Telekom Romania uses music events to connect to millennials by creating meaningful experiences for them. But in 2018, one of the biggest music festivals in Europe was sponsored by their key competitor, Orange. Orange and Vodafone are the autoritarian leaders of the mobile market, while Telekom is the challenger brand.

The brief was to hijack the festival conversation and associate Telekom with the festival, even though this time Telekom was not a sponsor and had no presence inside the actual event.

We used the biggest issue around the festival in our advantage: with only 15.000 hotel beds available, the city of Cluj receives over 100,000 guests during the festival. Therefore, for young music fans, finding accommodation is the biggest pain. And it aggravates as the start of the festival approaches.

Introducing Hotelekom. The first official store completely transformed into a hotel.

We knew from previous years that accommodation in the city of Cluj would be almost impossible to find for many festival goers. With over 100k participants coming from all over Romania and Europe, and with only 15,000 available rooms (source Romanian Tourism Ministry), a lot of the attendees are left without a decent place to sleep or have to pay astronomical prices for mediocre conditions. We had to address two targets:

One, the actual last-minute festival goers who needed a place to stay.

Second, all the young people interested about the festival and involved in the conversation around it, that had to associate it with Telekom, not with the sponsor (Telekom’s key competitor)

By solving their biggest issue, we made sure on one hand people will actually benefit from it, in a way that is brand owned, and on the other hand, we made sure it’s an idea worth spreading.

Together with a team of architects and designers, we transformed the Telekom flagship building into accomodation for festival goers, together with additional spaces that were also custom-designed to provide both places to sleep, but also a memorable experience dedicated to the youngsters.

For the entire duration of the festival, the storefront of the Telekom building was changed with the custom-made “Hotelekom” sign, which also worked as a billboard, exposing the torrents of passers-by to our idea.

+100,000 people accessed the Hotelekom booking service – matching the festival attendance.

Telekom provided one of the best festival experiences – without even being able to activate the brand inside the festival

Telekom also became the second brand to be associated with the festival – above the huge international brands sponsoring the festival like Coca-Cola, Red Bull or Samsung.

And, last but not least, Telekom’s brand association with the festival was 3 times higher than its competitor, Orange.

*according to data gathered from the IVOX Research Company