Challenge: Operating in the crowded sports drink category Mizone Australia needed a way to stand out from the competition to drive sales. This needed to be achieved in the context of a 71% reduction in media budget from the previous year.Objective: Persuade regular Australian athletes to buy more Mizone.Strategy:A question with the power to engage music, sport and mainstream media:When you exercise to music, it feels easier, but does it genuinely make any difference?Mizone conducted experiments to prove that it does, and to identify what musical properties help you get 'in the zone' and therefore create 'Music to put you in the Zone'. By sharing the process, we ensured that everyone knew about it.We also distributed our 4 music tracks as a gift-with-purchase with real talkability.Execution: We established the Mizone ZoneLab, the place where we conducted our experiments. We consulted Professor Peter Terry, a leading authority on music and sports performance psychology. Based on his research into beats-per-minute, rhythm, motivational lyrics and musical association we briefed 4 composers and 4 everyday athletes.Each composer was tasked to create a track for one of the athletes, designed specifically to put them in the ‘zone’, taking into consideration their sport and regular routine.

The output of the experiments was 4 ZoneLab tested music tracks that we distributed via Mizone bottles as gifts-with-purchase. Film content of the experiments told the ZoneLab story, forming the basis of our PR strategy and populating our advertising.

Objective: Motivate regular Australian athletes to buy more Mizone.Target audience: ‘Regular athletes’ aged 18–28; the kind of people that exercise because it’s the ‘right thing to do’. It’s less about winning the next major event, more about keeping fit.

Our research identified the important role that music plays in exercise for all these ‘regular athletes’. Research underpinned by the number of people running around cities all over the world with their ubiquitous white earphones.

The PR campaign was phased over two periods, initially focusing on the music and secondly on the science behind the music. Each tranche of activity targeted different press providing depth to the story and reach to the activity. Two weeks prior to launch a PR pack was sent to influential music bloggers and journalists. Each pack included a branded iPod with the four ZoneLab music tracks. Traditional and online interviews were completed focusing on the artists’ involvement and how they developed music to the scientific brief. The second PR phase launched consecutively with the main campaign. Its focus was on the science underpinning the experiments, leveraging Professor Terry and his sports psychology credentials. This phase targeted mainstream consumer press in both traditional and online environments. The PR phases ran as planned but we up-weighted our focus on the science inherent within the campaign – it proved to be very newsworthy.

Our task was to persuade Australians to drink more Mizone. With 71% less budget than last year, Mizone achieved a year on year sales increase of 35%, scoring the highest monthly sales figure in 3 years.The ZoneLab created music that was scientifically proven to be more motivating. Our consumers agreed.

Over 35,000 people visited the ZoneLab, spending a total of 74,083 minutes watching the films or sampling the ZoneLab music.

Our Facebook following increased from 700 to over 10,500 (with no Like-gate) Our PR activity generated 6,012,105 media impressions.

Music, it is said, has the power to take us to a different state of consciousness, a place where physical effort feels easier, you perform better and feel less pain, a place they call 'the zone'. Mizone set out to prove this theory, to identify what musical properties help you get there and therefore create 'Music to put you in the Zone'.The ZoneLab story was a multi faceted one, with the potential to engage the science, music, sports and mainstream media – giving us multiple bites at the PR cherry.

As well as driving sales, Mizone has an ongoing task to substantiate its positioning in the hearts and minds of its target audience of regular athletes. Whilst we knew the gift with purchase would help drive sales, it would only work if supported by a differentiating and relevant communications story. Mizone ZoneLab gave us that story. PR gave us the channel to tell our story, providing the reach and engagement to amplify the impact of our gift with purchase sales mechanic. PR would add depth by focusing on the science underpinning the experiments andadditional reach by leveraging the musicians’ stories of producing music the experiments.