Belgian telecom company Telenet launched a new smartphone app YUGO that brings all topnotch entertainment (all HBO series, premium local content,…) and online culture (the best online content based on your personal interests) together with an unlimited data subscription. Watch anything, anywhere, the way you want without worrying about anything. A product built for a digital-savvy generation to freestyle with.

Exactly 20 years ago the catchy breakbeat song Freestyler - by the Finnish band Bomfunk MC’s - hit number 1 in the European music charts and beyond. The music video featuring a teenage boy controlling his surroundings with only the help of a minidisc player became iconic. For millennials it was the soundtrack of their youth.

Knowing nostalgia is picked up easily by a target audience that’s almost impossible to reach, Telenet remade their favourite video and added some extras to discover.

In 1999, Bomfunk MC’s ruled European hit charts with Freestyler. We gave this iconic number 1 music video a modern-day remake, directed by UK Grammy nominee Nadia Marquard Otzen. The updated music video celebrates the launch of a new all in one entertainment app by Telenet - Belgian’s largest telco brand. Not a teenage boy controlling his surroundings with a minidisc player this time, but a teenage girl who has all the power with her smartphone. Where the original music video was full of references to the late nineties pop culture – from bomber jackets to breakdancing - culture has also changed a lot in 20 years. Freestyler 2019 is stuffed with easter eggs that are more in sync with today’s culture: from Game of Thrones to Instagram hero The Fat Jewish, from the hyped dances (dab, swish, Fortnite) to famous memes. The one element which didn’t change: the original.

The target group of the product are millennials who are almost unreachable through classic media. They stream content instead of watching TV, they listen to Spotify instead of the radio, they read online instead of magazines or the newspaper… Telenet needed to create something that would get noticed online, travel and become a trending topic. The competition was online culture. By starting from a music video that is part of the generation’s collective memory and updating it to the digital and cultural context of today, we succeeded to reach the target group straight in the heart.

By adding easter eggs referring to different fields of interest (fashion, art, memes, series, etc.) the video started travelling.

Danish music video director Nadia Marquard Otzen - nominated for several UK Grammy’s with music videos for Years & Years and Emili Sandé - was in charge of this reboot. Also crucial for this production was the cooperation of the original band: Bomfunk MC’s. The band members pop up in the same iconic shots as in the original video clip, although 20 years older.

The video was launched on YouTube only but next to being the remake of a 20-year-old

iconic music video, it was stuffed with easter eggs referring to nowadays entertainment and online culture. Every reference to art, fashion, dance, memes, etc. was implemented in a broader and smartly planned PR driven approach. The search for all the easter eggs made the video go viral on many social platforms like 9gag and Reddit.

The video hit over 8 million views in less than two weeks. On an awareness-level, 1 out of 3 of the target audience had heard about YUGO within 3 weeks. The PR-value of 910K was the highest ever for a Belgian Telco-campaign. As a side-effect, there was a streaming peak of +230% of the song Freestyler on Spotify.

And because of the success, the band (that is planning a reunion tour in their homeland Finland next summer) has decided to fly over for 1 show in Belgium.