Objectives

Honda came to Billboard looking to put a new twist on Honda Stage, the music platform they launched in 2014 featuring exclusive performances, to connect with their target consumer on a deeper, more emotional level. As part of the 2020 campaign, Billboard partnered with Sech to tell the story of his rise from humble beginnings in Panama to international acclaim as one of Latin music’s most compelling rising stars.

The content series centered around visually-arresting, evocative storytelling as Sech was given the platform to share his inspiring origin story by way of a three-part mini documentary. In chapter one the artist details his religious upbringing as the son of two pastors and how the experience sparked an early love of music. In chapter two, Sech looks back on the release of his international hit “Otro Trago” before closing by discussing his goal to cultivate Panama’s next wave of musical talent in the final installment.

The docu-style videos were supplemented by electric performances from Sech’s Grammy-nominated second album 1of1 and an assortment of social assets like social clips, boomerangs and hi-res photography that bolstered our multi-platform distribution strategy.       

Strategy and Execution

Our creative and distribution strategies remained fluid throughout 2020 as the activation team and talent were forced to continually adapt plans to contend with the coronavirus pandemic, the ad industry’s boycott of Facebook and Instagram and the shifting media consumption patterns that resulted. Creatively, we worked within production constraints to produce a highly engaged series of video content with Sech, including:

• 3-part mini-documentary: Our documentary was captured across three locales that held significance for Sech throughout his upbringing: Panama, Miami and New York City. To further diversify the look and feel of the finished product our team employed a child actor and original animations that helped illustrate moments from Sech’s adolescence
• Bespoke performance video: Sech premiered a special rendition of “Relacion,” his hit single from 1of1, during Billboard’s Latin Music week. The custom branded performance helped deepen the connection between Honda and their Latinx target consumer by creating a cultural moment that put the brand’s support of Latin music and artists on full display
• Honda Stage Live: 2020 saw the global pause of the music industry as a result of the coronavirus pandemic which preempted a growing need for virtual experiences. With that need in mind, Billboard and Honda responded by creating the first iteration of Honda Stage Live, featuring Sech. The charitable live performance, which included tracks from 1of1 including “Casino” and “Se Va Viral,” was streamed on Billboard’s YouTube and the proceeds were donated to Feeding America.

On the distribution front, Honda charged the Billboard team to reassess our distribution strategy in light of the brand’s participation in the Facebook boycott. Though the platforms had once been an integral part of our promotional plans we were able to react quickly to the change in direction, crafting a new approach that prioritized YouTube and Twitter as primary view drivers while simultaneously distributing shorter form video assets on platforms like TikTok, Snapchat and Spotify to direct Sech fans back to the longer form content.    

Results

Sech’s Honda Stage content saw strong performance across the board and ultimately outpaced a number of campaign and company benchmarks:

• Our multi-platform distribution plan drove mass viewership of Sech’s documentary, performance and editorial content across Billboard, Billboard Latin and Honda Stage social channels. Holistically, the content series proved effective in engaging Honda's target consumer after garnering video view and engagement rates that were 60% and 85% above campaign benchmark respectively.
• The premiere of Sech’s “Relacion” performance video during Billboard’s Latin Music Week was one of the campaign’s most highly engaged pieces of content. The IGTV release received an engagement rate that outperformed the campaign benchmark by nearly 17x.
• The Honda Stage Live performance was effective in underscoring Honda and Sech’s shared commitment to philanthropy and community. The stream leveraged YouTube's donation functionality to raise donations for Feeding America and the organization's fight against food insecurity. 

Media