Sony Ericsson had been admired for years in Australia for its innovation, music functionality and coolness but its position was about to be challenged when word hit that the iPhone was coming to town. A masterpiece strategy was needed to ensure the mobile phone company maintained its position at the top of the charts. The company had two choices; go head-to-head with the world’s most hyped up phone or seize the hearts of the target youth audience. With insights and demographic trends showing high levels of awareness of environmental issues, Sony Ericsson aimed to build affiliation with Gen Y by tapping into their passion for brands that allow them to be a part of larger world issues.As a result, Sony Ericsson launched Time2Rock, a campaign asking the youth of Australia to give two hours of their time to volunteer activities, for which they would be rewarded with free access to some of the most exciting and exclusive music events of the year.

The campaign achieved quantitative success such as generating the highest share of voice with the most favourable brand mentions (beating Apple), a 150% increase from the highest quarter ever; as well as increasing word of mouth talkability for the brand by 46%.

The aim was to reinforce and build new brand relationships at a critical time. The brand needed to appeal to the ultra-cool youth while maintaining relevance to the broader mass market. Time2rock’s success would be measured in man hours, web activity, word of mouth, media coverage, tonality and consumer feedback. The end result had to be worth the investment. And the concert with headline artists had to be an amazing experience that the kids would be talking about for months to come.

As lead agency we were responsible for developing the strategy and management as well as delivery of all the collateral, content, and event production. This included development of the Time2Rock brand, assets and guidelines; management of experiential teams at clean up events and university campuses; negotiations with artists; and planning the Time2Rock concert tour which spanned three events for thousands of fans.

Integral to the campaign was leveraging digital space through knowledge of viral media, by allowing users to spread the word across social network sites such as blogs, Facebook and MySpace pages. Experiential activity and street teams on university campuses encouraged groups of friends to participate and post newsfeeds about participation, building grass roots hype. To further fuel the agenda, we developed a content marketing strategy to provide fresh materials on the active, community based web site.Other communications tactics included managing strategic media partners and placing multimedia press materials, distributed through Interactive Media Releases. For community support, we placed ongoing media articles profiling local volunteers and Clean Up events in regional press.

The Apple iPhone launched during the Time2Rock campaign but in terms of brand mentions in the press, the Sony Ericsson name generated the highest share of voice, gaining a larger percentage than Apple. In fact, Sony Ericsson actually saw a 150% increase in coverage; their highest quarter ever.

Time2Rock also generated a community of 2,000+ consumers participating in volunteer efforts and attending the concerts, and 55,000 users on the website, spending an average of more than 5 minutes. Also, 56% of participants were driven to participate via “Word of Mouth” where 30 million+ impressions were generated and over 100 editorial placements that were 100% positive in tone appeared. Also, the MD of Sony Ericsson Australia participated in 15 interviews.Some other consumer results:- Parents of kids wrote letters to editors to applaud Sony Ericsson and Time2Rock - Facebook feeds sung praises of Time2Rock after each clean-up event and concert.- Two other environmental charity partners, one social networking site and a variety of media partners are ready to join upcoming campaigns.

The overall communications strategy was threefold:1.Spark dialogue and debates on social consciousness of youth today throughout Australia.2.Design a multi-month, multi-platform campaign to sustain ongoing conversations.3.Reward customers for their involvement with a campaign’s crescendo of the best consumer experience possible.

Positioned as the leader in innovation, Sony Ericsson enjoyed the loyalty of early adopters. However in 2008 the landscape was far more competitive than before and consumers now had many choices. Then came the iPhone, the “coolest” phone on the planet, which directly challenged Sony Ericsson’s leadership position.Concerned that functional product focused advertising would be lost in the Apple racket, Sony Ericsson moved to engage with young passionate music lovers on an emotional level. Knowing their love of the planet was as great as their love of music Sony Ericsson motivated thousands of Australians– the current and next generation consumers– to give two hours of their time back to their communities. Their reward was free access to exclusive music events. Time2Rock was a revolution in brand engagement strategy.