Emerge Energy

MTV Events Partnership

The energy drinks market is highly competitive and communicating with a generation of young, dynamic consumers is often a challenge. Emerge Energy came to Sky Media with the desire to build both brand recognition and love of the product amongst 16-24-year-old men. The brand wanted to extend its presence and reputation beyond the energy drinks sector, to develop a deeper engagement with consumers, and drive an increase in brand consideration and purchase intent.

Initial audience research uncovered a crucial nugget of insight, which highlighted MTV viewers are more likely to buy an energy drink than non-viewers. In addition, these viewers are typically avid festival-goers, who are highly active on social apps – sharing their experiences with friends and family.

Sky Media brought together Emerge Energy and MTV into a synonymous partnership to energise the summer for thousands of music fans through a 360° sponsorship. For Emerge’s first TV sponsorship, Sky Media set the bar high – linking the brand to the champion of youth culture and music, and giving the brand unprecedented access to the hard to reach 16-24-year-old-male target audience. Moreover, with MTV’s strong heritage in delivering events, both on a global and local level, it enabled the partnership to extend beyond traditional linear sponsorship.

The sponsorship included activity across broadcast, on the ground at MTV events, social and digital media to help drive scale and brand awareness. Emerge drove the sponsorship through limited edition multipacks of Emerge across the period of the partnership. MTV and Emerge combined to create the perfect platform to kick start the summer, unlocking numerous opportunities and ultimately helped to increase brand appreciation.

The campaign kicked off with Emerge Energy becoming the headline sponsor of MTV Crashes Coventry and ground level partner at MTV Crashes Plymouth. This was supported by a high- energy TV advertorial across MTV’s network of channels, which encouraged viewers to ‘fuel their summer with Emerge Energy’ and MTV.

To extend the partnership further, Emerge sponsored ticket giveaways to win a VIP experience at the MTV Crashes Coventry event. This was promoted via digital platforms such as the Sky Sports News page and MTV’s social channels using the #EmergeFuel targeting 16-34 males.

In addition to the headline sponsorship, Emerge Energy was fully integrated into the fabric of the MTV event with banners and flags around the venue, as well as having an on-screen presence around the stage in between acts. Emerge Energy ambassadors promoted product sampling through a competition to win more prizes by getting a selfie with one of the ‘jet pack crew’ who were handing out samples to the crowd.

To drive crowd interaction, Sky Media and Emerge developed the very first ‘GoPro beach ball’. The transparent Emerge Energy branded ball contained a weighted Go Pro camera which captured the reaction of festival-goers at all the MTV Festivals across the summer. This footage was then used to create visual content for seeding online via MTV and Emerge’s social media channels. It also underpinned Emerge Energy’s updated TV advertorial, which promoted ticket giveaways to other summer events the brand supported.