The XXVII Nationwide Song and XVII Dance Festival opening – Elektrum brand activation
Main category
CROSSOVER
Sub-category
14. Brand Activation
Watch the event video
Event Description and Key Objectives
Energy can be created not only by water, wind, or the sun; there is great amount of energy in each of us. The XXVII Nationwide Song and XVII Dance Festival was opened in a very unique and energetic way.
At this festival, Elektrum created an opportunity for participants and visitors to be in a unified energy flow, enhancing the joy of the celebration and truly generating positive energy.
Elektrum festival arch, located in Old Riga, symbolically opened the festival parade, and before it, with the help of a specially designed kinetic floor, the energy was created by all participants. Every step, jump, dance move was measured. Special energy strip accumulated kinetic energy, converted it into kilowatt-hours, and counted total amount of energy. Together for almost 9 hours non-stop 40.000 participants created 715 kWh! With this amount of energy, about 7000 mobile phones can be charged, or an electric car can cross Latvia more than four times.
Key challenges
XXVII NATIONWIDE LATVIAN SONG AND XVII DANCE FESTIVAL has traditions that last over 150 years. Dance and song are true Latvian religion.
This event happens once in five years and involves more than 40.000 participants from all over the world.
Main challenges and tasks:
* What is the best way to activate brand that is one of main sponsors of this event?
* How to create a festival energy?
* How to stand out between many sponsors with something extraordinary?
* How to find something that was not done before?
* How to involve ALL participants?
By actually creating real energy …
Basic information about the event
Name of the organiser
Meduza Events agency in cooperation with WKND creative agency
Location
Riga, Latvia
Event duration
01.07.2023.
Client
Elektrum
VOTING LINK
Event results
Creativity
Since old times arches were built to celebrate victories. Elektrum digital arch was developed as symbolic gate to celebrate opening of Festival.
Every single participant entered through this symbol. But just before arch, we built kinetic platform to collect positive energy that was created by participants.
Main task was to show that energy was human made! It was calculated to show what can be done with it if accumulated.
To create super positive atmosphere and to lift up participant energy during 9-hour ceremony each dance or choir group was greeted personally by MC.
During ceremony video greetings were collected from fans and participants to be shown on digital arch.
Ceremony was shown online for those who could not participate.
Innovation
The concept of walking through arch is ancient and the victorious feeling was there naturally. All participants have been preparing for this event like for Olympic Games. Five years of rehearsing, getting ready for the special event needed energetic starting point and we created it.
Digital and interactive video arch was developed as a modern celebration statement. It served several purposes:
* collected information about energy created on the kinect floor
* showed video greetings from public and fans
* video camera on the top of arch showed parade for those who could not attend
Nothing like this was ever done in Latvia and in this festival before.
Execution
Main content of XXVII NATIONWIDE LATVIAN SONG AND XVII DANCE FESTIVAL was organised by the Ministry of Culture department. More than 1,600 groups in Latvia and more than 100 elsewhere are preparing for the event.
All of them were lined up for opening ceremony in special order. Thus we followed this procedure and scenario. We used this sequence to welcome each one of them and they felt more special. As all opening took more than 9 hours we used this time to collect video greetings by participants and fans that were shown on the arch. There was video crew on the streets and different crew for arch videos. All the time we had ear monitor to connect with MC about the line up and whom to greet next or what video will be plaid next.
Necessary to mention - MC did not leave arch from the start to the very end of parade. He could have breaks, but refused to use them :)
Measurable results
The XXVII Nationwide Song and XVII Dance Festival was opened in a very unique and energetic way and Elektrum brand was especially highlighted.
All 40.000 participants went through the Elektrum arch.
Together for almost 9 hours non-stop participants generated 715 kWh of energy.
Brand awareness reach just for this event was more than 1.000.000.
The main impact was that people were shown the future of energy generation.
Communication
The project was a kick off for all XXVII Nationwide Song and XVII Dance Festival that Elektrum was one of main sponsors and this event was TOP priority on their communication list for 2023.
Besides this opening extra PR and brand activation campaigns were used in several festival locations throughout all days.
The same principle of energy generation in the same way was used to attract and involve public.
Elektrum social media channels were used a lot and were the main source of awareness.
Sustainable practices
Sustainability was one of main tasks for this project, and not just because the Client has it as one of main values.
If we went this way with the concept of human generated energy, we had to be perfectionists and lead by example on every step on the way.
First of all the same kinect floor was used not just for this event, but delivered further to other venues where brand was activated during this festival. After it was used in other events.
The arch was built 95% of stage constructions, LED panels, and even the printed materials were reused in other events later.
