Husqvarna, a premium brand in the lawn mower industry, faced the challenge of low brand awareness. To overcome this, we needed to activate people's emotions and imagination in a way that set Husqvarna apart from their competitors. In addition, we needed to demonstrate how advanced their robotic lawn mowers are, to justify the higher price tag.

Objectives:

- Raise awareness of Husqvarna’s robotics division.

- Connect the Husqvarna brand with a new online audience, mainly a tech audience.

- Generate coverage in tech and lifestyle media.

- Increase brand associations with engineering and advanced technology.

We looked for an existing story, where Husqvarna’s products could play a part. We found that story on Mars.

In 2012, NASA landed the Curiosity Rover on Mars. A year later they did something that captured the world's attention: NASA programmed Curiosity to sing Happy Birthday... to itself. The internet went nuts. And since Curiosity has limited power, engineers only let that happen once.

In 2022, after nine lonely birthdays, the Curiosity Rover would turn ten. This is where Husqvarna saw a great opportunity to tap into a real-time event and place their products into popular culture. By developing a software update we gave Husqvarna's robotic lawnmower something unique; empathy. Empathy to sing Happy Birthday to their lonely robot friend on Mars. The solution gave the robotic lawnmowers a voice and enabled users to participate in a truly global event - a choir of 100,000 robotic lawnmowers.

Target audience studies show that Husqvarna’s target audience 'Pro Grade Experts' relies heavily on people and communities they trust, like their neighbour or friend, for recommendations on new products.

Studies also show that the more human-like robots become, the more advanced they are perceived. So, our challenge was to get Husqvarna’s robots into a context and culture where people would see Husqvarna robotics in a new emotional light.

Hence, the strategy was to build a PR story that:

- Gives a sense of an improved product experience not just providing utility in the app but also something fun and emotional

- Gets owners to talk about their mowers with their friends, family and neighbours

- Acts as a demonstration of how advanced Husqvarna’s robotic lawn mowers are.

- Focus on the key message of a global choir of 100,000 lawnmowers singing Happy birthday to the Mars rover

Two weeks before Curiosity’s birthday, we initiated a PR outreach to outlets focused on tech and lifestyle, announcing the new software update. This was accompanied by a launch video, which was widely spread by both news outlets and in social media.

All Husqvarna robotic lawn mowers are set up and controlled via the same mobile app, Husqvarna Automower Connect, which is available on all mobile platforms. The software update was released as a new feature in the app, where owners had the ability to opt into the global lawn mower choir.

Owners of Husqvarna Automowers received a notification in their Automower Connect Apps, asking if they wanted their robotic lawn mowers to sing on Curiosity’s birthday on August 5th. This was the only thing the users had to do. If they chose to opt in, the Automower took care of the rest and sang at 12PM, 3PM and 6PM.

The campaign was a huge success, surpassing all expectations. It generated 210 million in earned reach across 26 markets, with the launch video alone being viewed over 8.2 million times on digital channels. This resulted in a significant increase in brand exposure of 1100% and the campaign even trended on Reddit. Additionally, website traffic to Husqvarna.com saw a 300% increase, with visitors spending 250% more time on the site. The campaign received an overwhelmingly positive response on social media, and the "Sing Happy Birthday" feature has since been made a permanent feature in Husqvarna's robotic lawn mowers and the Automower Connect App. Overall, it was a highly successful campaign with impressive results.