The global property, Corona SunSets Festival, has always been met with success. Bringing life to some of the balmiest beaches in the world, these tropical paradises have been the ideal places to connect consumers with Corona and the world’s greatest outdoor show: the sunset. The thing is, in Canada, with varying weather, vast landscapes, and various time zones, there isn’t just one sunset to celebrate. There are many.

The objective? Make Corona SunSets Festival a Canadian experience and bring the whole country together to share one sunset with Corona.

How do you connect an entire country to Corona through one fleeting moment? We used what some would see as a challenge–a sun setting at different times across the country–as a way to deliver the most memorable sunset Canadians have ever experienced. A sunset chased from coast-to-coast and an 8-hour celebration that the whole country could witness – together.

Using the various time zones to our advantage, five provinces hosted festivals beginning in the east coast and ended in the west coast with the sunset. Guests were invited to witness this 8-hour sunset and each festival headliner together through a connected livestream in Corona’s first ever cross-country SunSets Festival: Connecting Sunsets.

This transformed a festival into a larger cultural moment, one made for connecting both the country and consumers to the Corona sunset through a never-before-seen and wholly Canadian experience.

As the second largest country in the world and spanning multiple time zones, Canada’s landscape is vast. We have more than just one sunset to celebrate, and we needed to inclusively reach Canadians nationally in an impactful way.

So, we used what would seem like a challenge when connecting a country–differing time zones–to create the most memorable sunset in Canadian history. This way, we went beyond simply rewarding consumers with a fun brand experience around each city’s own sunset. Further, we created a full 360-campaign out of the festival experience, integrating a trade program surrounding the festivals with special promotions during the activation, and even integrated e-commerce during the livestream for Corona delivery right to the door.

We involved them in a cultural moment, one which used a Corona symbol to connect an entire country to one another – and the brand.

Five provinces hosted five festivals on one day, centered around one moment. The first sunset was celebrated on the east coast and was livestreamed to each festival to enjoy. Then, as the sun set over the eastern provinces, we continued the party by livestreaming the western sunsets to the other festivals, resulting in an 8-hour sunset celebration across the nation.

To amplify and scale the experience, we livestreamed this country-wide event through multiple channels including livestream partner BE-AT.TV, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This livestream also connected the whole country through a curated national stream that was shared with those at home so this 8-hour sunset could be experienced together.

Working with three prominent Canadian directors in the music industry and three of our headliners, the preceding content piece from the festivals resulted in the first connected music videos: three stories of connection with one sunset and Corona linking them together.

After the fact, we did more than simply achieve the goals we had set for this Corona SunSets Festival: we surpassed them.

Beyond meeting our attendance goals, all five festivals sold out entirely. Though we planned for at least 300,000 views, the festival live stream received over 1.2 million views. On top of this, our sunset-connected music video earned over 2.3 million unique views with a completion rate of 47% compared to the 14% benchmark.

Finally, the ultimate level of success for any brand activation was seen in the sales numbers: preceding the experience, sales were up +9% vs. 2017 and market share increased by 16%, making it the highest ever for the brand.

With a 20% increase in Purchase Intent immediately following the program, our brand health metrics soared with Corona becoming Canada’s #1 loved brand.