Title	SMART ELECTRIC SYMPHONY
Brand	DAIMLER AG / SMART
Product/Service	SMART ELECTRIC DRIVE
Category	F10. Music Live Experience
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

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. A DJ controlled the lightning strikes and the vehicles using a mixer. The result: a fascinating live performance with the models in the leading role and a unique musical composition.

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 then published by smart and Chris Bekker which allowed fans to listen to the composition online via YouTube, Itunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, Shazam, Napster, Google Play, etc. The city wide festival for light art, with over 2 million visitors, provided the perfect backdrop. 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.

Apart from creating awareness through the live performance itself, the event resulted in 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 an entertaining live event, which used an unprecedented synergy of music and electricity to stun the audience on-site. And by doing so encouraged a direct interaction between brand and 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 hottest topic in the German automotive industry in 2016. Even politics joined in with a buyer’s premium of 3000 € to support the growth of the market. Yet, most car manufacturers react slowly and only electrify single models or showcase concept cars not suitable for daily use. smart, however, electrified its entire fleet. We wanted to share this revolutionary decision and USP in an equally groundbreaking and impressive manner with our target group and the world. So we electrified the new smart e-drive spectacularly at the Berlin Festival of Lights. With the Electric Symphony we targeted forward-thinking urban pioneers from metropolitan areas in Germany, who question existing concepts and are characterized by a love for the city. So a festival millions of visitors, celebrating urban structures in the heart of Berlin, was ideal.