Title	REVERSE GUITAR SIGNING
Brand	STUDIO BRUSSEL
Product/Service	MEDIA & PUBLICATIONS
Category	F09. Brand or Product Integration into Music Content
Entrant	DDB BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
Idea Creation	DDB BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

Name	Company	Position
Odin Saille	DDB Brussels	Creative Director
Peter Ampe	DDB Brussels	Creative Director
Jan Schoofs	DDB	Copywriter
Jonas Caluwé	DDB	Art Director
Romy Vierhouten	DDB Brussels	Account Executive
Kirsten Vanderbeke	DDB	Account Executive
Francis Lippens	DDB Brussels	Business Director
Sven Verfaille	DDB Brussels	Designer
Céline Godaert	DDB	DTP
Steven De Vlieger	DDB	DTP

The Campaign

Instead of handing out another gadget, Studio Brussel wanted to give the crowd something more spectacular. Signed guitars are the Holy Grail of rock ‘n’ roll. Rock stars put their autograph on guitars, and then these become true collector’s items. But at Rock Werchter, we turned this around and invented a whole new way of guitar signing. We invited everyone on the festival ground to put their autograph on a guitar for a rock star, instead of the other way around. We called it The Reverse Guitar Signing.

Creative Execution

Throughout the 4 days of the festival, visitors could stop by the Studio Brussel booth and sign a Gibson ES 335 guitar for none other than Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl. Hundreds of people passed by the booth to put their autograph on the guitar. Right before their closing concert, a Studio Brussel host interviewed Dave Grohl. And that’s when he handed Dave the fully signed guitar.

During our interview, Dave was clearly moved by the gift (“no one has ever done this for me”). But what happened then surprised us all. Later that night, Dave appeared on the main stage in front of 80.000 music fans. He took our guitar and explained the whole idea in front of the crowd. And then, he played a 15-minute version of Monkey Wrench on the guitar, one of their biggest hits. So while other brands were confined to their booth, Studio Brussel made it to the festival’s main stage. Proving that no one else understands music better. Our fan-signed guitar even made it beyond the main stage. It was featured on the most important Belgian news media and different music blogs worldwide. Even Loudwire – the web’s biggest hard rock and metal site with over 1.3 million fans – covered the story.

The Reverse Guitar Signing shows how Studio Brussel managed to strike a chord with music fans at Belgium’s biggest festival, Rock Werchter. Not by handing out free stuff to grab people’s attention, but by becoming a key element of the festival experience itself: our fan-signed guitar made it to the main stage of the festival in the hands of Dave Grohl himself. Whilst all other brands were screaming for attention, we had Dave Grohl and the entire crowd screaming for us instead.

Studio Brussel’s presence at the festivals had to be about music: it’s not only the core of the brand as a music station, it’s also the main reason people visit the festivals. So we didn’t just want to hand out free gadgets. We wanted to do something that cut a little deeper. To prove that Studio Brussel understands music better than anyone else, we looked at how people usually interact with their idols. And it’s often the same: standing in line for hours to catch a glimpse of a rockstar and hope to get a selfie or an autograph. We turned that around. Instead of waiting for an autograph from your idol, Studio Brussel gave the fans a chance to give their autograph to their idol.