Advertiser: MICROSOFT
Agency: STARCOM
Category: Other Consumer Products (including Durable Goods)
Advertising campaign: DANCE CENTRAL 3 ELECTRIC CIRCUS RETURNS
Integrated Planner: Aiden Ridley (Starcom MediaVest Group Canada)
Investment Director: Lindsey Talbot (Starcom MediaVest Group Canada)
Vice President/Group Account Director: Randy Carelli (Starcom MediaVest Group Canada)
Investment Supervisor: Karen Guan (Starcom MediaVest Group Canada)
Marketing Communications Manager: Kerri Dixon (Microsoft Canada)
Account Director: Margaret Lum (Starcom MediaVest Group Canada)
Strategy Planner: Nicole Matalik (Starcom MediaVest Group Canada)
Marketing Communications Manager: Christina Verdurmen (Microsoft Canada)
Strategy
Microsoft’s Dance Central 3 video game for Kinect for XBOX 360 lets people dance to their favorite hits of yesterday and today. While newer songs are some of the most popular, the older tracks that everyone knows are the reason the game keeps coming out at parties. With Female Millennials as one of our key targets, we needed to convince them that they were getting older tracks still relevant to pop culture, along with the new.To be a dancer to pop songs in Canada evokes memories of the nation’s beloved 'Electric Circus' program originally from 1988-2003. The local take on Bandstand and Soul Train, Electric Circus let people come in off the street and audition for a chance to live out their dream of dancing in the TV spotlight. We wanted to give people their chance to shine in front of the camera, yet again.
Execution
For one special Halloween episode, we brought back Electric Circus to celebrate the launch of Dance Central 3, including music tracks found in the game. We partnered with MuchMusic, the Canadian voice and destination for music, dance and pop culture, to bring back the program in a one-hour live exclusive Dance Central 3 broadcast that featured 150 dancers dressed in club clothes, just like the avatars in the game.To build up for the show, MuchMusic’s flagship program, 'New.Music.Live.' featured dance crews battling for a finalist spot to win $5,000 in a dance off on the Electric Circus program. During the program, dancers also faced off in Dance Central 3. And with Electric Circus streaming live on muchmusic.com, no one had an excuse to miss out on this one-night-only event in Canada’s music culture.
Effectiveness
Electric Circus became a trending topic on Twitter not only in Canada, but worldwide on October 27th as a result of Dance Central 3 bringing back the show. Hundreds of people showed up for 2 days of auditions to vie for a chance to be a dancer on Electric Circus’ comeback and MuchMusic received contest entries at 50% more than expected benchmarks. Plus, with Dance Central 3 receiving over 4.5 million impressions, we got people inspired to purchase the game for themselves and have their own Electric Circus style dance party.