Mazda USA is hitting the road to reach Generation Y consumers, who love indie music and traveling. The brand’s sub-compact model, Mazda2, is sponsoring 32-stop concert tour of Mayer Hawthorne & the County, which is rolling out from October 3 in Fort Lauderdale through November 12 in Los Angeles for audiences of 750-1,500 people. The car and artist’s collaboration (the fist music-themed one for the brand) is backed by a massive digital campaign, which includes the website featuring lots of music and video content, as well as Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Facebook for spreading the word through online channels.
“We’re not the biggest car company, so we have to focus our social media resources. Mazda has enthusiasts already out there, and they want to be on the front line. Our strategy is to work with these existing organic communities and forums to provide them with the content that they want,” explains Christopher Bretschger, manager of social media marketing for Mazda, in the article on www.yadvertisingblog.com.
The recently launched website and a range of social network profiles invite the crooner’s fans to follow the tour online, win tickets and cars, download exclusive new track “No Strings” for free, read posts on the tour blog and, of, course, learn more about the new Mazdas (by the way, the key person of the campaign, Mayer Hawthorne, also had a car manufactured by this auto brand). The fans also have a unique opportunity to win an invitation a series of pre-show «meet and greet» events to be held during the tour where they’ll be able to meet the artist live, “adorn their social media profiles with uploadable photo-booth shots and personalized apparel.” They also can watch lovely spots, including the animation one created by Los Angeles-based illustrator, designer and artist Cole Gerst, and the video with several identical Mayer Hawthornes.
The campaign was developed by the Rebel Industries agency, which position the autos of the brand as cars adorned by representatives of intellectual subculture. “If you walk down the street, you don’t see a ton of Mazdas driving by,” states the agency’s CEO Josh Levine. “[Drivers are] creative, independent thinkers. An A-list artist wouldn’t resonate.” Mayer Hawthorne’s music and the artist himself perfectly mirror the brand’s vision.