My role: Concept Development, Creative Strategy and Creative Direction
Agency: UM Worldwide
Challenge
Sprite sells plenty of soda. But too often that growth has come without truly benefiting the people who drink it and the culture the brand has aligned with. More than selling soda, the brand asked us to come up with an idea that would enable young creators to push the boundaries of hip-hop and make their mark in the world.
Enters our brand platform: Thirst For Yours
Leverage the endless possibilities of hip-hop to inspire our creators and arbiters to do more and dream bigger.
Insight
It’s not hard to understand why Sprite was losing relevance with African American youth. While Sprite has deep heritage in hip-hop culture, the main content in our communications was not made specifically for them. Our TVC used big-shot celebrities like Rae Sremmurd to speak to the product, instead of the passions of our audience. No matter how refreshingly tasty these celebs made Sprite look, it didn’t matter to AA Youth. If we wanted to regain their trust, we needed to listen to them and make meaningful contributions to hip hop culture.
Idea
Through a unique partnership with Uproxx/Warner Music Group, we crowdsourced eight emerging young creatives and gave them the opportunity to collaborate and produce an original music video for Sprite Way artist, Moxie Knox.
After an extensive, crowd-sourced search for the right people for the shoot, the entire production team was all chosen to bring their unique talents together to produce and shoot the video for the song “Love Me Right” in collaboration with Sprite® and UPROXX.
The music video was organically picked up by BET and premiered globally on BET Jams.
Execution in Details
The project started with a SpriteWay playlist that elevated 40 young talent, including emerging rapper Moxie Knox. We knew the aspirational role music videos played for young creators, but that it takes a team of diverse talent to bring the vision to life, not just one artist. Through a unique partnership with Uproxx/Warner Music, we created “Thirst For Yours Productions,” a first-ever crowdsourced music video crew that gave eight young creators the opportunity of a lifetime — to produce a music video for Moxie’s song “Love Me Right.”
Once we found the right creatives, we gave them the resources and mentorship to execute their vision and documented the entire experience.
A docu-series, shot with a second production crew tracked the journey and creative process of the chosen talent. Leading up to the premiere, we introduced each creator, to Uproxx and Sprite audiences, through profile videos. Each video was featured across Uproxx and Sprite digital channels and allowed the creators to tell their stories and how the experience would change their careers. We also released BTS content that highlighted the motivation behind Moxie’s song and how each creator tackled transforming her words into a visual story, and inspire others. The culmination was the final music video, produced as a collective vision of our creators.
The music video launched on Uproxx YouTube network, Sprite’s Snapchat and IG Stories. It was so well received that it was picked up by BET to air globally eight times on BET Jams.
Editorial
Program Landing Page
Native Contest Promotion
”Love Me Right” Music Video Showcase
Behind-the-scenes
Moxie Interview
Music Video Event Premiere Party
Emerging Talent Profiles
Jeffrey Liang, Choreographer
Ed Buckles, Director
Jon Pham, Director of Photography
Tripoli Beard, Makeup Artist
Lee Velvet, Wardrobe Stylist
Simone Moscovitch, Production Designer
Jeremy Miller, Producer
Ivy Liao, Visual Effects
Media Channels
Branded Content
Online (Brand Site, Digital Video, Display, Location-based, Podcasts), Social Media
PR
Results
A few weeks after the video launch, Sprite started to see positive earned media reaction (which has a proven link to impacting relevance). Not only did we contribute to hip-hop culture by elevating and cultivating the next generation of young creators, the music video garnered 5MM views, our core audience engaged over 230K times across social channels. And most significantly we helped deliver the highest improvement to brand health—‘Sprite is a brand I love’ increased by +10.4 pts with AA youth! This increased relevance amongst Sprite’s core consumer also attributed to +78% increase in Digital Video ROI and +15% in Instagram ROI for efforts targeted to AA Youth.
We proved that our AA Youth support brands who support them.
Media Budget
USD $1 Million to $10 Million
UM Wordwide Full Credit List
Ernest Meadows, VP Partner, Portfolio Management
Rob Hersey, VP, Group Creative Director
Aaron Sobol, VP Group Partner, Integrated Investment
Andrea Messer, Creative Director
Luz Corona, Content Manager
Tamika Blockett, VP Content Director
Kath Dussel, Senior Manager, Integrated Investment
Danica Chong, VP Partner, Integrated Investment
Daniel DiGiuseppe, VP Group Partner, Portfolio Management
Lindsay Miller, Senior Associate, Integrated Investment
Erica Chen, VP Group Partner, Strategy
Berles Desire, Partner, Strategy