Idea: 

SkyFest was Desperado’s epic, collaborative, wild experiment in music and festival culture designed for both a live and digital audience. The Hot Air Balloon Electronic Light Orchestra took off on the 15th September 2017, with world renowned DJs performing high above the ground in seven hot air balloons, to the amazement and delight of thousands of partying members of the public below, including 250 specially-invited influencers. All of which created extraordinary content that was viewed by millions of people, all over the world.

Strategy and budget: 

Desperados came to us with a bold objective: become the most iconic drink for the global millennial generation by increasing awareness of, understanding of, and affinity with, their distinctive brand positioning.  

The drink itself is a wild experiment, bringing together beer and tequila. And when it’s brought to life as a brand, it’s through wild experimentation in music. The brand works hard to ensure that its experiences become an authentic part of youth and music culture, pushing boundaries to mix up the traditional rules and embrace the unexpected. To achieve this, Desperados is committed to creating ‘acts not ads’: big experiential experiments that then become global advertising.

Up against fierce competition in the category, we took the perspective that most competitor brands tend to own an occasion rather than a moment. But Desperados is intended for a very specific moment, when energy is amassing and people are ‘charging’ for the night ahead; looking to elevate things to the next level. So we found a way to incorporate their historical constant of music with this moment and - quite literally - elevate the party.

Execution: 

Our sky-high festival, set against the backdrop of the Pyrenees, was hosted by Desperados alongside party professionals, elrow. World renowned DJs (Glasgow’s Jackmaster, Chicago’s Honey Dijon and Barcelona’s Paco Osuna) performed to thousands of partygoers on the ground, as we transformed seven hot air balloons into a unique festival experience: the world’s first hot air balloon electronic light orchestra.

A six-month campaign built awareness and identified 250 international influencers to be part of the SkyFest experiment. They were invited to participate in - and help amplify - this exciting activation. We took the approach of “teasing the drop” with them in a two-day lead-up experience that connected sound, light and sky across touchpoints; think themed room drops, experimental music workshops and an interactive, conductive ink lightshow installation.

On the night we fired up our live feed to share Instagram stories from Desperados, elrow and hundreds of user-generated posts from the partygoers.

The set-up, festival and experiment created a suite of assets for Desperados which were launched online in November 2017, soon gathering 67m views. The hero film captured the DJs anticipation and excitement, accompanied by a variety of short films that showed different perspectives (elrow, our DJs, the production). We also widened participation with an immersive Facebook Canvas experience; iconic shareable imagery; and a YouTube hack where consumers could ‘play’ the installation at home.

Effectiveness/ROI: 

SkyFest was a smash hit with fans, giving Desperados long-term credibility with global PR in music and youth culture publications. Resident Advisor, the leading electronic music platform called SkyFest “a once in a lifetime immersive experience” and shared the event video to their Facebook page, attracting some of the highest levels of engagement for the year.

With over 67 million views, SkyFest was Desperados’ most watched and shared content ever. Completion rates outperformed benchmarks by 20%, and generated engagement rates that surpassed previous campaigns by over 170%. There were 729.9k engagements with #skyfest and #desperados, 305.9 million potential reach and 250K video views through elrow’s SkyFest coverage.

SkyFest contributed to over 8.2% of year-on-year European sales growth for Desperados in the beer category, compared to an industry average that decreased by 0.2%.