The 2nd Chance Song promotion was designed to immediately shift young people’s perception of Telstra, Australia’s largest telecom company. We asked aspiring musicians to help us give an underrated song a second chance by covering it in their own unique way. The most popular performer, as voted by music fans, would win $10,000 from EMI Music Australia and get a professional music video created for their cover.

Consumers were engaged at every stage of the promotion. They were able to explore hundreds of covers of the song, including versions submitted by famous music acts, YouTube creators and aspiring musicians. They could vote for their favourite version and decide which artist would ultimately re-release the song.

Most importantly, the work had a real business impact for Telstra, making young consumers 77% more likely to consider them and 14% more likely to recommend them to their friends.

Telstra was struggling to connect with young consumers. Aggressive competition and a perception that they were old fashioned were hurting the brand.

They asked us to help them reconnect with young consumers through music, one of their key marketing pillars.

Looking into the history of Australian music, we realised that while some average songs made it to the top of the charts some great ones never got the recognition they deserved. So we decided to give one underrated song a second chance. Knowing we needed to reach young consumers, we decided on a digital and content-led approach.

2nd Chance Song was a resounding success. In just three weeks over 350,000 music fans visited the website and the equivalent of 621 days of video was watched.

The public voted for their favourite cover and EMI Music professionally recorded the winning version. This proved to be a great PR story, earning coverage in Australia’s largest news publications, popular morning TV shows and music websites.

We created genuine conversation. One in five young people that saw the campaign spoke about it with friends or shared it online.

The campaign generated over 3.2 million YouTube views during the campaign period alone. This was double the campaign target and more views than any top rating music program on TV this year.

As a direct result of the campaign, young consumers’ likelihood to consider Telstra jumped by 77%. More importantly, they are now 14% more likely to recommend Telstra products to their friends.

Music is a key marketing pillar for Telstra and part of a long-term strategy to drive preference for their brand, particularly amongst young people.

Keeping our target market in mind, we decided on a digital and content-led approach, which was a first for Telstra. Not only was the promotion digital-led, it used new media like YouTube creators, interactive YouTube mastheads and the social accounts of four famous music acts. Everything was mobile optimized and used existing YouTube behaviour.

The campaign had a number of unique stages all aimed at engaging a youth audience and changing their perceptions:

* Telling the story of the underrated song

* Highlighting our famous music acts and YouTube creators’ covers

* Calling for musicians to create their own versions

* Celebrating the best entries

* Asking the public to vote for their favourite

* Introducing the winning version and professionally recorded music video