Company: Harman International, Stamford, CT
Nomination Submitted by: Brave Dog
Company Description: HARMAN International designs and engineers connected products and solutions for automakers, consumers, and enterprises worldwide, including connected car systems, audio and visual products, enterprise automation solutions; and services supporting the Internet of Things. Leading brands include AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, Mark Levinson® and Revel®.
Nomination Category: Communications & Marketing Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Reputation/Brand Management
 Nomination Title: JBL True Summer
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the nominated campaign or program - its genesis,development, planning, commission, and performance to date - OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
A video of up to five (5) minutes
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions, provide them in the appropriate spaces below:
Overview and Challenge. JBL has been synonymous with award winning sound for more than 70 years. As a premium brand, JBL competes in a crowded sector to win and grow brand love from target Gen Z consumers. These consumers value brand authenticity, creativity, personal expression, credibility and innovative, trend- setting products. Gaining brand familiarity and consideration are vital steps along the path to purchase. JBL brand research of this critical Gen Z target audience identified gaps in Brand Familiarity and Consideration vs key competitors Beats, Bose and Apple.
The Gen Z audience has very high interest in music, entertainment, lifestyle content – and are the most active attendees for live events. It is harder to reach Gen Z than any prior cohort. They’re skeptical of paid advertising and watch much less commercial TV. Success with Gen Z requires social-led communications efforts. Gen Z audiences turn to trusted social voices for product information, reviews, and endorsements. These content creators have engaged followers because of their authenticity, creativity, perceived relevance, and earned trust.
JBL wanted a sustained summer sales promotion in 2021 and needed an overarching communications platform and sustained narrative to stimulate influencer content, build brand familiarity, and create massive social engagement at scale.
Insights and Strategy. JBL path to purchase research measures the key steps in the journey: initial awareness, familiarity, consideration, and claimed purchase. JBL identified awareness and brand familiarity gaps versus key competitors Beats, Bose, and Apple, with JBL’s brand familiarity gaps of -12 Pts (Beats), -24 Pts (Bose) and -26 Pts (Apple). This familiarity deficit results in lower purchase consideration. JBL’s overall purchase consideration of 48% is lower than competitors: -7 Pts (Beats), -22 Pts (Bose), -11 Pts (Apple). This consideration gap is particularly acute with critical Gen Z target, with their consideration of JBL at 41%, -7 Pts below JBL’s overall average.
Gen Z’s reliance on social-led video content continues to increase. Their self-reported rates of using video search sources, like YouTube, as a source for product recommendations and reviews has more than doubled from 2018 (38 percent vs. 18 percent). Shoppers aged 18 to 29 are almost 3 times as likely to consult YouTube compared to consumers over 30. Once purchased, 71% of these consumers watch how-to videos for instruction, a 44 percent increase over 2018. The contest for brand familiarity and consideration has clearly shifted into social media.
TikTok and Instagram are now the dominant and most influential platforms for the Gen Z audience. JBL curated a list of the most impactful Gen Z influencers in music, pop culture, entertainment, and lifestyle content. JBL needed to find authentic ways to enter into this content driven dialog with fans.
After a very long pandemic suspension, there was a built up desire to return to the joy of live events. The Gen Z target craved a return to celebrate together all of the things that make summer great – concerts, festivals, live music, and events. JBL created a Gen Z targeted, summer-long campaign that fused music, live events and appealing headline artists with the power of Gen Z influencers. JBL True Summer was thematic messaging platform – led by Gen Z appealing music superstars, anchored by live events, amplified with extensive earned media, and activated by massive #JBLTrueSummer social engagement. Three major music events in July would be the media focus and catalysts for this integrated campaign.
These concert events created exclusive and targeted opportunities to engage with Gen Z social influencers. Event passes and red carpet access were offered to a carefully curated list of Instagram and TikTok influencers. Targeted influencers received True Summer product / content seeding kits to encourage product content featuring JBL and lifestyle content celebrating #JBLTrueSummer. JBL’s owned social campaign amplified True Summer across all platforms.
Bringing the idea to life. JBL announced the True Summer events and partnership with NIVA at the start of June 2021. Anchoring these events were international music superstars Bebe Rexha, Jason Derulo, GZA (founding member of Wu Tang Clan), Funkmaster Flash, and JBL’s sponsorship of Lollapalooza. The kick off concert became the VIP launch party for the entire summer campaign. This exclusive VIP concert and pre-show red carpet became a celebrity destination for VIP attendees, celebrity guests, media exclusives, and an attendance magnet for a targeted list of social media influencers. The red carpet event also became a launch pad for social content and special guest social amplification.
#JBLTrueSummer was a social influencer effort that turned True Summer into an active social engagement campaign. Targeted influencers received True Summer kits who shared their own summertime adventures with JBL True Wireless – unboxing, JBL lifestyle content, and product demos – with the authenticity and passion of these Gen Z influencers. Sixty pieces of JBL content were posted on Instagram and TikTok. Several influencers attended the LA and NY events, boosting the social content and engagement. JBL launched a strong presence on TikTok with influencers posting #JBLTrueSummer content that consistently trended throughout August. JBL’s owned social media amplified and boosted True Summer artist, celebrity and influencer content. Engagement spiked during the launch of the NIVA and Lollapalooza partnerships, the True Summer concert events, and following celebrity endorsements.
A national consumer promotion kicked off in June, coinciding the media launch of JBL True Summer. This consumer and sales promotion included national sweepstakes, special sales promotions, Amazon and regional retailer support, and local retailer incentive promotions. The True Summer national media campaign was amplified with targeted brand content partnerships with Vox, podcasts, and iHeart Media listener promotions.
Results and Impacts. JBL True Summer succeeded on every dimension as it moved the critical Gen Z target audience along the path to purchase. The headline concerts and supporting red carpet media events created new JBL awareness through +4B Media Impressions, featuring key Gen Z skewing coverage from Popsugar, ET, In Style, Teen Vogue, BuzzFeed and many more. Celebrity attendees, headline artists, VIP guests (including a surprise appearance by Lizzo) all created their own event posts that build additional JBL awareness – with 57M combined social media impressions (reaching +42M on Instagram).
The Gen Z targeted social influencer campaign turned this brand awareness into engagement and active consideration. These influencers social content efforts generated massive responses with 90M Impressions and 750K #JBLTrueSummer engagements. Gen Z’s emergent platform of preference became a campaign superstar, with JBL’s debut campaign on TikTok gaining 17M #JBLTrueSummer views and 563K engagements and making TikTok’s Trending Today throughout August. JBL’s owned social media amplified the social campaigns, adding 43M Impressions across Twitter, FB, and Instagram.
Most importantly, this targeted Gen Z effort saw substantial bottom line results for JBL, generating total Headphone sales gains of +56% YoY and boosting JBL’s featured True Wireless product line an explosive +120% YoY. Brand Consideration grew +23% with Gen Z, quadrupling the KPI planning objectives of +5%. A True Summer win.
- Describe the development of the campaign or program: the planning process, the goal setting, the creative and media development, the scheduling, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 241 words used.
Insights and Strategy. JBL path to purchase research measures the key steps in the journey: initial awareness, familiarity, consideration, and claimed purchase. JBL identified awareness and brand familiarity gaps versus key competitors Beats, Bose, and Apple, with JBL’s brand familiarity gaps of -12 Pts (Beats), -24 Pts (Bose) and -26 Pts (Apple). This familiarity deficit results in lower purchase consideration. JBL’s overall purchase consideration of 48% is lower than competitors: -7 Pts (Beats), -22 Pts (Bose), -11 Pts (Apple). This consideration gap is particularly acute with critical Gen Z target, with their consideration of JBL at 41%, -7 Pts below JBL’s overall average.
Gen Z’s reliance on social-led video content continues to increase. Their self-reported rates of using video search sources, like YouTube, as a source for product recommendations and reviews has more than doubled from 2018 (38 percent vs. 18 percent). Shoppers aged 18 to 29 are almost 3 times as likely to consult YouTube compared to consumers over 30. Once purchased, 71% of these consumers watch how-to videos for instruction, a 44 percent increase over 2018. The contest for brand familiarity and consideration has clearly shifted into social media.
TikTok and Instagram are now the dominant and most influential platforms for the Gen Z audience. JBL curated a list of the most impactful Gen Z influencers in music, pop culture, entertainment, and lifestyle content. JBL needed to find authentic ways to enter into this content driven dialog with fans.
- Specify the date on which this campaign or program was launched:
May 2021
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
- Describe the genesis of the nominated campaign or program: the reasons it was initiated, the challenges it was created to address, the problems it was developed to solve, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 203 words used.
Overview and Challenge. JBL has been synonymous with award winning sound for more than 70 years. As a premium brand, JBL competes in a crowded sector to win and grow brand love from target Gen Z consumers. These consumers value brand authenticity, creativity, personal expression, credibility and innovative, trend- setting products. Gaining brand familiarity and consideration are vital steps along the path to purchase. JBL brand research of this critical Gen Z target audience identified gaps in Brand Familiarity and Consideration vs key competitors Beats, Bose and Apple.
The Gen Z audience has very high interest in music, entertainment, lifestyle content – and are the most active attendees for live events. It is harder to reach Gen Z than any prior cohort. They’re skeptical of paid advertising and watch much less commercial TV. Success with Gen Z requires social-led communications efforts. Gen Z audiences turn to trusted social voices for product information, reviews, and endorsements. These content creators have engaged followers because of their authenticity, creativity, perceived relevance, and earned trust. JBL wanted a sustained summer sales promotion in 2021 and needed an overarching communications platform and sustained narrative to stimulate influencer content, build brand familiarity, and create massive social engagement at scale.
- Outline the activities and concrete results of this campaign or program since the beginning of July 2020. Even if your initiative started before July 2020, limit your response to activities and results since the beginning of July 2020 only (up to 250 words):
Total 221 words used.
Results and Impacts. JBL True Summer succeeded on every dimension as it moved the critical Gen Z target audience along the path to purchase. The headline concerts and supporting red carpet media events created new JBL awareness through +4B Media Impressions, featuring key Gen Z skewing coverage from Popsugar, ET, In Style, Teen Vogue, BuzzFeed and many more. Celebrity attendees, headline artists, VIP guests (including a surprise appearance by Lizzo) all created their own event posts that build additional JBL awareness – with 57M combined social media impressions (reaching +42M on Instagram).
The Gen Z targeted social influencer campaign turned this brand awareness into engagement and active consideration. These influencers social content efforts generated massive responses with 90M Impressions and 750K #JBLTrueSummer engagements. Gen Z’s emergent platform of preference became a campaign superstar, with JBL’s debut campaign on TikTok gaining 17M #JBLTrueSummer views and 563K engagements and making TikTok’s Trending Today throughout August. JBL’s owned social media amplified the social campaigns, adding 43M Impressions across Twitter, FB, and Instagram.
Most importantly, this targeted Gen Z effort saw substantial bottom line results for JBL, generating total Headphone sales gains of +56% YoY and boosting JBL’s featured True Wireless product line an explosive +120% YoY. Brand Consideration grew +23% with Gen Z, quadrupling the KPI planning objectives of +5%. A True Summer win.
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