Title	RAIN
Brand	SPA
Product/Service	SPA
Category	B06. Use of Music Technology and/or Innovation
Entrant	J. WALTER THOMPSON AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
Idea Creation	J. WALTER THOMPSON AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
Production	CIRCUS FAMILY Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Production 2	THE MISSING SYNC Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS

Name	Company	Position
Bas Korsten	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Executive Creative Director
Daniel Samama	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Senior Creative Art
Tim de Waard	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Senior Creative Copy
Lisa Merelle	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Business Director
Robert Harrison	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Photographer
Jesse Houweling	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Digital Director
Wendy Losse	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Digital Producer
Sandra Balke	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Digital Producer
Wout Westen	The Circus Family	Director
Valentijn Crouwel	The Missing Sync	Sound

The Campaign

Every drop of Spa mineral water was once a drop of rain. Only after an underground journey of years, a drop of rain becomes a drop of Spa mineral water. As an ode to this process, we built an installation in the area that turns drops of rain into animations and sounds. Together they created a unique musical piece and a lightshow played by the rain itself. A 2-minute online film shows the installation in full flow against the backdrop of the amazing Spa nature reserve.

Creative Execution

We built a temporary installation that turns drops of rain into sounds and animations. Created in collaboration with a number of artists who designed the elements to accentuate and express the purity of nature and the rain’s journey. We equipped all the different pieces of nature in Spa (trees, moss, plants) with water-detecting sensors. When rain hit them, sounds and animations were projected back onto nature. Together, they became a unique soundscape and lightshow played by the rain itself. A 2-minute online video was then created to show the installation in full effect. To create awareness and engagement for the project, we aimed at a broad audience through PR, social and paid media support. We encouraged people to engage and to look at our film and additional content. The digital support created for the project consisted of video banners, in-article videos, Facebook videos and pre-rolls. Retargeting with behind-the-scenes film.

The media results show the campaign scores above expectations on the media objectives. • Total video views: 3,348,242 (of which 14% full views: 466,458) • Cinema: 1,265,000 impressions • 4 in 10 view the full film (43%). This is well above benchmark (10%). • One in five decide to watch the rain film after the Trueview minimum of 5 seconds (22%). • 99% of whom watch the first 30 seconds. • 1 in 3 decide to watch the behind-the-scenes film (33%). • 1 in 2 of whom watch the full film (49%). • As for storytelling (retargeting), the view-through of the behind-the-scenes film is 50% higher. • When it comes to engagement (responses, likes and shares), the engagement rate is 34% (benchmark 2%). • At 2.5% the average click-through is above expectations (0.5%) • The highest CTR is reached with the in-article videos (8.6%)

The Rain Project is the perfect example of how music can bring a brand's story to life in an unexpected and impactful was. The story of how rain becomes mineral water is full of geological facts and figures. At first glance, it’s not an entertaining story. By making use of technology to capture the spirit of the brand in this music installation, we took this story from the science fair to the public eye. The installation captured our audience, and gave them the opportunity to find out more about Spa mineral water.

The home market for mineral water in the Netherlands is relatively small (Nielsen). The out of home market is under pressure due to lower consumption. The market for mineral water is an underdeveloped category with a high number of occasional users. There’s a world to win. We wanted to make the natural purity of Spa’s water a preference driver. That’s why we chose an emotional approach to create awareness and engage fans, occasional users and non-users. We made the nature of Spa’s area of origin and Spa’s philosophy of protection the overall hero. The installation emphasizes the beauty, the rich vegetation and the purity of the area and thus the purity of the water. In this way, the brand connects with the target-consumer.