Probably TEDx
Carlsberg International
Issue 45 | December 2017
Agency
Happiness Brussels, an FCB Alliance agency
Creative Team
Geoffrey Hantson, Pieter Claeys, Tadas Maksimovas
Production Team
Nobody Copenhagen MDH Hologram London, Rune Milton, Niels Kau, Remke Faber
Other Credits
Jonathan Take, Elke Janssens, Eline Goethals, Barbara Dzinkanowice, CC Clark
Date
August 2017
Background
Beer consumers were increasingly looking for authentic brands. So, a lot of international beer brands started talking about their heritage. Carlsberg thought they should do the same except that they challenged the agency explicitly to come up with an idea that would be more talked about than the average heritage campaign.
Idea
The idea was to get the founder of Carlsberg, J.C. Jacobsen, who died 130 years ago, to be officially selected by the curators of TEDx to give a TEDx talk in Copenhagen on August 23rd.
For months, a team of speechwriters and biographers from the Carlsberg Foundation studied the rich documentation of the Carlsberg archives. The aim was not only to be historically correct but to really enter the mind of J.C. Jacobsen and write a truly inspiring talk that was in sync with 1883 but relevant to today.
The first posthumous TEDx talk was titled 'Why you should answer every question with probably.'
Jacobsen took to the stage as a live hologram and interacted with the crowd.
The TEDx Talk was announced via an online film, filled with real events from Jacobsen's past, giving depth to his rich history. Through numerous events and live streaming, Jacobsen's talk was seen by the 41,000 Carlsberg employees globally. The 17 minute TEDx talk was also hosted on Youtube live for the world to enjoy. Afterwards the speech was split into 9 snackable content films of 1 minute each, which was the kick-off for a year-long campaign around the person of Jacobsen.
Results
The TEDx event on August 23rd in Copenhagen sold out. After just 24 hours it had become the most viewed talk on the TEDx Copenhagen platform, talked about in all media, globally. The 17 minutes of content reached over 3 million people. It was praised because Jacobsen's TEDx talk was not just an empty stunt but a truly inspiring talk, worthy of a 19th century Steve Jobs.
Our Thoughts
Tupak Shakur amazed the audience at Coachella when he came back from the dead to appear on stage. And I believe the late, great David Bowie was planning a concert tour in which he would appear as different holograms for the different stages of his career. But to pull off the same stunt with commercial intent required quite a lot of bravery – as well as a very good idea. This could easily have been cheesy or plain 'meh' but they pulled if off because the experience is strangely believable. Jacobsen comes across as a little bit pleased with himself but also, from the country that gave us his contemporary Søren Kierkegaard, as something of a philosopher.
Geoffrey Hantson has history as a master of the YouTube video with his Carlsberg 'Bikers' video of 2011(22 million views: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS3iB47nQ6E ) and 'A Dramatic Surprise On a Quiet Square' for TNT (55 million views: www.youtube.com/watch?v=316AzLYfAzw )
He seems to have done it again.