Title | GORILLA. DRAGONS. BELIEVERS. |
Brand | CORNING GORILLA GLASS |
Product / Service | CORNING GORILLA GLASS |
Category | B08. Sponsorship & Brand Partnership |
Entrant | FLEISHMANHILLARD INDIA Mumbai, INDIA |
Idea Creation | FLEISHMANHILLARD INDIA Mumbai, INDIA |
Idea Creation 2 | FLEISHMANHILLARD Beijing, CHINA |
Idea Creation 3 | DOREMUS San Francisco, USA |
PR | FLEISHMANHILLARD INDIA Mumbai, INDIA |
PR 2 | FLEISHMANHILLARD Beijing, CHINA |
PR 3 | DOREMUS San Francisco, USA |
PR 4 | BRODEUR PARTNERS Boston, USA |
Production | GMR MARKETING Milwaukee, USA |
Additional Company | BIG TABLE CREATIVE Portland, USA |
Name | Company | Position |
---|---|---|
Yusuf Hatia | FleishmanHillard India | Sr. VP & Sr. Partner, Managing Director |
Abhishek Vora | FleishmanHillard India | Account Director |
Kaveri Roy | FleishmanHillard India | Senior Account Manager, Digital |
Devleena Dutt | FleishmanHillard India | Senior Account Manager |
Darshini Makadia | FleishmanHillard India | Senior Account Executive |
Esha Jolly | FleishmanHillard India | Account Executive |
Himani Sharma | FleishmanHillard India | Assistant Account Executive |
Rachel Catanach | FleishmanHillard Greater China | President and Senior Partner |
Helena He | FleishmanHillard Greater China | Sr. VP, General Manager, Digital & Social |
Graham Fordyce | FleishmanHillard Greater China | Executive Creative Director |
Suki Zhao | FleishmanHillard Greater China | SVP |
Danny Kang | Doremus China | Account Director |
Henny Wang | FleishmanHillard Greater China | Account Manager |
Eugene Wu | FleishmanHillard Greater China | Assistant Account Executive |
Joanna Berke | Doremus | Group Account Director |
Amanda Wybolt | Doremus | Director, Experience Strategy |
Emma Jaugan | Doremus | Account Supervisor |
Artem Peplov | Doremus | Analytics & Ad Operations Director |
Artem Peplov | Doremus | Analytics & Ad Operations Director |
Michael Essex | Doremus | Marketing Analyst |
Michael Brewer | Brodeur Partners | Partner |
Steve Marchant | Brodeur Partners | Partner |
Heather Shea | Brodeur Partners | Senior Vice President |
Casey Gartland | GMR | Vice President |
Emily Morrison | GMR | Account Director |
Kerry Draeger | GMR | Supervisor |
Shannon Scott | GMR | Account Executive |
John Packer | Big Table Creative | Principal |
Mat Mathey | Big Table Creative | Designer & Partner |
For a B2B glass manufacturer Corning Gorilla Glass to partner with a world leading celebrity rock group, is in itself an original idea. This campaign took that idea further by engaging with musical talent and influencers in two of Corning’s key markets China and India, to make the content and reach culturally relevant for millennial users of smartphones in these two countries. The enormous organic global sharing of the Imagine Dragons hugely popular ‘Believer’ tribute tracks and music videos demonstrates the powerful earned audience impact of this truly multicultural, multi-channel campaign.
The last product we touch at night and first thing next morning is likely to be the Corning Gorilla Glass on our smartphone – a product integral to more than six billion devices worldwide, by over 45 brands. And yet Gorilla® Glass is, literally, invisible. Promoting a brand so many people hold in their hands everyday but don’t know it, is a significant challenge. Making it relevant and visible to a young, connected generation is even harder! So, Gorilla Glass researched the content consumption habits of millennials across China, the largest smartphone market, and the fastest growing major market, India and the US. Music emerged as a universal content type consumed by 69% of the target audience. 61% use smartphones as their #1 device to listen to music. To reach millennials, the world’s largest group of smartphone owners, music was key.
With music the most influential form of marketing content for millennials, and the glass on their smartphones enabling their digital lives, Gorilla Glass combined with world leading rock band Imagine Dragons to deliver a campaign in China and India over several weeks. The campaign culminated in a unique fan experience concert in Las Vegas. The brand band partnership was a powerful way to elevate the visibility of the brand among their millennial target audience. The campaign needed to resonate more closely with local culture in the globally significant markets on China and India. Although both these markets embrace western music, fans respond more passionately to western music that is blended with local culture. Our breakthrough idea was to engage with local talent, major influencers in themselves, to create unique local versions of the global hit ‘Believer’. The appeal and wide sharing of the videos amplified the campaign beyond expectations.
The core consumer/audience for both Corning Gorilla Glass and Imagine Dragons, is millennials. Studies show that most value experiences over products, so we made the campaign platform a one-its-kind concert in Las Vegas in collaboration with Corning Gorilla Glass, exclusively catering to their biggest fans from across the globe. While the exclusive concert was the keystone of the campaign, the challenge was to make the collaboration between the brand and the band relevant to consumers in markets like India and China where local music (for instance Bollywood) is more popular than western rock. So, we recreated the Imagine Dragons’ song ‘Believer’ in a unique local style for China and India! The strategy was so successful that we saw nearly 30 million video views, almost half a million social engagements and even spawned entirely organic reaction videos as far afield as the Caribbean, Russia and Europe!
To engage and excite millennials across India and China, key tactics included local music video versions of Imagine Dragons track ‘Believer’ by key music influencers: • Indian Jam Project (IJP) using Indian instruments, shared across IJP’s 250K+ social media subscriber base. Amplification by influencers made it a viral sensation with nearly 8 million views and the highest engagement numbers that Corning has ever seen. • Chinese celebrity fan Tifa Chen created her rendition of ‘Believer’ featuring Mandarin rap and delivered millennial insights on the music-smartphone relationship, emphasizing the brand attributes of Gorilla Glass as a protective cover for smartphones We also: • Created experiences – Live concert and viewing parties • Co-promoted with OEMs – Xiaomi in India, Fitbit in the US, and OPPO in China • Leveraged KOLs – High-profile media partners and KOLs, across regions • Drove hyper-local on-the-ground connection – Activations at popular college festivals
Campaign results: 1. Total reach: 1.7 billion across multiple markets 2. Engagements: 15.4 million 3. Video views: 29.8 million 4. Social mentions: 448,000 5. Visibility across key media: Rolling Stone, NDTV, The Times of India, HIT FM, QQ Music 6. Growth in YouTube subscribers: Up by 82% from 11K to 20K in 3 months The campaign helped establish Corning Gorilla Glass as a pro-music, pro-art, innovation brand, positioning it as an attractive ‘ingredient’ brand for millennials who dominate smartphone consumption. Many online visitors came for the music that Gorilla Glass created, but more consumers than ever ended up staying and subscribing to Corning Gorilla Glass channels – subscription to Corning’s channels jumped by 80%+. The campaign, across India, China and the US delivered on establishing strong brand recall for Corning Gorilla Glass among millennials through media outreach, influencer and social media reach and content amplification.