THE SMASH-PROOF GUITAR

TitleTHE SMASH-PROOF GUITAR
BrandSANDVIK GROUP
Product/ServiceMETAL 3D-PRINTING AND MANUFACTURING
Category B03. Talent: Digital & Social
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
Credits
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
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 Entertainment?

By building the world’s first Smash-Proof Guitar, we managed to create entertaining content that not only appealed to our target group—tech people—but was engaging for a much broader audience. We tapped into popular culture and engaged famed guitar virtuoso and notorious guitar smasher Yngwie Malmsteen to test the guitar’s capabilities live on stage in Miami. Combining an old school heavy metal rock star with technological innovations such as metal 3D printing was the perfect recipe for an unskippable and engaging film that cut through and was widely spread online, but remained highly relevant for our core target group.

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

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

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

Launched April 9th, 2019 spanning over four weeks, the campaign included both 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.

Describe the outcome

• 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.