Blount/Howard Jordan/Ciaran Mccarthy/Edwin Latchford R/GA London Associate Creative Directors
Anders Svensson/Andy Bull/Laycee Fan/Jon Ward/Steve Talkowski R/GA London Senior Visual Designers
Tyree Harris/Luke Wicker R/GA London Junior Copywriters
James Beke/Wilf Eddings R/GA London Junior Visual Designers
Vanessa Hoy/Taraneh Koshorowski/Abbey Park/Claire Finn/Souad Setti/Kia Zokaei/To R/GA London Producers
Mary Toves R/GA London Experience Designer/Social Strategy
Alex Wills R/GA London Group Director/Content Studio
Corbett Trubey R/GA London Senior Copywriter
Jeff Beberman R/GA London Art Director
James Temple R/GA London Vp/Md/Executive Creative Director/R/Ga London
Josh Mandel R/GA LA Vp/Managing Director/R/Ga Los Angeles
Emily Olson/Lauren Rodwell/Marlina Fletcher/Maria Colorge/Emily Kortlang/Alex Wi Beats By Dr. Dre The Beats Pills Team
Erin Sullivan/Cindy Chapman Beats By Dr. Dre Broadcast Producers
Chris Waitt/Ben West Framestore Directors
Ronzo Illustrator Illustrator
Seb Robert/Claire Mcgovern/Grace Gordon We Are Social Senior Account Director/Senior Account Manager/Strategy Director
Framestore Additional company
Illustrator Additional company
We Are Social Additional company

The Campaign

In a competitive wireless speaker category, Beats By Dr. Dre needed to stand out from the crowd and prove that their small Pill speakers were remarkably loud. Small in size, but undeniably vocal, the Pill was a lot like Beats’ young consumer. So Beats created tiny, trash-talking characters with big personalities–and even bigger mouths–to act as official “spokesproducts”. Through the campaign and tagline, Small But Loud, Beats discovered a powerful voice that resonated more deeply with their target than common marketing-speak, fostering more authentic, more personal connections with the brand than ever before.

Success of the Campaign

At a time when loud culture, loud celebrities, and even loud friends make it hard for any one voice to be heard, the Beats Pills shouted their way into the conversation to the tune of 68.2 million social impressions and 2.2 million social engagements by the end of 2013. Tweets expressing desire for a Beats Pill rose 42%, and Thanksgiving sales rose 222% year-over-year, driving Beats sales to #1 in the wireless speaker category.

Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.

The media strategy for Pills was to create relevant, contextual content that was sensitive to time and place. The campaign launched with an instant, televised reaction to the Miley Cyrus & Robin Thicke’s outrageous Blurred Lines duet at the MTV Video Music Awards. Beats created dozens of custom online media placements and content partnerships where the Pills could comment on in-page content. The Pills appeared in online pre-roll tailored to specific entertainment outlets. Beats executed custom, hyper-local out-of-home and digital out-of-home in five major U.S. markets and Europe. Rounded out with a constantly-updating social media campaign, the Pills were always on point to provide topical commentary and, most importantly, to keep it real.