Ad agency VMLY&R originally wanted us to help licence a track for a campaign titled #Caltexunstoppablestar, aimed at engaging musicians and fans across Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Their client, Caltex, a division of Chevron, wanted to get people excited about driving again. And what better way than a karaoke, or rather CARaoke, sing-along?
While we got them a great price for the use of Queen's “Don’t Stop Me Now” - we also suggested that, rather than licence an existing track, we could create one just for them. And that Def Jam Southeast Asia would be a great label partner to do it with.
The 60 second track, written by rapper and producer SonaOne, features 4 verses with progressively faster lyrics. It was performed and shared by three of Def Jam Southeast Asia’s biggest rappers - Malaysia’s Joe Flizzow, Thailand’s Daboyway and the Philippines’ Matthaios. Entrants were encouraged to post their versions on TikTok and win prizes.
Within just 10 days of launch, the campaign already had over 650 million views on the competition page, with several unique submissions from high-profile participants. And by the end of the campaign, #Caltexunstoppablestar had generated a bunch of buzz and over 1.5Billion hashtag views for an incredibly happy Caltext client. Watch the case study here...
