Agencies: PMG, Anomaly, Havas media group, Laundry Service
Beats by Dre
ANTHONY JOSHUA WILL BE HEARD
Role: EMEA Creative Director @Beats by Dre | Apple
In order to take the UK market by storm, Beats needed to reinforce its products’ synonymity with British sporting achievements. The opportunity came calling when Beats ambassador, North London boy, and rising boxing star Anthony Joshua was to take to the ring and fight former champion Wladimir Klitschko.
So, we created a real-time engagement that took the world by storm. And brought us all closer to the fight than ever before.
The Drum Best Branded Content Campaign, The Drum Best High Impact Campaign, Media Week Gold, SMARTIES Silver Technology, SMARTIES Silver EMEA Mobile Video, Innovative Digital Marketing Solutions Silver, The Internationalist's Award.
24.4m views and 890k engagements across all Joshua assets.
‘Be Heard’ social content. The Apple Music Partnership resulted in 17k clicks and 100k true engagements ('likes', shares and comments). Beats brand mentions on Twitter soared on fight night with 1.5k mentions, more than any other sponsor or @skysportsboxing. The Facebook post of Joshua's Skype chat with Dr Dre went viral, gaining more than 2.5m views and extensive media coverage. The Sky partnership meant that Beats ‘owned’ the Fight week (Twitter Amplify pre-roll on all published Sky Sports Boxing content, all device display units - 100% SOV). Total dominance.'Back to Beats' gained 3.1m views and 4,000+ retweets. The film of Joshua's arrival at Wembley amassed 256k views, 4,000 true engagements in the first hour alone, while the footage of him psyching himself up gained 136k views.
Sales up 18% WOW during fight week
Executional Partners - Anomaly, Havas Media Group, Laundry Service, PMG
CASE STUDY
Beats EMEA created a 360 campaign that owned 80% of the conversation leading up to and on the night of the fight.
Beats of the Campaign LAUNCH
London’s Son film
Created by our Global Creative Lead - Perry Fair, our launch film was the kick-off to our campaign. Across all social channels, London’s Son drove 2.1 million views and 105K engagements in its first week. London’s Son tells the story of AJ’s journey, being brought up on the streets, and how that has influenced him to become the boxer he is today. It was his most significant moment. So Beats went back to where it all started, Watford, London. Visiting his first gym, Finchley ABC in Barnet, and his run routes in North London, where he runs every day. Using Michael Kiwanuka, the artist he listens to while he trains, but also a friend he grew up with. And capturing authentic AJ as no one else could. This film became the guide for rest of our London’s Son film narratives and edits.
AJ’s film hits social with a TWITTER UNLOCK CARD
To enhance the London Son film performance, we used the Twitter feature Unlock Card, asking users to support AJ using the #BEHEARD hashtag, giving them the opportunity to unlock exclusive content after the tweet is sent. So far, Twitter Unlock Card reached over 3.8M people, driving over 1.8M views in the first week.
AJ meets Dr. Dre - viral content
The best performing piece of content in Beats history - "Casually Chilling... OHHHH SH*T @drdre," wrote IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, who recently took to social media to post a video of a special message he got from rap icon Dr. Dre ahead of his upcoming clash with former unified champion Wladimir Klitschko. Check it out!
Beats of fight week
AJ’s RingWalk Playlist Release
Teaming up with Apple Music it’s the return of Anthony Joshua’s playlist. Driving 17K clicks and 100K true engagements we used the playlist to tell the story of AJ’s ring walk songs and what he has walked out to in the past. The playlist was shared by Anthony Joshua, Apple Music and Complex.
WEMBLEY PERIMETER BOARDS
Perimeter boards in Wembley Arena allowed London to Be Heard. Beats EMEA launched the ‘AJ Wembley Support’ activation, asking the community to share their support messages and the area they live in. The top 200 entries were selected to be displayed on perimeter boards at Wembley on Fight Night, including with messages from talents and AJ’s Team (Rio Ferdinand, Harry Kane, Mesut Özil…).
SKY PARTNERSHIP
A new type of partnership evolved. Beats by Dre and Sky Sports partnered to share content through their joint investment in AJ. This partnership mutually benefited both brands through promotion of both the Pay Per View fight on Sky Sports and AJ’s brand association with Beats to millions of fans. Sky Sports could leverage Beats’ association with AJ through exclusive footage rights beyond the fight and likewise, Beats’ could take advantage of Sky’s audience and platforms. Such an association would allow Beats to take the brand beyond the team bus and the locker room, into the stadium. It would also allow Beats to leverage Sky footage wherever we couldn’t get Beats cameras.
LOCKER ROOM LIVE
With the new partnership in play. Beats EMEA was able to create a locker room experience like no other. For the first time in history, fans were with their boxer every moment until the fight.
REAL TIME SOCIAL VIDEOS
Beats collected footage from Sky in real-time. This footage was edited, on thee spot, to provide live updates from Aj’s arrival until the moment he walked into the ring.
REAL TIME INSTAGRAM STORY
Our IG Story content featured live footage of AJ and London on fight night. It was fed out in 3 x 15 second stories, displaying the best moments of the fight and culminating with Anthony Joshua’s KO win over hiss opponent. Final graphics resolved with ‘Anthony Joshua will Be Heard’.
PERIMETER BOARDS
To celebrate AJ’s big win, ‘Champions will Be Heard’ took over the stadium perimeter board. London’s messages of support instantly transitioned into a branded stadium takeover with campaign messaging.
KNOCKOUT FILM
Beats Knockout edit ran immediately following the fight, outperforming all other media from the campaign.
VICTORY FILM
Beats shared a victory film in social, congratulating AJ’s victory.
BACK TO BEATS FILM
The Back to Beats edit, a cut showing AJ back in the gym, followed the Knockout film.
