Service Type: Content

Smyle x Spotify: Wrapped Live

A CULTURAL PHENOMENON BECOMES A SUPERFAN NIGHT TO REMEMBER

In an event almost bigger than the holiday itself, Spotify Wrapped has become an annual cultural highlight for millions. In 2023, the streaming giant wanted to take over the internet for 48 hours by hosting the UK’s first-ever Spotify Wrapped Live – a live concert streamed on TikTok.

Drumsheds, by the team behind Printworks, played host to seven of the biggest UK artists along with 2,000 of their superfans. Performances by Chase and Status, Sam Smith, and Charlie XCX were streamed live on TikTok, reaching millions.

The show was an undeniable success, with an incredible response from the attendees, the online audience, the artists and influencers. It drove the social reach, smashed targets, and, most importantly, gave superfans an unforgettable experience to wrap up 2023.

With a fast period of planning, Smyle delivered the show with Spotify in just 90 days and a core team of just 20 people.

Key takwaways

  • 3.3 million unique reach
  • 1.1 million likes on TikTok livestream
  • 102k unique actively engaged viewers
  • 3.2% increase in followers on Spotify TikTok profile.

ALIGNING 300 LEADERS AS ONE

Bringing 300 leaders from across the business together to launch the 2024 business priorities and embed them via a series of unique content sessions.

We brought 300 leaders from across the Flutter UK&I business division (consisting of BetFair, PaddyPower, Sky Betting and Gaming and Tombola) together for a one-day event in Manchester to kick off 2024 and launch the business priorities for the next 12 months.

As the brands align as ONE under Flutter UK&I, it was critical to business success to communicate the new group vision, values and business priorities and bring the priorities to life, embedding them with the leadership teams to enable them to feel informed and empowered to deliver the priorities throughout 2024. We worked with the client teams to create a series of engaging and immersive sessions, allowing for a deeper understanding of each priority, their significance to the business objectives, how they aligned with the vision and values, and their overall importance to drive success.

Key takeaways

  • Effectively united 300 Leaders from across 4 countries as ONE
  • 95% of attendees agreed they clearly understood the business priorities and felt empowered to deliver on the priorities for their business area.
  • Delivered in a tight six-week time frame from brief to execution.

SMYLE X ARM FLAGSHIP ANNUAL PARTNER MEETING

Smyle worked with ARM to pull off their three-day Annual Partner Meeting. Our live and virtual teams came up with creative ideas for storytelling and exciting brand activations around Cambridge, with Smyle also providing full production for the APM.

MAILI ‘MY POWER’ CELEBRATES WOMEN AND CHALLENGES THE JUDGEMENT THEY FACE

Aesthetic filler brand MaiLi by Sinclair Pharmaceuticals wanted to gain better traction with practitioners and patients. A fresh approach was required, focused on building an emotional connection with target audiences.

To start the campaign, Smyle and MaiLi commissioned an international survey of 10,000 women, and the resulting insights were clear: women constantly face judgement and society tries to take down powerful women. ‘My Power’ was created to disrupt that narrative and cast MaiLi as an authentic ally to women, promoting and celebrating their power (whether or not they choose to get fillers) and encouraging society to #SayNoToJudgement.

Smyle launched the content-driven ‘My Power’ campaign with an international multi-channel marketing activation covering social media, influencer marketing, digital paid media, events, PR, an updated brand website and an anthem campaign video produced by Dreamlike State. Influencer marketing brought the message’s authenticity to life through other powerful voices. The strategy was to encourage influencers to share their views on judgement and ‘My Power’ whilst including the global or local MaiLi handle in the description.

The three-phase marketing approach has finished Phase One (March – June 2023), with Phase Two moving customers from brand awareness into action against the societal judgement of women.

Key Takeaways:

  • 3.3 million users reached across the globe
  • 5.5 million Instagram impressions
  • 1 million + Youtube views of anthem video
  • 93% increase in Instagram profile visits
  • 1,047% increase in Facebook profile engagement

Life Unstoppable, ‘House of Surprises’

Fusing storytelling and branded entertainment in this interactive experience. This activation allowed viewers to interact as if in a gaming engine, with the quality and storytelling of film and the ability to click to buy throughout the experience.

The Challenge

Provide an innovative launch for Samsung’s newest range of connected products from its ‘Life Unstoppable’ series to engage partners, press and consumers, challenging what is possible with online experiences.

The Approach

After the success of last year’s “Life Unstoppable”, which took more of a game-based approach, Smyle rethought the boundaries of customer experience by implementing a new approach to online consumer engagement. Viewers could watch and shop at the same time, not so much e-commerce but rather “e-xperience”. Samsung also used the e-xperience to maximise reach – overcoming issues of scale inherent with activations limited to a physical location. 

 

Unlike purely physical experiential, in the e-xperience everything is measurable and trackable. From social time spent in the experience, to interactions, to direct sales on brands’ websites. The data was fed directly into Samsung’s CRM providing invaluable insight. The blend of experience and e-commerce allowed us to measure the KPIs, creating a clearer correlation between the objectives and our solution. 

 

The e-xperience was delivered through interactive video. It followed an eclectic family at home, in a Wes Anderson-style film as they used the new Samsung range in ever more inventive ways. The story was stitched together with a series of vignettes that demonstrated Samsung’s innovations, together with an entertaining narrative that drew in the audience. Visitors to the house were guided from room-to-room and vignette-to-vignette, but could also take control of the navigation by clicking on the rooms and products too – fusing the best elements of gaming with filmic storytelling. Products became hotspots and with a click participants could stop the action and deep dive, or jump to the local market Samsung online store to make an immediate purchase. 

The film was shot in a large studios, and stands out because of its heavy art direction and visual style combined with innovative technologies employed. To produce the high quality mini-movie, Smyle drew from its expertise in set design, filming video production, digital production, VFX and motion control. Smyle additionally worked with Free Turn with the film being directed by Jel Groman, responsible for hits such as My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, Daredevils and Born in the Wrong Body.

The Result

Launched in 17 countries across Europe, it delivered a one-of-a-kind customer experience, where people were able to see exactly how products would fit into their daily lives. Smyle blended entertainment, experiential marketing and e-commerce to tailor the launch to consumer’s needs. Additionally, to reach people in this ‘most broadcast to erra’, you have to be creative, you have to find new ways of telling stories, because we’re in experience, marketing, brand and PR. We’re storytellers.

  • 3740 attendees 
  • 60% of viewers watched the full 45 minute show
  • Over 4000 consumers with a 1000 click to buy actions
  • Interactivity stats exceeded averages:
    • 29% active audience share
    • 3.51 Interactions per active viewer

Winner of Best Interactive Event Video at Wirewax Interactive Awards 2021

Winner of Best Brand Experience B2B at Campaign Experience Awards 2022

Winner of Best Use of Video Content and Best Use of Technology at EVCOM Awards 2022

Wella breaks the internet with the world’s largest digital hair experience

This experience allowed Wella to pivot into digital and reach a wider audience than ever before. To hold the attention of busy hair professionals, we designed an interactive TV-style event with something for everyone. Content was voiced in 11 languages and the entire event was held twice on the day of the event, allowing the global audience to choose a start time best suited to their location. The initial 10,000 viewers target was smashed with over 77,000 registrations, and 25,000 joining on the day!

The Challenge

With IRL events impossible in 2020, we connected hair professional across the world and shared everything wonderful about Wella through a ground-breaking digital event.

The Approach

Accessible to beauty professionals around the world and free to join, the Wella WE Create event allowed the brand to pivot into digital and reach a wider audience than ever before.

To hold the attention of busy hair professionals, we designed an interactive TV-style event with something for everyone. Lots of rich topics, carefully curated, contrasting styles, and short, snappy bite-sized content, all wrapping around longer, more in-depth features. In an innovative move, the event delivered two channels of streaming content, broadcast simultaneously over two hours – with attendees free to skip between channels, or catch anything they missed later by watching on demand.

Involving more than 20 of the world’s most accomplished hair artists, WE Create shared styling transformations, trend insights, hair hacks, business advice and sustainability tips. The event also hosted the International TrendVision Awards, with 7 category gold winners announced live. WE Create also featured two new hair collections, designed during the pandemic by 13 guest artists around the world, collaborating by Zoom to ensure a coherent vision.

To cater to an 86% mobile-first audience, we custom-built our own hosting platform. Content was voiced in 11 languages and the entire event was held twice on Sunday, allowing the global audience to choose a start time best suited to their location.

The Result

The WE Create event was something completely new, setting a new benchmark for the industry. The audience was global. The content was global. And the guest artists were globally renowned, all brought together through WE Create.

With an initial target of 10,000 viewers, over 77,000 ultimately registered, with 25,000 joining the event on the day, generating 66,000 interactions in the chat – and pushing our platform to its limits. A further 10,000 watched material after the event on demand.

National Grid amplifies impact with first ever hybrid investor conference

Smyle partnered closely with National Grid leadership to position the brand at the centre of the energy transition to a critically important audience of investors, media and consumers. This hybrid experience was held live at the ExCeL London for approximately 200 delegates and online using the Bizzabo platform for 600 participants.

The Challange

To position National Grid at the centre of the energy transition.

The Approach

National Grid has a solid reputation but was concerned that a lot of its innovative UK and US energy transformation work was not sufficiently understood. Our solution was to make the company easier to understand, and bring to life the innovation and ‘sexiness’ of this engineering focused organisation.

For its Investor Day in November 2021 we advised that National Grid run a truly hybrid event. This would involve 100 people attending a physical event at the ExCeL in London and a much larger online international audience. Both audiences were to be catered for in an integrated digital and physical experience. 

Research led us to develop the event theme ‘Doing Right Now’. This conjoins the ideas that the company is ‘doing right’ in the energy transition, and doing it ‘right now’. To demonstrate this, we showcased the unsung experts around the company that are making energy transition happen. We also used storytelling about key initiatives as indicative of what the larger business is all about.

Smyle camera crews captured the event in real time, all footage was fed through Smyle’s gallery and managed by its central studio team. Footage was live streamed to the online audience using the latest Bizzabo platform, with interactive elements for virtual participants built into each session. The live audience rotated between three innovative breakout session experiences, and the virtual audience had an exclusive digital-only rotation with a camera and host onsite curating their experience.

The Result

The success of an investor event is both qualitative (the audience regards the company more positively) and quantitative (the investment community promotes it in research advice and/or invests in the company’s stock). While the direct financial impact is hard to discern, we used audience surveying to understand the impact on the perception of National Grid at the centre of the energy transition, as well as perceptions of quality of content and interaction. The hybrid nature of the occasion allowed audiences in the UK and US to become immersed in National Grid’s strategy and performance.

Institution of Civil Engineers: From source to tap

Smyle use their superpowers to help Institution of Civil Engineers up their content game.

The Challange

Create a global campaign to help the Institution of Civil Engineers celebrate 200 years of achievement and engage a younger audience in their mission.

The Approach

Working alongside the client team, we landed upon the concept of transforming historical and modern day civil engineering greats into ‘superhero’ alter egos! The central goal was to inspire a new, younger generation of civil engineers, telling them amazing stories of the unsung heroes of our civilisation. Our scope included character and brand identity development, original artwork creation, storyboarding, and full creation of a series of animated and live action films.

Following the success of an initial project, we were asked to continue our work with a new campaign. Its theme; ‘From Source to Tap’, heroes one of the core United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) to provide clean water and sanitation for all, and is of critical importance to our modern world.

Our approach was to build upon the foundation of our previous work, starring a team of new global heroes. We created a family of eye-catching & dramatic media content, which clearly outlines worldwide issues surrounding water and educates towards a more responsible attitude. A key component to effectively communicating this to a modern audience, was the creation of a super villain character…the dreaded Fatberg!

A series of films were produced to bring the campaign to life. From an explainer film clearly summarising the theme of the campaign for a nonprofessional global audience… all the way to a thrilling high-end character animation film, driving home key messages through a dramatic narrative, involving all our civil engineering superheroes as they battle the Fatberg monster!

The Result

Our campaign was developed into a wider campaign incorporating merch, billboards and news stories across the globe including a headline BBC News story.

The Invisible Superheroes campaign was an unprecedented success for the Institution of Civil Engineers. Through it, we were able to help them add a contemporary flair to their celebration of 200 years of achievement, bringing their invaluable message home to a diverse and youthful global audience.

EDF Energy: Zero Harm

Using content to raise awareness and work towards Zero Harm.

The Challenge

To create a set of powerful communication tools that convey vital safety messages to field operatives in the Energy Field Services (EFS) business unit.

Our brief was to deliver an interview-led, live action film, featuring EDF employees talking openly about their involvement in real-life safety incidents. Each participant would be encouraged to share the impact of their experience, in both their personal and professional lives.

The Approach

We expanded the initial brief to deliver a highly engaging and impactful solution, which is fresh and distinct from previous approaches taken by the client. Rather than one video, we felt a series of short films would provide messaging that could be more engaging and be absorbed more easily. This also allowed us to hone in on specific stories for each film, bringing the viewer closer to the experience.

The films are centred on a core interview. To enhance the gravitas of the messaging within these interviews we used high contrast ‘chiaroscuro’ lighting – creating a sense of the open and frank discussion. Our goal was to be hard-hitting and memorable.

To communicate incident scenes, we used an innovative ‘graphic novel’ creative style. Using 2D sequences we animated stylised illustrations as panels in the pages of a comic book style graphic novel. This echoed the stylised ‘noir’ look used in the interview footage.

By avoiding the restrictions of multiple live action shoots, we achieved more engaging and detailed content. The illustrations provided a great narrative device and framework for storylines that would really bring the key messages home for viewers and increase impact and memorability.

The Result

In creating the four films in this innovative style, we completely surpassed the client’s expectations and goals. Most importantly, the approach was highly effective in highlighting the importance of safety, receiving fantastic feedback from the audience and applauded widely across EDF Energy.

Brian Weston, Health, Safety & Environmental Senior Advisor at EDF Energy commented: “Can I thank all the team at Smyle for their endeavours, and delivery of a first class set of videos.”

Simon Warrilow, Health, Safety & Environmental Advisor at EDF Energy said: “I wanted to express my gratitude for delivering such a valuable piece. I am confident that through these films we will raise awareness of the importance of personal behaviours on our journey towards Zero Harm. Thanks again – it was a pleasure working with you all.”

Samsung Galaxy Launch

Samsung calls the shots with interactive virtual media launch with British singer and songwriter Raye. This launched the new Samsung Galaxy A Series with her performance all shot on Samsung devices.

The challenge

Deliver the first-ever virtual NDA press review for the Galaxy A Series, generating tech and lifestyle coverage stacked with Gen Z appeal. 

What we did

Allowing journalists to experience new phones under embargo allows them to prepare editorial for publishing on launch day. But how to do that virtually? Combining innovation and creative content this launch encouraged participants to ‘call the shots’ by personalising how they interacted with and explored the new Galaxy A Series.

Leveraging the Music Galaxy Thursday partnership between Samsung and Universal Music, we worked with emerging Gen Z artist RAYE to create, film and produce a storytelling narrative. This culminated in a performance of her latest hit and clever product placement ensured RAYE illustrated key A Series features as part of the action. All footage was captured using Samsung mobiles.

Using WIREWAX technology we enabled participants to ‘choose their path’ by opting for different content scenarios, such as selecting RAYE’s performance costume in the opening scenes. 

We also pre-recorded a series of informative launch presentations and Q&As led by Samsung experts. Again, we added additional interactive content, by overlaying WIREWAX hotspots, which users could activate to reveal additional product information.

All this was accessed via a super-intuitive, on brand web platform that curated relevant event content based on different audience needs.

The result

Call the Shots generated 690 articles in total, across the target technology and media titles.

An audience of 470 media contacts generated 2,662 interactive hotspot clicks during the event, indicating a high level of engagement with additional product information.