The last product we touch at night and first thing next morning is likely to be the Corning® Gorilla® Glass on our smartphone – a product designed into more than 6billion devices worldwide, by over 45 brands. And yet Gorilla® Glass is invisible. One of the world’s few ingredient brands. Promoting a brand so many people hold in their hands everyday but don’t know it, is a significant challenge. Making it relevant and visible to a young, connected generation is even harder!

So, Gorilla Glass researched the content consumption habits of millennials across three important markets – the US market; China, the largest smartphone market, and the fastest growing major market, India. Music emerged as a universal content type consumed by 69% of the target audience. 61% use smartphone as the #1 device to listen to music. To reach millennials, the world’s largest group of smartphone owners, music was key.

With music the most influential form of marketing content for millennials, and the glass on their smartphones enabling their digital lives, Gorilla® Glass put the brand together with world leading rock band Imagine Dragons, to deliver a campaign across three key markets over several weeks, culminating in a one-of-a-kind fan experience concert in Las Vegas: The Origins Experience.

This fan experience was at the campaign core. The challenge: to make it relevant to consumers in the critical markets of India and China, where local music dominates over western rock. So, we re-created Imagine Dragons’ song ‘Believer’ through tribute tracks with local artists that resonated with local culture.

For a glass manufacturing b2b company to create brand visibility through a rock music partnership was unique but compelling. And we got to have a lot of fun! From a global online treasure hunt to a 10ft gorilla in Vegas!

The core consumer/audience for both Corning Gorilla Glass and Imagine Dragons, is millennials. Studies show that most value experiences over products, hence the campaign platform of a one-its-kind concert by the band to be held in Las Vegas, US, in collaboration with Corning Gorilla Glass, exclusively catering to their biggest fans across the globe.

While the exclusive concert was the keystone of the campaign, the challenge was to make the collaboration between the brand and the band relevant to consumers in markets like India and China where local music (for instance Bollywood) dominate over western rock. So, we recreated the Imagine Dragons’ song ‘Believer’ in a unique local style for China and India! A strategy so successful that we saw nearly 30 million video views, almost half a million social engagements and even spawned entirely organic reaction videos as far afield as the Caribbean, Russia and Europe!

To engage and excite millennials across US, India and China, key tactics included:

• Creating experiences – Live concert and viewing parties

• Gamification – Global online Scavenger Hunt

• Co-promotion with OEMs – Xiaomi in India, Fitbit in the US, and OPPO in China

• Leveraging KOLs – High-profile media partners and KOLs, across regions

Local music video versions of Imagine Dragons track ‘Believer’ by key music influencers:

• Indian Jam Project (IJP) using Indian instruments, shared across IJP’s 250K+ social media subscriber base. Amplification by influencers made it a viral sensation with nearly 8 million views and the highest engagement numbers that Corning has ever seen.

• Chinese celebrity fan, Tifa Chen, created her rendition of ‘Believer’ featuring Mandarin rap and delivered millennial insights on the music-smartphone relationship, emphasizing the brand attributes of Gorilla Glass as a protective cover for smartphones

Campaign results:

1. Total reach: 1.7 billion across multiple markets

2. Engagements: 15.4 million

3. Video views: 29.8 million

4. Social mentions: 448,000

5. Visibility across key media: Rolling Stone, NDTV, The Times of India, HIT FM, QQ Music

6. Growth in YouTube subscribers: Up by 82% from 11K to 20K in 3 months

The campaign helped establish Corning Gorilla Glass as a pro-music, pro-art, innovation brand, positioning it as an attractive ‘ingredient’ brand for millennials who dominate smartphone consumption. Many online visitors came for the great music that Corning created but more consumers than ever ended up staying and subscribing to Corning Gorilla Glass channels – subscription to Gorilla Glass channels jumped by 80%+.

The campaign, across India, US and China, delivered on establishing strong brand recall for Corning Gorilla Glass among the millennials seamlessly through media outreach, influencer and social media reach and content amplification.