Firestone hit the high notes this weekend with the South African launch of its Firestone Kombi Karaoke campaign (#FirestoneKK).
The campaign was launched at this weekend’s DStv Delicious Festival at the Kyalami International Race Track in Gauteng. It draws on a rich history of music-focused campaigns for the popular tyre brand.
“Music has been an integral part of the brand’s marketing DNA ever since Firestone founder, Harvey Firestone, hosted new acts on his radio show, Voice of Firestone in the 1920s,” says Patrick Leslie, the Brand and Channel Manager at Bridgestone South Africa, who also manufactures and markets Firestone.
“We decided to channel a bit of that legacy by creating ‘Karaoke Kombis’ to give visitors a platform of their own. At our stand, they can sing their hearts out, win great prizes and share their moment in the limelight with other festival-goers and their friends.”
The idea found application in two converted VW Kombis, one a new VW Kombi (new school) and the other a 1975 VW Kombi Brasília (old school). The latter was restored and fitted with a lounge-type seat, karaoke-TV, microphones and speakers, while the new Kombi received a similar, but more modular treatment.
“Each of the several hundred singers this weekend visited the stand, chose a song from our catalogue of over 30 000 songs and jumped into their chosen Kombi. Closed off from the crowds, the singers could enjoy themselves fully, while their performance was cast on to two outside sets of wide-screen TVs and speakers,” says Leslie.
While the ‘artist’ has his/her moment inside the Kombi, operators with mixing desks, media laptops and high-speed connectivity mixed and recorded each performance in real time.
“The real power of this activation happened after each performance. After their encores, all singers received a cellphone message with a link to their performance, channelled through our firestonejourneys.com website. This gives them unlimited opportunities to relive their performance and share the branded content with friends and family on their own social networks,” says Leslie.
With the first festival successfully completed, the #FirestoneKK Kombi convoy will be hitting the road to visit several music, food and experiential festivals across the country during the busy summer season.
For more information on the campaign and videos of some of the singers in action, visit firestonejourneys.com/firestone-music-kombi/.
Firestone tunes in to social sharing with its #FirestoneKK Campaign https://t.co/cOzsgDH6do @FirestoneSA #ArriveAlive pic.twitter.com/DKfqlqXVXe
— Arrive Alive (@_ArriveAlive) October 11, 2017