From a branded content perspective, New Zealand definitely lags behind larger international markets. Truly unique content created for the benefit of media partnerships and brands is still in its infancy. In NZ the cost of “bought media” is considerably cheaper due to economies of scale, and the popularity of “owned digital media” is increasing, while the cost of producing branded content remains fairly high. Most New Zealand clients, with limited budgets, would therefore prefer to revert to a more traditional advertising media model to reach their consumers.

As a consequence there are few rules or restrictions regarding branded content, with the only stipulation from media owners being that it should be clear to the audience that the content is brought to them by a brand. Pretty simple really.

What that does mean is that the media owners are very open to new ideas to ensure they’re connecting brands with their audience in more engaging and relevant ways.

During the 16 weeks production timeline, we released weekly content in association with our PR partners, updating our young target of our progress to create a music track using the body’s movement. Community interest built steadily.

On June 16th, The V Motion Project showcased its new technology with an unexpected live performance in downtown Auckland. The motion artist’s movements were projected as mind-blowing animations onto a 12x30m wall, as the music boomed all around.

The event was covered live on national TV and radio via our PR partners, while it was witnessed & recorded by hundreds of spectators, and uploaded to YouTube and Facebook.

And finally we released our 3 minute music track and music video. This content was played on-air via our radio and TV PR partners. The music track was also loaded to iTunes and within days had generated huge sales taking the track to no.1!

V Robbers drove deep consumer engagement over 8 weeks:

• 123,585 Robberies

• Over 900 winners

• $3,024,544 total cash stolen

• Total time played was 6,796 hours (283 days)

• With an average time on site of over 23 minutes

• Facebook engagement grew by 174%

And that engagement delivered sales growth. Against heavy discounting by the world's biggest energy drink, Red Bull, V Robbers drove a 12% lift in sales in NZ's biggest convenience channel.