Technics

We'd been creative collaborators with the folks at Panasonic North America (PNA) for nearly a decade when they brought us on board for a new campaign launch with Technics. Technics is a high-end premium audio brand known mostly by audiophiles. Panasonic had taken all of the hi-fi technology and put it into beautiful noise-cancelling earbuds.

The real challenge here was nailing down our target audience in a market that's more packed than a concert at Madison Square Garden. We hustled to test messaging across numerous digital channels to get the lay of the land. The data confirmed what we'd been thinking about this legacy brand. With all that info in our back pocket, we got down to business crafting an initial campaign launch that'd hit all channels at once.

But then, wham! Covid-19. Just one month before production. Everything was put on hold. But here's the thing, under lockdown, people started scrambling for new and better ways to listen to their tunes at home. So, instead of just waiting around, we brainstormed how we could shift our focus to post-production only. It was a big move, but by being flexible, we managed to stay in the game, stick to our budget, and still deliver a launch video on time. 

The launch turned out to be a massive hit, and the in-house agency wanted to kick things up a notch. We knew we had to broaden our horizons. We were racking our brains, thinking, where can we find that sweet spot of authenticity and entertainment and maybe get a bit of a boost without trying too hard?

That's when we noticed that bands and musicians were in a state of chaos with all their concerts, tours, and festivals canned. It hit us - we had a golden opportunity to connect with a group that was already big on Technics and had some time on their hands to create some amazing stories. Cue Cold War Kids who checked every box and happened to be in LA recording their new album New Age Norms 2. The rest is history.

We kicked things off with a teaser video about the upcoming collaboration with the band and followed with a documentary-style piece where original bandmates, Nathan Willett and Matt Maust, discussed their new album and their love for Technics sound. To top it all off, we created shorter versions for social media and digital ads to steer people to a special Technics + Cold War Kids webpage.

Our campaign hit it out of the park. It was so successful that Panasonic asked if we could produce an exclusive concert with Cold War Kids for CES. Due to the pandemic, this event would stream online. We wanted to bring the vibe of the iconic CES location, Las Vegas, to our audience and had just learned that Panasonic had recently installed their projectors at Area 15–an immersive entertainment complex just a stone's throw away from the strip. Bingo. New. Hip. Empty. We scouted and secured the perfect room for this endeavor. Production had numerous challenges and logistics in the heat of the pandemic, but we overcame and overdelivered. For more information on the experience checkout the press release.

Panasonic had just rolled out the LUMIX box cam, the BGH1, which would be perfect for our 5-camera "live" production at Area 15. We thought, why not use these new cams and whip up a case study for LUMIX while we're at it? After running some tests with our Director of Photography here in LA, we laid out a plan and got it funded. We filmed the production with the shiny new BGH1s and created a case study video around it. We even hosted a live stream for Panasonic to chat about the whole experience with our crew. It was a grand slam for Panasonic, Technics, LUMIX, and Cold War Kids. Everybody won. Now onto the next one!