This is the story of a branded live-music experience for Money Heist (final season), one of the most-watched series on Netflix, that gained over 9 MIL organic views, two weeks trending on YouTube and 8 mentions on TV.

"The Last Bella Ciao" was a main stage takeover in front of 65.000 people at UNTOLD, ranked in top 10 best festivals in the world. A moment in which two musicians & fans of the series, American DJ Steve Aoki and Romanian singer Delia, “heisted” the show, performing the title’s soundtrack, hacking the festival and creating a surprise moment for the fans.

Money Heist was one of the most popular Netflix series in Romania, reaching Daily Top 10 section on Netflix for 42 days in 2020.

Besides the show’s iconic elements: the red overalls and the Dali masks, ‘Bella Ciao’ became a huge hit in Romania: from radio playlists, talent shows, and folk music covers, to football fans choreographies.

Our task was to use the song and generate buzz around the finale of the series on a larger scale, appealing for the Romanian public and not only. One last big shoot to mark its amplitude, a disruptive gesture to amplify word of mouth and unite all the fans together through the emotions they share.

We aimed to create the world’s most spectacular “Bella Ciao” gesture. And it wasn't easy to surprise the fans with it anymore, since there has been numerous global activations, adaptations, and remixes of the song. We needed to make it bigger and more intense.

And we needed a context for that: UNTOLD - a Romanian festival ranked in top 10 best festivals in the world that gathers every year over 372.000 music lovers from 130 countries.

And that was to happen right before the final episodes of Money Heist.

That’s how we came with the idea: “The last Bella Ciao”. “Heist” the most awaited moment of the schedule – Steve Aoki’s performance. A surprise gesture in which Romanian singer Delia and American DJ Steve Aoki, both fans of the show, announce the final season by performing live together “Bella Ciao”, disguised as theft with the series' iconic overalls and masks.

Our strategy was to use that key moment of the festival to create an intense emotional moment for the crowd. Use the happening to create an experience that is so strong for the people there, that brings word of mouth, earned media and spreads to as many fans around the world as possible.

It wasn't a moment, or an artist chosen by chance since Steve Aoki had his own famous remix of Bella Ciao. So, from the start we had 3 channels with 3 different audiences that we could easily reach: Delia, Steve Aoki and UNTOLD.

It was going to be special not only because it was live and totally unexpected, but also because it brings together two different artists, united by one thing in common: Money Heist. Forget about classic brand activation at festivals, the moment was going to be a happening itself.

The music experience had two elements: one epic live performance and one epic post event film.

The live music happening was the central element of the idea, but we wanted to take it one step further, in order to create a complete, intense and series-relevant experience.

The live experience happened at the most awaited moment in the festival’s schedule, at 4 am, in the middle of Steve Aoki’s performance. Everything had to look like a robbery, just like in the series. All the screens and projections started to announce the heist, with scenes from the series, dozens of volunteers began handing out Dali masks, and at the peak moment, Delia appeared on stage in a red overall and with the Dali mask. Steve Aoki joined with his “Bella Ciao” mix and the crowd got wild.

Both the live performance and the post-event film had impressive results. All of them organic.

• Online Earned Media – on Facebook and Instagram, the activation had over 3MIL organic reach, with hundreds posts from the 65.000 persons that were live at the happening.

• On the Facebook cross-post, between the two artists, Netflix RO and La Casa de Papel page, the video had over 2 MIL views and almost 160.000 organic engagements (120.000 likes, 3.500 comments and 33.400 shares)

• On YouTube, the post-event film had been trending in Romania for two weeks, with a total of 9 MIL views, 6 MIL views on Delia’s channel and 3MIL views on Steve Aoki’s channel.

And that’s not all. The music experience reached TV, even in prime time, with 8 mentions on Romania’s biggest TV channels and a total of 22 media pieces of coverage.