Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

Vans’ Musicians Wanted 2019 is a local-to-regional competition promoting Vans as a self-expressive brand and providing music stages for up-and-coming musicians to gain publicity and express their creativity. To create brand and campaign awareness, Vans lined up KOLs and music distributors in all phases of the campaign to heighten the excitement of the recruitment of musicians and stage performances held across regions.

Background

Vans faced strong competition in the market as a brand labeling itself as a self-expressive one. Vans wasn't receiving the recognition it deserved in its contribution to music (a media of self-expression). The situation for grassroots musicians/bands was less than ideal too. They had a difficult time having their music heard when there were so many other artists out there. A lack of resources and publicity was a common problem for them. To increase brand awareness and support local musicians, Vans initiated the Musicians Wanted 2019 campaign with these key objectives: 1. Enable individual creative expression Build a progressive music platform to encourage music creativity by bringing local musicians regional & global exposure. 2. Give back to music Support musicians & the music community as a cultural brand offering participation in new cultural movements. 3. Amplify Sustain brand icon and authenticity in the music pillar to increase meaningful brand awareness.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Musicians Wanted 2019 was a window of opportunity for Vans to nurture the existing fan base and recruiting new fans with one-of-a-kind brand experiences. For musicians, it was also a ticket to gain access to a broader audience through rounds of online voting and on-stage performances. But the idea of Musicians Wanted was not only to offer high potential musicians instant fame but also to offer them an actual boost to their music career. Vans lined up with celebrated musicians, music distributors, and the press to get them in the spotlight, and to support them, Vans arranged events where they could exchange ideas with musicians from other regions and perform with internationally acclaimed musicians. The winning musician was also sponsored by Vans to create a music video shot and edited by a professional crew. All these would have been much harder to achieve for independent musicians.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Providing music stages for up-and-coming musicians (primary TA) to gain publicity and express their creativity and offering a platform for the music-loving public (secondary TA) to upvote and support the next big star, Musicians Wanted 2019 let Vans transport the audience to Vans’ creative expression eco-system by bringing together musicians and fans to create, connect, and share (Vans' CCS model) across channels. Turning "You" to "Us" Strategy Through the systematic CCS journey, Vans encouraged outsiders (regular people who just love music) to join Vans' music community. Along the way of engagement, this group could convert to Vans' Halo Group (passionate consumers who frequently engage and share brand content) and Express Creators (musicians & performers sponsored by Vans). In Musicians Wanted 2019, Vans was also taking advantage of user-generated content (UGC) to promote the brand and campaign across channels to spread the brand's message and get more people on board.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

Throughout the period of 11 June to 11 August, Vans initiated the recruitment of musicians, online voting, and local on-stage competition in the region of Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. From 27 Aug to 5 Sept, Vans ran the APAC competition to have market winners from different regions battling for the APAC winner title. From 21 Sept onwards, Vans arranged Boiler Room TV live-streaming event and professional music video production for APAC winners. During the whole campaign period, Vans also executed the following: (1) Social & paid media blast across markets targeting music lovers (2) Influencer line-up (3) Partnership with music distributors, press, and labels (e.g. NetEase Music, HipHople, Universal Music, Spinnup, Bandwagon, The Wknd, RTBMY, Hypebeast) (4) Generate a music playlist for finalists and market winners on the campaign website and partner media touchpoints

List the results (30% of vote)

Big Wins • Successfully promote vans as a self-expressive brand • Generated strong music media & partner exposure • Created positive & encouraging experiences for partners, KOLs, judges & musicians Key Metrics • 3.7k+ music track submissions (+241% compared to previous campaigns) • 424k+ public votes (+245% compared to previous campaigns) • 770M+ impressions (586x higher than past campaigns) • 1.9M+ page views for the campaign site • 31M+ video views (328x higher than past campaigns) • 103K+ live video views • 2.7M+ reach • 1M+ engagement in paid media • 1.3M+ impressions from BOILER ROOM live streaming broadcast 100% of event guests agreed they will participate in future Vans events.