Title: Decode Jay-Z With Bing
Advertiser/Client: Bing/Jay-Z
Product/Service: Decode Jay-Z with Bing
Advertising Agency: Droga5 New York, USA

Microsoft’s search engine, Bing wanted to connect with a younger audience and needed to make their Search and Maps technology more culturally relevant. The primary objective was to increase ‘Intent to Use’ Bing products and improve perceptions of Bing as a culturally relevant brand to a coveted younger audience. Bing’s core users were middle aged women in the Midwest and the brand wanted to make real inroads with the coastal youth population. We used the launch of Jay-Z’s autobiography ‘Decoded’ as a relevant moment in youth culture and an opportunity to create a deeper experience with it through Bing technology. The target does not differentiate online from offline, so we built the program across existing media formats and channels but in a new way that wove them together and added interactive to everything. The unique partnership brought Bing to the forefront of pop-culture and gave millions of Jay-Z fans a reason to use Bing Search and Maps.

—The average online player engagement was over 11 minutes per visit

—Jay-Z’s Facebook fans grew by one million during the campaign launch.

—Decoded went straight to the New York Times Best Seller list at #2 its first week

—Bing.com saw an 11.7% increase in visits the month of the campaign with no other media in market.

—Bing.com entered the top ten most visited sites in the US.

—Bing earned 1.1 billion global media impressions.

—Bing’s ‘intent to use’ scores were higher than any other Bing marketing initiative ever according to ComScore. Online Buzz and Social metrics were above average for any Bing marketing program according to Nielsen BuzzMetrics.

We started by putting every single page of Jay-Z’s autobiography into media spaces around the world. The pages weren’t randomly placed; all 350 pages were put in locations relevant to each individual page’s content. Fans around the world could actually walk Jay-Z’s path, experiencing his story right where it happened. The campaign used a variety of media. And if the media didn’t exist, we created our own. Everything from pizza boxes, plates, burger wrappers, jigsaw puzzles, t-shirts, to name a few. Fans sought out, discovered and interacted with this collection of unique small scale pieces. Even the smallest, traditionally overlooked items became precious collector’s items.

Via Cannes Lions