Mazda's key design philosophy is Kodo: the moment that energy becomes motion. For the release of the all new Mazda CX-3 we needed something that mirrored the essence of Kodo, turning information into a kinetic explosion of sensory energy within the digital space. We needed something that invited engagement, maximised interactivity, and provided a personalised output that made users WANT to share.

Knowing that our audience loved expression, communication and music we fused jazz and technology to create a personalised music experience, on mobile and desktop, which represented the release of energy at the heart of Kodo through powerful drum beats. We could empower people to enter messages and hear them blasted back out as bespoke drum solos to share online. Each drumbeat would be unique to the player's input with infinite possibility and unlimited expression.

So we invited our audience to 'Challenge the Rhythm'...

The concept was simple. People were invited to ‘Challenge the Rhythm’ by entering their message into a rich media ad unit or a module on Mazda’s website. Their message was translated into Morse code, transposed into a bespoke piece of jazz music and played back as the soundtrack to a bespoke video. The dynamically rendered video showcased not just the CX-3 itself, but dramatised the expressive Kodo lines of the car through visual soundwaves reverberating in time with the music. Users could then share their personalised rhythm video through social media.

How did we do this? With it’s natural binary rhythm, Morse code was the perfect starting point for turning words into music. For each dot and dash of Morse there would be a drum beat, but to match the organic, flowing nature of Kodo; we needed Jazz!

For every character of Morse we wrote individual drum fills, arranging them to different lengths to groove seamlessly around bars and offbeats as freely as an organic Jazz solo, with all of the variation and individuality of a live performance.

For every message written, we dynamically pulled from our army of drum fills, arranging them on-the-fly to generate a bespoke rhythm. This rhythm was complemented by visuals of the soundwaves, which were also generated by the actual drumbeats heard. These played around the car echoing the Kodo inspired lines of the car.

The experience lived in the Mazda web platform and inside rich media ad units - it was a cross device experience including mobile, desktop and tablet. In terms of scale it drove 310,000 engagements with 52,000 visitors to the UK site alone, outperforming benchmarks by a massive ten times. People found the experience itself deeply engaging with 23% of players playing repeatedly.

Campaign Live: 19/6/2015-31/7/2015