MANILA – An empty box, a dare, plus one person willing to take a leap of faith can lead to plenty of surprises, as Spinnr and The Lightswitch demonstrate in their recent campaign to drive conversation around the yet unfamiliar music streaming service.
Earlier this month, the agency and Spinnr’s marketing team set the stage for a stunt that has since gone viral in a video shared online. It began with a simple dare: Drop 600 pesos in a box, and see what happens. Performed in the middle of a mall, most were curious, but it took a while before one passerby finally took a chance and dropped the amount in the box. What followed was a parade of surprises, including gadgets, a year’s subscription to Spinnr, patron tickets to the upcoming Taylor Swift concert, and cake. The winner and the crowd were delighted, as were many of the netizens who viewed the stunt video.
Ron Molina, senior manager for content marketing, said the campaign was basically about a challenge. “The challenge was, how do we make people discover or want to discover Spinnr, which led to the next question, which was: How do we become part of the conversation of people?” he said.
Molina explained that times are different, especially when it comes to music. “It’s something that people want to be part of as a conversation more than a thing that they buy,” he said.
The campaign was designed to reflect how Spinnr has so much to offer, despite its low cost. For 50 pesos a month, the user can buy music as well as store music offline. “We couldn’t wrap our heads around it. For 50 pesos a month I get basically all the services of music that I would want… Wild. So what we ended up with was, how can we turn that into something that someone can realize in actual life,” shared Joe Josue, president and CEO of The Lightswitch.
Josue shared how Gelo Adrao, associate creative director and accounts associate at The Lightswitch, came up with the idea. “Gelo, said, okay, let’s go completely wild. Let’s put a box in the middle of a random place. And we ask someone to put an amount… For absolutely no reason, put it in, and then bam, prizes, prizes, prizes. And cake. All of us were like, hey that kind of makes sense,” he said. The team then agreed that 600 would be an appropriate amount, as the extra 100-peso bill would make it more of a risk. P600 would also be the amount for a year’s subscription to the service.
Molina shared how people who had already discovered Spinnr were so enthusiastic – “like they discovered the Yamashita treasure or something” – and that this was the reaction they wanted to get. The campaign, he said, was a step to make that conversation outside, with everyone else.
Apart from bringing the experience of being amazed, the campaign was linked to the brand using elements that suggested things only Spinnr could provide, the team said. “We actually designed it so that there would be a lot of things that would insinuate or give a little hint of how it was related to the music experience, things like Taylor Swift, that only Spinnr can provide,” Josue said.
“Same with the gadgets, the tickets, and of course, the brand. We gave away a one-year unlimited music subscription, so that ties it all together,” Geoffrey del Rosario, product officer for new business and new media, added.
Molina stressed that the campaign is not only about starting the conversation, but continuing it. “Toward the end of the video we’re saying, take a chance on something unfamiliar – which Spinnr is to a lot of people right now – because it might actually turn out to be awesome,” he said, adding that the goal is to make the product a viable alternative to piracy.
Social media is an intrinsic part of the campaign, explained Lloyd Manaloto, department head VP for strategic innovations and VAS brands. “In other words, we wouldn’t be doing it without social media. It’s part of the strategy on how we wanted this to be broadcast, to be shared, to be disseminated,” he said.
Elvin Luciano, senior digital media officer, said the campaign’s strength is that it’s not forced. “We just put it up and we let the video work for itself. We did not get high profile celebrities or internet personalities to tweet about it. We did not have placements or anything like that. We just put it up out there and let the people talk about it and share it on their Facebook walls. Social media is very important because it’s the main driver of all the conversations about it online,” he said.
With an intriguing headline, the video has indeed gotten a lot of views, as well as engagement in the comments section. “It wasn’t viral before it went viral, of course. So it was just a material. But I guess what we wanted to do was to make it as easy as possible for people to have conversations about it, as naturally as possible. And that’s what started happening,” Molina said. The team noted that reactions were varied, with some people doubting that the campaign was real. But others would defend the campaign on their own.
Josue said the concept was designed authentically. “The last thing we wanted was to make it feel or look like, this is so unreal. This is something someone with connections or power could do. No. It had to be something that any person could really experience so that you could talk about it,” he said. This was also the link to the brand – the idea that one could be part of it. “The moment it became something that was overly trying, or tried to be too much, it instantly does not look like something you want to be a part of, or something you can realistically experience. So the whole thing was that, it could have been you,” he said.
While it may seem that people are now looking out for the next big thing from Spinnr, the team said it all comes down to communicating what the brand is about. “The main goal is not to keep on doing stunts, it’s really to communicate what the brand stands for… it’s a brand that we feel great about. Doing something bigger than what the brand is right now is something it’s capable of. The potential is there,” Manaloto said.
Molina added that the next step is to see what users discover using the product. “We want to continue that conversation and get people involved. Because it’s really about the user at the end of the day,” he said.
