Title	THE SMASH-PROOF GUITAR
Brand	SANDVIK GROUP
Product/Service	METAL 3D-PRINTING AND MANUFACTURING
Category	B06. Use of Technology
Entrant	FORSMAN & BODENFORS Gothenburg, SWEDEN
Idea Creation	FORSMAN & BODENFORS Gothenburg, SWEDEN
Media Placement	VERIZON, DENMARK
PR	VERIZON, DENMARK
PR 2	STONE JUNCTION Stafford, UNITED KINGDOM
Production	BLECK Stockholm, SWEDEN

Name	Company	Position
Björn Engström	Forsman & Bodenfors	Creative
Kim Cramer	Forsman & Bodenfors	Creative
Stefan Thomson	Forsman & Bodenfors	Creative
Anton Eriksson	Forsman & Bodenfors	Creative
Viktor Eriksson	Forsman & Bodenfors	Creative
Greger Andersson	Forsman & Bodenfors	Account Supervisor
Åsa Pedersen	Forsman & Bodenfors	Account Manager
Daniel Sjöstrand	Forsman & Bodenfors	Planner
Bjarne Darwall	Forsman & Bodenfors	PR Strategist
Anna Junker Lundin	Forsman & Bodenfors	Agency Producer Film
Ingrid Arnsand Jonsson	Forsman & Bodenfors	Designer
Jerry Wass	Forsman & Bodenfors	Designer
Peter Gaudiano	Forsman & Bodenfors	Web Strategist
Malin Careborg	Forsman & Bodenfors	Web Strategist
Helena de Brun	Forsman & Bodenfors	Technical Producer
Andy Holt	Drewman Guitars	Guitar Designer
Marcus Svanberg	Bleck	Director
Robert Feniger	Bleck	Producer
Josefin Kollberg	Bleck	Executive Producer
Carl Nilsson	Bleck	D.O.P
Jo Eken Torp	Bleck	D.O.P
Andres E Sanchez	Bleck	D.O.P
Johan Kjellberg	Bleck	Editor
Oscar Fogelström	Oscar Fogelström	Music Composer
Patrik Olsson	Patrik Olsson	Photographer

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

The world’s first smash-proof guitar was created exclusively to engage our specific target group: engineers/tech people. We tapped into popular culture with the aim to do something concrete and entertaining enough to gain earned shares in social media, but at the same time technically challenging enough to attract and build relations with our target group. The Smash-Proof Guitar project sparked intense social conversations among engineers/tech people and changed their perception of the Sandvik brand significantly. For example, the interest in working at Sandvik increased with 107%.

Background

Sandvik is a world-leading industrial engineering company with 42,000 employees in 150 countries. However, the awareness and knowledge about Sandvik's advanced techniques were very low outside existing customer relations. This is a problem when attracting talent. Especially since the rapid digitalization requires that Sandvik recruits entirely new competencies in competition with companies such as Google, Apple and, Spotify. The brief was to create awareness on a global level and position Sandvik as a progressive engineering company within a broader target group described as “tech people”. The aim was to start engaging conversation around Sandvik’s technical abilities and foster peer-to-peer marketing from within selected verticals. Other objectives were to strengthen the link to the Sandviks desired brand attributes "Innovative", "Progressive" and "High-tech” and to increase interest in Sandvik as an attractive employer. The Smash-Proof Guitar is a collectors edition limited to one, created exclusively for this communication project.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

Why create a smash-proof guitar? It all started when we tried to find out how to combine high-tech and music, two of the things that our audience is most interested in. So, we hijacked a rock'n'roll cultural phenomena—smashing guitars—to showcase Sandvik’s advanced material knowledge and 3D printing competence. The engineers at Sandvik had never built a guitar before but took on the challenge with enthusiasm. To make it unbreakable, they used their high tech innovations in entirely new ways. To make it sound and look great, we collaborated with renowned guitar designer Andy Holt. The whole process was thoroughly documented, the foundation for our in-depth film. Then we went into pop culture and engaged rock icon Yngwie Malmsteen, guitar virtuoso and famed guitar smasher. On stage in Miami, he gave everything he had to destroy the guitar. Nothing happened. Proof of concept.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Conducting in-depth interviews with Sandvik's researchers and engineers, we discovered numerous examples of cutting-edge technologies within metal 3D printing, materials knowledge, and digital manufacturing processes. But we realized that we had to find a concrete and easy-to-understand application of these highly specialized technologies that normally only engage those who are directly concerned. To go beyond the industrial context in which Sandvik traditionally communicated, we identified a broader global target group interested in technology, science, and digital development. We found that these “tech people” are devoted followers to sites, magazines, blogs, and social media groups that highlight innovations. Surveys also showed that the target group over-indexes within popular culture in general. For example, 93% are very interested in music—a very high figure. To reach out globally with a limited media budget, the idea needed to take off in popular culture to create earned PR and social media sharing.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Launched April 9th, 2019 spanning over four weeks, the campaign included both a hero film and a seven-minute-long in-depth film that describes Sandvik's technologies in detail. Multiple social posts directed the traffic to an in-depth landing-page. The campaign was driven by online PR in verticals such as Technology & Science, Engineering, 3D printing, Entertainment & Music—all relevant for our target group. Collaborations with guitar influencers such as Rob Chapman and Rabea Massad engaged our target group on YouTube. And KOL’s in the tech world sparked an intense online conversation around the all-metal 3D printed guitar. The guitar project was amplified by I F***ing Love Science and relevant online magazines like Wired, TechRadar and Interesting Engineering, reporting extremely high engagement on their social media platforms. At the end of the campaign, the guitar was auctioned for charity at international musical instrument site Reverb supporting Engineers Without Borders, which created additional PR.

List the results (30% of vote)

• 41 million views (720% above target) • 132 million exposures (277% above target) • 542 earned media stories in 43 countries (163% above target) • 405,010 clicks on social post links (2,952% above target) • 280,000 landing page visits (211% above target) • Rated 4.1 on a 5-point scale (exceeding 4.0 is considered exceptional) • 29% of the target group became interested in working at Sandvik (107% increase) Perception of Sandvik's three most important brand attributes increased dramatically within the target group: • "Innovative" increased from 43% to 52%. • “Progressive” increased from 38% to 46%. • “High tech” increased from 46% to 56%. Bonus effects: • 29,241 people visited Reverb's auction page with "Smash-proof guitar" (a normal visitor figure at a guitar auction is 100-200 visitors). • $ 25,000 donated to Engineers Without Borders through the auction of the guitar.