SMART ELECTRIC SYMPHONY

TitleSMART ELECTRIC SYMPHONY
BrandDAIMLER AG / SMART
Product/ServiceSMART ELECTRIC DRIVE
Category F03. Experience Design
Entrant BBDO GROUP GERMANY Berlin, GERMANY
Idea Creation BBDO GROUP GERMANY Berlin, GERMANY
Media Placement FUEL@VIVAKI Düsseldorf, GERMANY
Production EFFEKTSCHMIEDE Cologne, GERMANY
Production 2 KLANG ID BERLIN, GERMANY
Production 3 CRAFTWORK Düsseldorf, GERMANY
Additional Company BBDO GROUP GERMANY Berlin, GERMANY
Credits
Name Company Position
Wolfgang Schneider BBDO Group Germany GmbH Chief Creative Officer
Mirko Stolz BBDO Berlin GmbH Creative Managing Director
Tobias Grimm BBDO Berlin GmbH Creative Managing Director
Michael Schachtner BBDO Berlin GmbH Executive Creative Director
Fedja Kehl, David Missing BBDO Berlin GmbH Creative Director
Angelo Maia, Shelley Lui BBDO Berlin GmbH Art Director
David Braun BBDO Live Senior Art Director
Dany Rothemund, Nico Baumann, Julian Stölting, Chen Yaari BBDO Berlin GmbH Copywriter
Jan Hendrik Oelckers, Lindsay Jönsson, Olga Lorenz BBDO Berlin GmbH Account Team
Daniela Haake, Ann-Kathrin Zänger BBDO Live Account Team
Silke Rochow BBDO Berlin GmbH Agency Producer
Steffen Gentis BBDO Group Germany GmbH Chief Production Officer
Johannes von Liebenstein, David Müllenborn CraftWork - a brand of ad agencyservices GmbH Producer
Christian Becker klang ID berlin Composer
Christopher Häring Klemes Klempkes Director
Jacob Ipsen - Editor
- Gahrens + Battermann GmbH Technical Partner
- Henn Project GmbH Technical Partner
. Nüssli (Germany) GmbH Technical Partner

The Campaign

At the Berlin Festival of Lights on the 8th October 2016, we electrified the new smart electric drive models. Literally. For the first time in history, we linked four high-voltage coils together to conduct 1.5 million Volts to the models. The arising lightning created a spectacular choreography and unique sounds – turning the cars into electric instruments. Electronic music artist and DJ Chris Bekker controlled the lightning strikes and the vehicles using a mixer. The result: a fascinating live performance and a unique musical composition – the “Electric Symphony”.

Creative Execution

We teamed up with Chris Bekker, the festival's official DJ, to turn the smart cars into electric music instruments. During the thrilling live show, the cars got electrified as they moved past the high-voltage coils. The spark-output of the coils pushed on air, which created unique sounds. These were merged with a track Bekker composed for the event – creating an extraordinary sound experience for the audience and viewers online via a livestream. The composition was published by smart and Chris Bekker, which allowed fans to listen to the composition on YouTube, Itunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, Shazam, Napster, Google Play, etc. The city wide festival for light-art provided the perfect backdrop for our synergy of electricity, light and music. The performance took place on a 225m2 stage on 8th October 2016, which was also when first social media impressions were uploaded. The official music video was uploaded to YouTube 7th November.

Results

The results were a live performance at the Berlin Festival of Lights and its over 2 million visitors, a unique composition that translated the brand values musically and used cars as electric instruments for the first time as well as a video documentation that shared the experience with the world via social media: • 1.694.101 impressions on Facebook, thereof 200.000 in the first 24 hours • 338.472 impressions on Instagram • Preorders of the smart electric drives nearly tripled since mid of October 2016 • Weekly traffic on the microsite increased by 59%

The Electric Symphony was created as a live event, which encouraged direct interaction between the brand and the spectators with the aim of increasing the pre-orders of the new smart electric drive models on smart.com before the official launch in March 2017.

Electromobility has been the topic in the German automotive industry in 2016. Yet, most car manufacturers react slowly and only electrify single models, whereas smart electrified its entire fleet. We wanted to share this revolutionary USP in an equally groundbreaking way with our target group: forward-thinking urban pioneers from metropolitan areas, who are characterized by a love for the city. So to electrify the new smart e-drive at the Berlin Festival of Lights with over 2 million visitors, celebrating urban structures in the heart of Berlin, was ideal. The event was announced on social media and reached over 200.000 people via Facebook in the first 24 hours. This resulted in 1.694.101 impressions on the platform alone. The entire immersive experience was a spectacle to remember and activated the audience to pre-order the new e-drive with a CTA at the end of the show.