Bite-Size Beats
Mars Chocolate North America / M&Ms
Issue 44 | September 2017
Agency
BBDO New York
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer Worldwide David Lubars Chief Creative Officer BBDO New York Greg Hahn Executive Creative Director Tim Bayne Senior Art Director Kelly Saucier Senior Copywriter Casey Vagianos
Production Team
Group Executive Producer Amy Wertheimer Senior Producer Becky Burkhard Executive Digital Producer Eric Berg Music Producer Melissa Chester Production Company So Far So Good Editorial Company PS260
Other Credits
Account Team Susannah Keller, Phil Brolly, Courtney Jones, Crystal Lee Group Planning Director Annemarie Norris Comms Planning Director Sean Stogner
Date
March 2017
Background
In 2016, M&M'S had acquired significant relevance in the music category with its 75th anniversary activations, specifically with millennials. In 2017 they wanted to do more, offering their fans accessibility, personalisation and fame. Given their target's love of music and strong preference for the authenticity of user-generated content, M&M'S sought to develop a platform accessible from any device that would offer each user a unique experience every time they visited.
Then, reward users with the prospect of not just being entertained, but letting their subsequent creation become entertainment for millions of others.
Idea
Incredibox was an interactive music game hosted at Bitesizebeats.com, which featured beatboxing M&M'S characters. It could be accessed on any device, no app download required. The platform turned anyone into a professional DJ.
Each of the M&M'S characters had its own distinct identity, while 24 original accessories and music loops were tailor-made to match their unique styles. Users simply dragged and dropped an accessory onto a character to make them beatbox. The accessories correlated to original music loops that could be combined to create endless beatboxing melodies. There was even a bonus interlude when users could unlock the right combination, featuring a duet between the M&M'S and the original Incredibox character, Polo.
Users recorded, submitted and shared their beat, racking up views on the leaderboard and in social media. Tens of thousands of beats poured in, creating a massive pool of user generated content, many of which were then used as TV and online ads.
Results
Bite-Size Beats' authentic approach to music and UGC has proven M&M'S bite-size product could thrive in maker culture. Big time. Numbers are expected to increase significantly but results so far are:
41,709 beats have been made; with an average dwell-time on the site of 1:30 seconds. 788,036 sessions have taken place with a total of 1,212,335 page-views.
15% of visitors created a beat. 20% of users came back to the site more than once.
Our Thoughts
The clever bit about this is that it works through an instant app. In other words, it's just a link. That's the way to encourage user-generated content. Make it as easy as possible for people by removing as many barriers as you can.
There have been other instances of brands inviting fans to remix music and share it but few have the technical sophistication of the Incredibox, with its 24 musical add-ons.
It's great fun, putting together your own beat. (I spent a lot longer on the platform than the average 90 seconds.)
Sharing their interest in making music is also a clever way for M&M'S to maintain its relevance to a notoriously fickle target audience.
Boom chicka cha-wa-wa oooh.