Lucozade Energy Unveils 'Yes' Music Collaboration

Lucozade Energy, through Grey London, has teamed up with Sony Records and up-and-coming artist Dominique Young Unique to drive relevance for Lucozade within youth culture and energise the brand’s ‘YES’ proposition. The £10m campaign marks the first for the brand’s Energy variant in the UK since 2011’s James Cleaver Quintet musical spot and Grey’s first campaign since the brand’s sale to Suntory last year.    

The TV, cinema, OOH and DOOH (including recently launched The Grid, the UK’s first full-motion city centre network of sites) campaign broke with a TV ad during new Danny Boyle series Babylon on Channel 4 last night (9 February) and runs until August 2014.

The campaign seeks to define and visualise the ‘YES’ moment, first introduced in 2011: the moments when you’re with your mates, the energy is flowing, when everything clicks and the good times go up a level. The TVC was directed by Emily Kai Bock, best known for her work on music videos for the likes of Arcade Fire and Sebastien Schuller. 

Grey, in partnership with Platinum Rye and Sony Records, signed up up-and-coming vocalist Dominique Young Unique. In order to truly create cultural relevance for the brand among 16-24 year olds, it was important to commission a rising star and launch a breaking track, rather than buy the rights to an already established artist’s track. The track, Throw it Down, will become the artist’s first UK single release in April. Additionally, the accompanying music video will comprise footage from the Lucozade Energy shoot. 

The integrated campaign sees the return of the ‘YES Project’ on-pack offer following its huge success last year, with a new competition mechanic to give consumers the chance to win prizes every hour. Prizes include festival tickets, spring break adventures in Cancun, European city breaks and various YES goodies, and aims to build on Lucozade Energy’s 7.3% rise in YOY sales in a category worth £924m.

David Stratton, Lucozade brand development director, says: “Lucozade Energy is flying at the moment and we plan to keep up the momentum by taking the plans to the next level this year.  Following from our success with DJ Fresh and Tinnie Tempah it’s great to now be working with Dominique Young Unique, providing a platform for her in the UK and bringing new music to our audience. With more new products, an even bigger promotion, and huge support behind the YES campaign, 2014 will be a big year for the brand.”

Darren Wright, creative director, Grey London, adds: Darren Wright, creative director, Grey London, says: “The Lucozade energy YES campaign is all about positive, uplifting, YES moments. It's about creating energy rather than just selling it and music plays a massive part in that. In the past we've collaborated with some great artists like Tinie Tempah and DJ Fresh which has built real authenticity for the brand.  For this campaign we wanted to build on this but bring something new and different to the table. The Dominique track has amazing energy which has been captured beautifully by Emily Kai Bok, a brilliant director who recently shot Arcade Fire's latest music video.”

Grey’s previous musical collaborations for Lucozade include Louder with DJ Fresh, which reached #1 in the UK singles chart, was the highest iTunes pre-order ever and generated more than 20m YouTube views; Simply Unstoppable with Tinie Tempah, Travis Barker and Katie Taylor, which reached #5 in the UK chart and generated more than 11m YouTube views; and a cover of Feeder’s iconic hit Buck Rogers by unsigned band the James Cleaver Quintet.

Other notable examples of the agency’s brand/artist collaborations include Schwartz and MJ Cole, who penned an original score for The Sound of Taste; Puma Fragrances and Dre Skull, who penned the music for the Puma Dance Dictionary; and The Brother Printer Orchestra, which saw Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are a-Changin’ performed by 97 dated, dusty printers, scanners, photocopiers and fax machines.