Tiger Beer helps uncover talented underground Kiwi musos

AUCKLAND, Today: What happens when one of NZ’s most successful acts asks your underground band to collaborate and create a track? “You jump at it like a tiger,” reckons Saatchi & Saatchi CCO Steve Cochran.

“This was the premise behind the pairing one of NZ’s most successful bands, Drax Project, with an Auckland-based underground duo, imugi, in a project from Tiger Beer.”

DB Breweries marketing director Fraser Shrimpton said: “The music industry is unforgiving at the best of times. Add to that a global pandemic which saw venues all around Aotearoa locked down – and Kiwi musos have been doing it tougher than usual.

“Tiger, a brand with the positioning ‘Bold Finds a Way’, wanted to help an emerging act by defying the usual industry conventions.

“Tiger approached award-winning Kiwi band Drax Project to uncover an emerging local artist, looking to defy the odds and catapult the new track onto the national stage.”

“So, Tiger approached multi-award-winning Kiwi band Drax Project to uncover an emerging local artist, looking to defy the odds and catapult the new track onto the national stage. The project, dubbed Tiger Uncover, saw Drax Project push the boundaries of the familiar to collaborate with Auckland-based underground electronic duo, imugi.

The collaboration and making of the track was captured as a short content piece, and is being pushed out in social channels by both bands as well as above the line through Tiger. Music industry people and some lucky fans having already seen it performed live at a launch event in Auckland’s Ponsonby strip, where an accompanying music video was filmed.

The project mirrors some of Drax Project’s own origins, when the band would busk outside of some of the very stadiums they now fill. “Sessions with young artists always make us think of our first session with SIX60. We were just starting out and they were SIX60, but they made us feel really comfortable and treated us like equals. We try and pass on this energy to anyone we work with,” says Drax Project.

As well as facilitating the collaboration with Drax Project, the Tiger Uncover project will also support the release of imugi’s new track with long form video content, a music video and street posters.

CREDITS

Client: DB
Marketing Director: Fraser Shrimpton
Senior Marketing Manager Global Brands: Cormac van den Hoofdakker
Marketing Manager Global Brands: Brooke Freeman
External Communications Manager: Natasha MacKenzie

Creative agency: Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand
Steve Cochran: Chief Creative Officer
Executive Creative Director: Jordan Sky
Chief Strategy Officer: David McIndoe
Strategic Director: Clinton Mellsop
Group Business Director: Aaron Hodgson
Senior Business Director: Briar Dye-Hutchinson
Business Manager: Julia Lewisham
Executive Producer: Jane Mill

Production Company: Tutu Films
Director: Manu Walters
EP: Robin Walters