Katy Perry and the pop video

One of the reasons it has been so successful for T-Mobile is that while it describes the brand's philosophy, it is also a perfect description for the lifestyle of its target audience, who believe that life is better when it is shared, connected and engaged.

T-Mobile knew that its target audience needed regular reminding that their lives were richer through sharing enabled by T-Mobile. The brand had already experimented successfully with music based events like Josh's Band and dance flash mobs and sing-along events in a number of markets, but decided it was time to take the idea of sharing and music one step further and deliver an exclusive music experience to its customers.

Global superstar

Katy Perry is one of the world's highest profile pop-star celebrities. Her summer 2010 single California Gurls reached the top spot on iTunes just 48 hours after the release. She has nearly 3 million Facebook fans and 2.4 million Twitter followers, giving her one of the largest fan bases in the global social media space. So T-Mobile created an opportunity for Katy Perry fans to take in her next music video. Perry agreed to allow more than 250 T-Mobile customers from across Europe to appear in her video for the song Firework.

In eight countries across Europe, Perry appeared in ads that invited her fans to join in local T-Mobile online contests to become part of her video. Entrants were challenged to demonstrate their creativity and show their inner spark that was central to the theme of the song. Local communities could then choose who would participate in the final video.

One participant from each country became part of their local T-Mobile campaign which tracked their preparation for the pop video experience.

"Zdravo Makadonia! I'm Katy Perry, and I need your help!"

The campaign began with a call-to-action in local language voiced by Perry herself. This was broadcast in music based channels on TV and online, as well as in relevant print, radio, retail and OOH media. All communication worked to drive traffic to the local Katy Perry Project websites. Once there, participants were asked to show in video what made them a potential star.

They could sing, dance, act or do anything that would demonstrate their creativity and talent. Each website encouraged discussion regarding the best videos and voting for the local stars. Voting was spread over a number of days or weeks, depending on the territory.

One winner from each market was picked to star in the local campaign appearing in online, TV and print media. In some markets the winner's family got involved in the campaign as well, talking about what this chance meant to their winner.

At the video shoot in Budapest, winners kept in touch with the T-Mobile communities back home by sharing their experiences, photos and videos from the shoot. After the video release local media highlighted the winners' experiences. A 'making of' video was released online, telling the stories behind the participants and highlighting T-Mobile's involvement in the video project.
Katy Perry's Firework video became achieved 197 million video views, ranking as the 17th most viewed music video of all time.

Results

More than 38 000 fans across 8 markets submitted video entries to the campaign.
More than 400 000 votes were made for the best local videos.

T-Mobile's Facebook community acquired 175 000 new fans across all markets. The making of Firework achieved more than 490 000 views.

Telekom's internal 'Brand Fit' tests showed that the campaign drove the Life is for Sharing positioning upwards with an average of 10% uplift over all the markets involved.

Why is this on Cream? It's refreshing to see a competition mechanic and prize that fits so neatly with the brand proposition. Admittedly part of the success of the campaign is down to the involvement of Katy Perry, but T-Mobile and MediaCom deserve recognition for setting up such an appropriate partnership.