The Brief

In 2012, V Energy had just come off the most successful three-year period in its 15-year history. The brand had over 50% market share and was even outselling Coca-Cola in petrol stations. But our 18-24yr youth market were moving on, evolving and getting used to how we were communicating. They were being attracted by the promise of newer and more edgy brands. We had to stay ahead of them if we were to maintain our position and find new ways to engage with them for long periods of time. So V charged us with dual consumer engagement and sales objectives.

Creative Execution

V Energy has always stood for giving people the energy to do extraordinary things. But the strategy for delivering on this had to evolve with our young target market. For these guys, social networking, gaming and technology are as normalised as television – they’re a huge part of their life – while music defines popular culture. Putting this strategic thinking together resulted in the V Motion Project; one of the most innovative technology projects in 2012, producing a fully integrated media experience, with deeply engaging content, and a commercial music track that reached no.1 on the music charts.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

V assembled a team of technology developers, audio engineers, visual artists, and a music producer, and gave them a challenge – create a piece of music using only the body’s movement. The result was The V Motion Project. The team hacked Microsoft’s Kinect motion tracking software with audio software Abelton, to create an instrument that transforms the body’s movement into sounds. The project, was documented in a series of webisodes on the ‘V’ YouTube channel, website Facebook & twitter pages. All communications drove consumers to these platforms, allowing them to join the conversation, share the content and come on the journey.

Results

The V Motion Project delivered significant lifts in consumer engagement and sales. • Website visits increased by 1000% • All content was viewed more than 1.8 million times • Facebook Likes grew 12% • The music track (Can’t Help Myself) reached #1 in the New Zealand Singles Charts, and #1 on the iTunes Electronic Music charts. • 400% PR return on investment • While sales increased in measured channels by 13%. The project has also received huge international attention from creative giants including TED, the Discovery Channel, Microsoft, Warner Bros Music, Disney and Google. The Huffington Post described the project as “the future of dance music”.