Idea
Bring to life a brand belief in supporting "original nightlife" through a series of unique musical collaborations that would create interest amongst a worldwide audience.
Experience
We worked with our sister agency CC-Lab to create a series of original collaborations. Starting in Moscow we paired Faithless with Russia's Musica Viva orchestra, with Sister Bliss scoring orchestral elements to the band's biggest songs, which were then performed live by the band with the orchestra on stage (pictured above is conductor Matthew Scott preparing to go on stage).
On to Shanghai were the Shanxi Drummers joined English band Hard-Fi on stage for a memorable version of their hit single Hard to Beat. We needed something special to come after that on the bill, and Sasha stepped in to play a one-off Rock Remix set, skillfully weaving lots of guitars into the trademark Sasha musical mix.
Paris saw Mark Ronson pair up with Duran Duran, reworking their classic tracks into a 90 minute set that Duran Duran performed on stage together with Mark and his Version Players. It was a memorable performance for all those there, and started a relationship which has led to Mark producing the forthcoming Duran Duran album.
We ended up in New York and in the birthplace of hip-hop we created a showcase of the past, present and future starring everyone from Grandmaster Flash, through Nas, N*E*R*D, and the future represented by Spank Rock and Dizzee Rascal. The night was a roadblock and a who's who of New York hip-hop turned out to witness it.
Content
Each of the events was filmed and the content created brought the experience to a wide audience through broadcast, digital and social network channels. TV coverage reached UK, Japan, Poland, Ireland, Thailand and Latin America, while podcasts and track downloads were available globally.
In advance of each event a series of competitions leveraged the events to a wide consumer audience, and there was an extensive PR plan which generated worldwide coverage on a huge scale. We were responsible for all media management around the talent and events, organising hospitality and bespoke media experiences for hundreds of journalists, TV crews and photographers from around the world.
Results
Over 350 journalists hosted at events. Over 400m impressions for PR and broadcast content. Coverage across global publications including FHM, Maxim, GQ and Time Out, and news outlets including CNN International, Reuters, APTV, The Times and The Sun. Over 2m YouTube video views.
In terms of delivering credibility to Smirnoff, some of the most valuable content to come out of Smirnoff Experience were the endorsements of the artists involved.
"This is the second Smirnoff event I've done – they put on a great event... I like how they're careful with these events to make sure it's like 80% real people who want to be there."
– Mark Ronson
"It's a smart angle to put this together. Smirnoff have done the right thing and put something together to inspire. I got involved because it was real. The collaboration makes it even better."
– Pharrell Williams
"I am actually truly grateful to Smirnoff for this event because it wouldn't have happened without them pulling it together and they've been terrific."
– Nick Rhodes, Duran Duran