beats by dre: show your color

How do you make a campaign for a brand that doesn’t exist yet?

HOW IT WORKED

When this ad was made, Beats were a 12 person start-up in the back of Interscope’s offices. No one knew they existed. A fact they wanted to change very, very quickly.

They had an unusual problem, however, They had all the talent in the world — but no money to make anything.

So the idea we came up with was to create an ad that could be shot literally anywhere, in the back of any available or remote studio, featuring any athlete or celebrity, and captured by any photographer or director available in the moment.  

As a creative, this is quite a scary way to make something. But the rubric was simple, and I think catchy enough, to just about pull it off.

We launched this campaign at the 2012 London Olympics. That, along with a clever gifting strategy, made Beats by far the most visible brand at the Olympics. And by the end of 2012, it seemed like everyone had a pair of big red headphones around their neck.