Car enthusiasts from the era of internal combustion engines often mistake new-generation electric vehicles as boring (in many cases until they drive them!) – largely because of the lack of engine noise.
So carmakers and their ad agencies face a challenge: how do you overcome the misperception EVs are not as fun as petrol ones?
In Hong Kong, ad agency Dentsu’s digital creative subsidiary Isobar has created what it describes as “an electrifying musical experience” for the launch of the Mercedes-Benz EQA electric compact car by local distributor Zung Fu.
They created an ‘Electrical Jukebox’ – a multisensory, innovative campaign where music meets lightning with AI-extracted soundtracks streamed through a set of electric current emitters called Electrical Resonant Coils that play music in lightning beams with bolts of electricity.
The whole execution – that was extended across digital platforms – was aimed at manifesting the electrifying look and’ tech-savvy lifestyle’ the Mercedes-Benz EQA embodies.
To create maximum impact chart-topping international and local songs were run through an open-source AI to split the tracks then run through a synthesiser before it was played on electrical resonant coils to create a truly spectacular light and sound show.
“It was really exciting to see people’s reaction when we fired up the Jukebox because no one, including the production house and our in-house creative team, believed playing music with lightning was actually feasible,” explained Ken Lo, creative director at Isobar Hong Kong.
“Everyone thought it was CG with background music until they were standing just a few feet from the bolts of electricity.”
The experience was launched in a popular Hong Kong shopping mall, where visitors could pick their favourite songs to “electrify” through scanning the QR codes and entering a WhatsApp chatbot and an AR app that allowed them to get up close and look at the car from every angle.
Oh, and in case you were wondering – Isobar assures us that not a single customer or member of the creative team was electrocuted in the process…
You can watch a video of the installation here:
Campaign credits: Jeffry Gamble, chief creative officer; Michael Li, GM; Dennis Tsang, experience design director; Astrar Lam, technical director; Anthony Huen, project manager; Nathan Hau, group creative director; Ken Lo, creative director; Alfred Tam, senior digital art director; Ocean Wong, content producer; Rico Fung, Chinese copywriter.
Further reading: Millions of electric vehicles are hitting the world’s roads. But how will we keep them charged?
