The insight

Chevy’s new car, the Chevrolet Groove, was aimed at youth. But young people don’t care about new car launches… They do care about music though, with over half of Gen Z & millennials listening to 3+ hours of music every day – more than any other demographic. And yet, in the Middle East, the charts are dominated by western music and traditional Arab styles like Khaleeji and Sheilat. This led to young people in the region craving greater representation in music.

The Idea

Korea has K-Pop, Japan has J-Pop. We wanted to give Arab millennials this representation with music and artists they could truly relate to. So, we created ME-Pop, a new genre of music that combines modern elements of Arab music from different artists, genres and origins, to capture the heart of the Middle East and unite Arab youth. Chevrolet worked closely with diverse regional artists to define ME-Pop’s signature sound, ensuring we maintain authenticity, reflect regional tastes and still offer young Arabs something new.

Why should it win in radio & audio?

Most brands aiming to tap into music simply try to create associations between famous artists and their brand/product. We took a more authentic, audience-focused approach, adding value to the Middle East music landscape by creating a brand-new music genre that the region’s youth craved.

ME-Pop is a genre that young Arabs can truly relate to, feel represented by and take ownership of. Our collaboration with up-and-coming artists from across the region ensured authenticity at every step and allowed us to launch an album that took the shape of true entertainment, not ordinary advertising.

The Strategy

We focused our campaign on the music platforms our audience listened to most. Choosing not to spend a single cent on radio plays, we instead targeted people actively searching for new music and better artist representation, and relied on ME-Pop being featured on regional ‘new music’ playlists across streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Anghami, Deezer and YouTube.

This authentic approach ensured we reached those who were seeking the original diversity that ME-Pop was offering, as opposed to a more typical advertising approach which would push our music to a wider base with significantly more paid media dollars.

The Execution

We worked closely with our artists to define ME-Pop’s signature sound, ensuring we authentically reflected Arab youth while offering them something new. Every track mentioned ‘Groove’ or ‘Chevrolet’ within the lyrics – building on Chevy’s musical legacy, built over decades by popular artists. This allowed us to seamlessly integrate our product and connect the brand to the excitement created by ME-Pop.

Adopting the same approach taken by mainstream artists, we teased and dropped two hit singles online to build listener appetites, ahead of releasing the full album. Our first single and hero track, ‘Balash Ana’, featured stylish Saudi pop artist Carmen Soliman, and up-and-coming Bahraini hip-hop artist Flipperachi.

Building on Balash Ana's success, we featured this track across our TikTok-esque social content, basically turning our car feature videos into music videos. Professional dancers moved to the music in and around the Groove, highlighting the car’s features using modern choreography and cool, dynamic transitions that fit right in on social.

We even created the world's first musical car catalog to use on social and our website - with artist and producer Mojoiam integrating Groove's key tech features into an awesome lyrical track.

The results

· Groove sold out across the region

· More than 45 million song plays, in 52 different countries

· More than 12,000 totally organic videos featuring ME-Pop tracks created on TikTok

· Extensive media coverage of ME-Pop

· ME-Pop even reached 4-time Grammy-winner, Timbaland, who heard and loved our third track, ‘Chokran’ - and shared his reaction to it on his personal Instagram - again completely organically.

Chevrolet - ME-Pop: A New Music Genre for the Middle East

CREDITS

Local partners

Gold partners