Questus
Agency: Questus
Brand: American Suzuki
Motorcycles
Executives Involved in The Campaign: Jeff Wagener, VP,
Creative Director, Questus
Justin Reynolds, Art Director, Questus
Chris Breen, Senior Copywriter, Questus
Graham Zeller, Senior Flash Developer, Questus
Matt Hussey, Account Supervisor, Questus
Keyvan Hajiani, Account Director, Questus
Jonah Burlingame, Senior Project Manager, Questus
Campaign Brief: As agency of record for American
Suzuki Motorcycles (suzukicycles.com), Questus discovered that Suzuki was
failing to communicate with an important part of its market—a core consumer
base of young African and Latino-Americans with a unique passion for
customizing sport bikes as an expression of personal style. To connect with
this group authentically, Questus created BusaBeats—a social campaign that uses
hip-hop to reach this target audience and inspires them to help directly shape
the brand.
BusaBeats is all about music and motorcycles. Questus recruits world-class
producers like Coop D'Ville to create beats for the MC Battle and then provides
a technology to Suzuki fans that allows them to lay down their own
Hayabusa-related lyrics over the celebrity tracks. The result: incredible
hip-hop music that resonates with the urban community and generates loads of
earned media. Hundreds of tracks are recorded and shared through the
busabeats.com site and on social media hubs such as MySpace via a BusaBeats
branded player. Buzz then spreads quickly through music and bike enthusiast
sites.
The social campaign continues when the MC Battle participants are pitted
against one another. Winners are chosen by popular vote and a final judging
panel. The Grand Prize doesn’t disappoint. For example, the original BusaBeats
winner, J. Pigg, was awarded a Nick Anglada custom Hayabusa. He then went on an
11-city tour performing and hosting on behalf of BusaBeats and Suzuki.
First unleashed in 2008, BusaBeats adrenalized and invigorated the Suzuki
brand. The success of the campaign established Hayabusa as the leader among a
loyal and influential audience and has been leveraged across Suzuki
Motorcycles. This unprecedented social campaign has also powerfully connected
Suzuki Motorcycles to its urban audience, created brand ambassadors from this
previously overlooked market and fundamentally changed the brand’s positioning.
The original initiative was such a huge success that Questus relaunched
BusaBeats in March 2010 and announced its newest winners in July (all at busabeats.com).
The new campaign continues to resonate with Hayabusa’s urban audience
authentically through hip-hop, creating powerful advocates from this previously
overlooked audience.
The media strategy was comprised of content ttrategy, integrated brand
communications, creative concept and design, mixed media (outdoor, print,
mobile, event/PR, and online), social/community management and moderation
(Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, etc.), and contest platform implementation and
management.
The evidence of results in this campaign is clear. Since its inception,
BusaBeats has racked up over 300,000 plays, over 20,000 tracks
recorded/submitted and an average of 21 minutes on site during the battle.
There have been thousands of mobile sign-ups and the top tracks have had
thousands of viral plays and “dope points.” A solid integration with offline
strategic goals (outdoor and print) now exists and there were successful launch
events with Run DMC and Freddie Fox in key markets and at Atlantic Bike Week
(the largest African American motorcycle event in the U.S.). Most importantly,
this campaign is a prime example of how social creates a much more emotional
and meaningful impact for brands and audiences.
Link to Your Creative
Materials: http://questus.com/pr/BusaBeatsOverview/
