To accomplish our objectives, we utilized technology, and created a one-week COVID compliant pop-up in Washington Heights, the heart of the Dominican diaspora, with iconic cultural settings that included daily programming and a first-of-its-kind hologram experience. The goals we strove to meet for this campaign were to drum up awareness, create excitement and drive viewership for HBO Max’s first ever bachata documentary.
Our aim for this campaign was to drum up awareness, create excitement, celebrate the genre’s contribution to culture, and drive viewership for HBO Max's first ever bachata documentary -- Romeo Santos: King of Bachata. By tapping into lead talent, Romeo Santos’ audience - his fans were most engaged in the top 3 cities: New York, LA, and Miami. Leaning into this insight, we Followed by a marketing approach that consisted of: an experiential 8-day activation in NYC, bachata fest partnership in LA, intimate influencer screening in Miami, and social activations that unleashed the genre’s energy. To bring our idea to life, we created a one-week pop-up in Washington Heights, the heart of the Dominican diaspora. To keep the event COVID-friendly, attendees RSVP’d in advance to lock down a House of Bachata visitation window. The elements of the pop-up included an exterior that looked like a typical bodega from the outside, but led to an authentic, speakeasy-style colmado (a Dominican convenience store) featuring a fridge filled with beverages and other food items popular in the Dominican Republic. There was also a fully-functioning salon and barbershop featuring Dominican flag-inspired décor. We partnered with the CUNY Dominican Institute to create a history wall depicting a timeline of bachata music that included memorabilia donated by genre artists. To learn more, attendees could scan QR codes on the wall to summon video content featuring top bachata artists and their stories. Daily programming was an essential part of the activation. We offered a bachata instrument class for kids to teach them about genre instruments, a bachata dance class, an open mic night for community poets, free haircuts, and a handful of screenings of the documentary. Included in the mix were daily happy hours presented by our brand partner, Presidente beer.
The campaign drove a significant amount of impressions across social and news publications, totaling over 34.4M impressions across social and news publications.The exterior of the venue, replica of Romeo’s room, the Bachata Wall, and most importantly the Romeo Hologram on stage were the popular activation spaces many attendees shared via social from over 300+ unique accounts and sources. In addition, many attendees shared their experience on TikTok by using the #RomeoHBOMax hashtag, earning over 1.78M impressions.The Romeo Santos Hologram became a huge hit, garnering mediability through coverage across Adweek, BizBash, EventMarketer, resulting in 2.3K views.
