We created The Sound of Tomorrow: the first dance track drifted by a car. To make this possible we built a gigantic record player and used the agile Mazda MX-5 as the needle. The more precise the car drifted, the better the track played.

A professional stunt driver drifted the car around on the record while Tomorrowland DJ Licious gave directions and recorded the song. Thanks to 3D mapping and tracking technology every movement was registered. By drifting over the right lines of the record at the right speed, the song was played perfectly. After a lot of burnt rubber the Mazda MX5 remix was recorded. Then the track was released on the festival by Tomorrowland Dj Licious, spread online through a music video and offline through vinyl records. Before we released the final track, we also posted three ‘failed’ drifts on a website. If people could guess the track they could win festival tickets.

Over 400.000 people (that’s twice the number of visitors of Tomorrowland) listened to our track and experienced the new face of Mazda through the partnership with Tomorrowland. Thanks to the stunt, our influentials and our vinyl record press releases we received qualitative PR-coverage, ranging from specialised automotive and electronic music press to mainstream media (8,5 million impressions). The campaign scored over 90% likeability and led to 81,4% brand appreciation, measured within our younger target group of 18-35, a group that before considered Mazda to be a brand for older people.

In event sponsorships brands are often replaceable or limited to logo’s. But being the world’s best dance festival, Tomorrowland has an audience with high expectations. So how to match this crazy festival with a car brand in a relevant way? Not with classic advertising, but with an equally crazy entertainment solution: we recorded a dance track using a drifting Mazda MX-5 as the needle of a turntable. Then we released it, played it at Tomorrowland, created a music video and published it on vinyl,… while collaborating with top DJ’s Lost Frequencies and DJ Licious to assure a high artistic value.

To show the new face of the Mazda to a younger audience, Mazda started a partnership with Tomorrowland, one of the craziest and most spectacular dance festivals in the world. But how to match the best dance festival in the world with cars? You use the car to create music. But we needed to do it in a relevant way. So what if we could treat a car as if it was the needle of a turntable? And drift a track with the agile Mazda MX-5? To make some more noise we didn’t pick just any track, but we chose Reality by Lost Frequencies the most popular song of Tomorrowland 2016. We involved influentials to boost the campaign even more: pro race driver Jan Wouters and Tomorrowland DJ’s Lost Frequencies and DJ Licious.

The past decade the Mazda brand suffered a lack of appreciation in the 18-35 target group. Young people felt it was a carbrand for older people. The last years however the complete model range had been redesigned and it was time to bring Mazda back to the attention of this younger audience.