It’s been many exciting months in the making, but 5 October marks the global launch of a new marketing campaign for Danish premium audio-visual brand Bang & Olufsen. The campaign – which is not just a campaign, but a complete paradigm shift in how the business markets itself – will set the direction for how Bang & Olufsen tells its story to consumers, moving forward.
Tue Mantoni, CEO of Bang & Olufsen, explains: "This is a return to the soul of our brand. For some time, we have underplayed the spirit infused into our products – and the special experiences that result. This is what separates Bang & Olufsen from the wide range of consumer electronic brands in the market today. So we are going to embrace the more emotional characteristics within us, once more."
The campaign is called "What Moves You", and it commences with two short films, viewable online and two new ads, both featuring notable personalities.
One of these films includes Tue Mantoni’s personal story about an event that profoundly moved him years back, and the other features Nikolaj Hübbe, artistic director of the Royal Danish Ballet, who describes an experience with sound that touched his ‘dancer’s heart.’
But "What Moves You" is not a traditional campaign, launched with a big bang that will defuse over time. "What Moves You" will grow over time and aspire to facilitate more moving experiences between customers of Bang & Olufsen and their products. There are three major differences to the campaign, separating it from earlier undertakings by Bang & Olufsen. To start, the campaign is a global endeavour embraced by all markets around the world. Secondly, the campaign emphasizes a massive digital marketing push. All contents can be found online, and are shared with consumers through the website and social networking sites, as well as a campaign mobile site. The third difference is found in the aforementioned revival of the emotional candour of Bang & Olufsen products.
In the past ten years Bang & Olufsen has developed a multitude of unique products and technologies, placing it in a league of its own – especially in the category of sound and acoustics, user friendliness and product and home integration. But Bang & Olufsen is not just about creating unique products; it is about creating unique experiences for users – experiences that are greater, stronger and more enduring than what other brands can deliver.
What moves the user is the soul of Bang & Olufsen.
That is something artists do so well. Which is why Bang & Olufsen has joined forces with artists and visionaries, who have rich stories to tell. They inspired the forces at Bang & Olufsen to capture their stories on film, describing moving events in their lives, punctuated by sound or picture.
Later, the campaign will roll out more stories from celebrated personalities, which include a famous Bollywood actress, a provocative artist, a leading sound expert and more.
These stories will be the centrepiece in all communication elements going forward, and featured in shop windows, in customer outreach, and all online and offline communication.
"What Moves You" will be rolled out in more than 1,000 dealers where QR codes will feature in all storefront windows, enabling everyone to easily access the films through their mobile phone. In addition, the films will be available on all digital platforms where Bang & Olufsen is present: the website, Facebook, YouTube, a mobile site, and more. Finally the films will be sent out to more than 500,000 existing customers.