Chevrolet, a 102-year-old brand, must reinvent itself to face aggressive competition. For the 18-to-34 age group, the challenge is twice as hard, since this clientele is more receptive to the latest cool brands and tends to be more difficult to reach through traditional advertising.

A sponsorship with the Montreal music festival Osheaga allowed Chevrolet to be at the heart of the action and be central to one of the biggest gatherings of trendy and influential young adults in Canada.

The activation strategy was built around the idea that Chevrolet could be the link that makes festivalgoers connect. The goal was to create an unforgettable experience that would enable them to experience a new side of Osheaga.

The Chevrolet Game was a simple, fun and easy-to-play game that would start a conversation and connect all festivalgoers. Every festivalgoer was given a Chevrolet wristband (several colours and numbers were used). They had to find someone wearing an identical wristband among the 135,000 festivalgoers and register at one of the three Chevrolet kiosks.

They used social media, via their smartphone, to share content and comments about their quest on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag #ChevroletOsheaga.

To facilitate the conversation, Chevrolet created a mobile hub (codechevrolet.com) that gathered all pieces of social conversation around the Chevrolet game (#ChevroletOsheaga). Participants could then easily search for Instagram pictures and tweets, and reach out to participants wearing a similar wristband.

Giant screens, installed at all the Chevrolet kiosks, also displayed the #ChevroletOsheaga twitter feed and Instagram pictures, giving participants their 15 minutes of fame, helping them find a matching wristband and increasing excitement for the game.

Among all festivalgoers who found their match and registered, two lucky participants each won a brand new 2013 Chevrolet Spark.

An advertising campaign was deployed to inform festivalgoers of the game's existence and build excitement before they came to Osheaga. From July 22 to Aug. 3, displays were set up in the subway stations leading to the event site and in buses on lines serving Parc Jean-Drapeau. Chevrolet was the only event sponsor that could be displayed on the Osheaga home page, multiplying the contest's visibility before and during the event. Osheaga's social media presence (over 105,000 Twitter and Facebook followers), as well as Chevrolet's, was put to use before and during the festival.

The results were better than expected and created significant word of mouth on site and in social media: 95,000 branded wristbands were handed out to festivalgoers (70% of all festivalgoers); 50,000 Osheaga attendees tried to find their match (40% of all festivalgoers); 5,206 festivalgoers found their match and registered at the Chevrolet kiosks; 413,565 potential impressions on Instagram from 2,683 mentions of #ChevroletOsheaga; 1,892,240 potential impressions on Twitter from 795 mentions of #ChevroletOsheaga; and total social media conversation: 2,305,805 impressions.

On-site survey results showed a significant lift in brand attitudes, perception and consideration among festivalgoers who played the game, whether or not they found their match.