The Campaign

Realizing the coincidence that Skoda’s ‘Simply Clever’ tagline sounded similar to the Taiwanese word for ‘Just Dance’, we enlisted ‘Handsome Dancer’ whose contagious shoulder-shaking dance video had made them a YouTube hit. Surprising and localizing the contagious dance were the keys to this campaign. We figured that the best way to astound Taiwanese people is to capture the unexpected moment of those Taiwan Youtubers to surprisingly meet the New York Youtuber (Handsome Dancer). We further surprised our audience with the invitation to dance together with them in the flash-mob event during the coming weekend. We shot our own music video version, to new lyrics, featuring SKODA’s driving through Taiwan’s most recognizable and iconic spots. Also, with the superpower like “CoinciDance”, how can it make the world a better place? To spread joy and erase the road rage is the answer in the tutorial video.

Creative Execution

[Implementation] This campaign includes 4 videos and 1 event. However, Handsome Dancer was only available for one week duration in Taiwan, which required thorough time planning, and efficient production. [Timeline] Within a month we had launched a 4 wave campaign of communication to maximize the outcome. 1st waves: Surprise video (Nov 30th) 2nd waves: Flash-mob event (Dec 2nd) & video (Dec 8th) 3rd wave: ŠKODA “CoinciDance” Music Video (Dec 14th) 4th wave: Tutorial Video (Dec 21st) & Behind the scene video (Jan 4th) [Placement] Media placement was mainly focused on social media, Facebook, the biggest social platform in Taiwan, Youtube along with Yahoo, the biggest portal site, in order to maximize the largest social reach. [Scale] In terms of production: the music video has top-notch quality. The flash-mob event was the biggest in recent years here in Taiwan.

This campaign had made a phenomenal impact. 4 videos in total have been viewed over 14.3 million times, which is equal to 60% of Taiwan’s population. More than 39,000 overwhelmingly positive comments within Taiwan. People have imitated and danced from weddings to TV show and even the Taipei city mayor did the shoulder-shaking dance. The video even became so popular in Czech Republic, the home country of ŠKODA. Turning ŠKODA from practical and rational into a surprisingly emotional brand. It rocked the sales of Rapid Spaceback (Kiki’s ride), leading to a four-fold leap in sales. The video won the Bronze Media Award in Cannes Lion- Use of Branded Content created for Digital or Social in 2018, the Youtube APAC Leaderboard award in 2017, the Silver Award in the Festival of Media – Global Awards for“Best Influencer Campaign” and the Best Of Best in the Red Dot Award - Integrated Campaign.

Realizing the coincidence that Skoda’s ‘Simply Clever’ tagline sounded similar to the Taiwanese word for ‘Just Dance’, we enlisted ‘Handsome Dancer’ from NY whose contagious shoulder-shaking dance - “CoinciDance” music video had made them a YouTube hit. We managed to produce 4 videos + 1 event with 2 Influencers "Handsome Dancer". After the success of Surprise Video, Flash-mob event and video in the warm-up phases, SKODA launched its own version Music video. The MV’s unique components: a duo from New York, dancing at iconic Taiwanese spots, promoting a car brand from Europe, added fuel, energy and dynamism to the movement.

The strategy can be divided into four waves of communication and each wave serves specific purposes. 1st wave (warm-up phase): Surprise video To surprise the audience with the unexpected moment that Handsome Dancer appeared right next to them joining in with the dance. Also to invite people to attend the flash-mob event. 2nd wave (warm-up phase): Flash-mob event & video To create marketing buzz and PR exposures. 3rd wave (launch phase): ŠKODA “CoinciDance” Music Video To communicate “Loving ŠKODA, no language is needed, Simply Clever, just dance.” 4th wave (sustain phase): Tutorial Video & Behind the scene video A variety of measures to sustain the momentum, including the tutorial video to demonstrate how to dance accurately and showed the “Shoulder-shaking dance” to ease the road rage. Also the music video is available in franchised Karaoke establishments, the most popular entertainment, in Taiwan.