At the Berlin Festival of Lights on the 8th October 2016, we electrified the new smart electric drive models. Literally. For the first time in history, we linked four high-voltage coils together to conduct 1.5 million Volts to the models. The arising lightning created a spectacular choreography and unique sounds – turning the cars into electric instruments. A DJ controlled the lightning strikes and the vehicles using a mixer. The result: a fascinating live performance with the models in the leading role and a unique musical composition.

We teamed up with Chris Bekker, the festival's official DJ, to turn the smart cars into electric music instruments. During the thrilling live show, the cars got electrified as they moved past the high-voltage coils. The spark-output of the coils pushed on air, which created unique sounds. These were merged with a track Bekker composed for the event – creating an extraordinary sound experience for the audience and viewers online via a livestream. The composition was then published by smart and Chris Bekker which allowed fans to listen to the composition online via YouTube, Itunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, Shazam, Napster, Google Play, Deezer etc.

The city wide festival for light art, with over 2 million visitors, provided the perfect backdrop. The performance took place on a 225m2 stage on 8th October 2016, which was also when first social media impressions were uploaded. The official music video was uploaded to YouTube 7th November.

Apart from a spectacular live performance that attracted many of the visitors of the Festival of Lights, the event resulted in a composition that translated the brand values musically and used cars as electric instruments for the first time as well as a video documentation that shared the experience with the world via social media:

• 1.694.101 impressions on Facebook, thereof 200.000 in the first 24 hours

• 338.472 impressions on Instagram

• Preorders of the smart electric drives nearly tripled since mid of October 2016

• Weekly traffic on the microsite increased by 59%