Situation
Cooper-Smith serves as the media agency for a national telecommunications company whose service presence covers an extensive part of the US. Pre-COVID, the telecommunications company partnered with Pandora to host premier live music events. In an effort to create deeper connections with their customers, they offered free concerts as a value add for purchasing their product. Bands were chosen by leveraging Pandora’s technology to determine what artists were trending in a select market. The concerts were performed in intimate venues hosting less than 1,000 people so as to enhance the user experience. Meet & Greets were made available to a few lucky winners.
Challenge
Due to the COVID-19 health crisis, live events were not considered safe. How could our client drive deeper connections with its customers through a virtual event?
Convert a successful live event promotion to a virtual platform during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Strategy
Cooper-Smith partnered with Pandora to create a high-caliber music experience that the Telecommunications Company’s customers would be able to access from the comfort and safety of their own homes. The virtual concerts could be offered to all customers across the country, instead of being limited to a single market.
Pandora secured 3-time Grammy Award nominated and BRIT Award-winning multi-platinum singer-songwriter, producer and guitarist James Bay, as the featured artist. The event was promoted and fans were urged to RSVP through a variety of tactics including the Pandora app, social media (Pandora, artist and client channels), fan push notifications via Pandora, past attendee email outreach, as well as national press such as Billboard. Reminder messaging via email were sent the day-before and day-of the event in order to keep it top-of-mind. Telecommunications Company/Pandora Partnership CHALLENGE Due to the COVID-19 health crisis, live events were not considered safe. How could our client drive deeper connections with its customers through a virtual event?
The day before the show, 20 special guests were treated to an exclusive Meet & Greet with James Bay. Pre-show fans were entertained by some fun artist trivia on their devices as they waited for the event to start, encouraging early interaction between guests within the chat session. Rather than a formal interview, James Bay instead spoke candidly to the viewers themselves—talking about the inspiration behind different songs and his creative process. Fans flooded the chat with appreciation and gratitude.
Results
Prior to the virtual concert, our client’s event received 2.5M Paid Social Impressions, 72.7M PR Impressions and 2.6M Added Value Artist Social Impressions. This generated 16.8M Unique Tune-Ins. In total, the client received 94.6M branded impressions as value add from Pandora, helping to increase brand awareness and to generate goodwill with their customers.