Creativity in Public Relations

Today was a big day for Sony Ericsson Australia (H&K client) with the launch of a new youth volunteering and empowerment campaign – time2rock which made news across Australia, helped in part by campaign ambassador and Australian Idol co-host, Andrew G, who came to the official clean-up launch event.  The campaign is grounded on a key insight of Australian youth (and perhaps a global youth insight) — many young people are socially aware, and would love to help out good causes or charities, but are often just asked for a cash donation, something many of them don’t have laying around.  What they do have is time, arms, legs, muscles, sweat and tears – they can do stuff, carry stuff, pack stuff, clean up stuff, lots of stuff – without having to give cash.

With this insight in mind, the time2rock campaign was formed.  The campaign motivates people to get involved by donating 2 hours of their time, either by attending an official time2rock clean-up event – with campaign partner Clean Up Australia – or creating their own with a “create your own clean up event” kit that they can receive in the mail.  With either participation pathway people receive a unique code to come back to the campaign site to get their hands on exclusive tickets to concerts feauring some big Australian bands – Cut Copy, End of Fashion, Cassette Kids and more.  The time2rock concerts this year are taking place in three cities close to major capital cities of Australia.  If people don’t live near a concert city they can choose to receive some exclusive music content created by some of the time2rock artists.  And to ensure others can be rewarded for their ongoing volunteer efforts, they can also share their volunteer story on the site to also grab the exclusive music content too. 

The campaign provides Sony Ericsson with a great way to engage with young Australians who want to do something to help the world, who may not be able to give cash but they can give time.  The campaign site has minimal Sony Ericsson branding, as the company understands the importance of providing a forum and vehicle for youth to get involved and just be a part of the conversation, not the center of it.  And by using the global youth currency of music, time2rock strikes the right chord with people who will get excited about a free concert, and hopefully, appreciate the path to get there – with the end goal of having more people start a lifetime of volunteering at an earlier age.

The team was inspired by a similar effort in the US by Boost Mobile and added a variety of new twists with time2rock (part of the team was involved in the launch of some of the efforts in the US).  The team added the ‘create your own’ element to make the campaign and the essence behind it more accessible to more people.  Any person volunteering to help anything or anybody also is rewarded with a special ’share your story’ component of the campaign.  The entire Sony Ericsson team is truly hoping to motivate more youth to experience the feeling you can only get by doing something to help the world.  The world needs more of these campaigns – designed to encourage others to do more – and this campaign hopes to inspire additional companies to find ways to help others get involved to do their part too.

Check out the time2rock campaign site to read more about it or the campaign interactive media release.  And of course check back over the next few weeks as the local clean-up events kick in as the campaign heads for the concerts in mid-November.  Plans are already in development to bring time2rock to more cities across Australia, with more ways to motivate more Australians to do their part to help rock the world in a whole new way.