Announcing the only New Year’s Eve plan for Millennials - with pomp

Coldplay for New Year’s Eve at Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, 2016

Services involved: Choreographed Media Production and Digital Catalysts

Client: Flash Entertainment Project: NYE16 Artist Reveal Director: Tarun Shyam Producers: Bhoomika Ghaghada, Tarun Shyam Editor: Tarun Shyam Assistant Producers: Parth Gh, Vishnu Sunil Executive Producers: Flash Entertainment, Street About the brief: The client approached us with a brief to reveal the big band they planned to bring in for New Year's Eve 2016 and since the mannequin challenge was trending then, we decided to go that route. It's one the biggest mannequin challenges produced in terms of sheer number of people.


THE CHALLENGE

Build hype and drive group ticket sales for New Year’s Eve 2016 within Coldplay’s extensive fanbase in the UAE through a highly shareable video.

In December 2016, “the mannequin challenge” trend hadn’t reached its peak yet. There wasn’t a flood of UAE-based videos on social media feeds - just enough for there to be interest. 

So, we used this interest to tease and announce that the seven-time Grammy award winning British band, Coldplay, was coming to town!

DRIVING INSIGHT

Even casual Coldplay listeners know the band’s greatest hit, Fix You (with the iconic lyrics “lights will guide you home”).

Using light up candles, and t-shirts with the Coldplay song titles, we offer the true Coldplay fan crumbs of excitement that build up through the video - as they come to the delightful realization that “Coldplay is coming to town for New Year’s Eve!”

IMPLEMENTATION

With access to the du Arena at sunset, we conceptualized, recruited for, shot and edited this video for social sharing in three days. In terms of the number of people involved, it is the biggest mannequin challenge produced in the region. 

Given that Facebook Events is where 18-24 year old audiences gather in the UAE to make concert-going plans, and that Facebook was home to the then-trending mannequin challenge, this New Year's Eve artist reveal video for Coldplay was produced to sit seamlessly within Facebook timelines in 2016.

IMPACT

In the days following the launch of the video, it spread like wildfire, amplified on platforms by key Catalysts. The show was sold out weeks ahead of time, with more than 30,000 tickets sold.

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