• by Larissa Faw , November 28, 2014

Hard Rock may be closely associated with music and artists, but its iconic t-shirts are an essential part of the business. In fact, retail makes up approximately 40% of its Cafe business. 

Now, agency TVGla and Hard Rock are leveraging the popularity of these t-shirts as part of a global social media initiative. 

“This video celebrates the attitude of the Hard Rock Brand and introduces that sensibility to a new generation of consumers in an engaging way,” said Dimitry Ioffe, CEO of TVGla. “This represents a new marketing approach for Hard Rock and we believe this strategy will ignite Hard Rock fans to share this film and experience the brand.”

As part of the campaign, a three-minute video features some 40 dancers who shake, rattle and roll to the upbeat MKTO song “Classic,” while various Hard Rock locations are flashed in the lower right portion of the screen.

Seven of these performers were selected for their influential social media presence, who in turn, will promote this video to their social channels. In total, these seven individuals will reach more than three million followers. 
In addition, the film airs on Hard Rock’s YouTube channel and will be seeded in additional social media channels by TVGla. 

Additionally, a custom created GIF clip has been created for the online platform BuzzFeed titled 10 Sexiest Moments in the Hard Rock Video. This content is also intended to spread virally across social media channels.
This is TVGla's first initiative for Hard Rock. Prior efforts by Hard Rock have been mostly direct marketing focused.

Hard Rock Cafe spent $9.140 million on advertising between January and June 2014, down from $10.546 million during the same time frame in 2013, according to Kantar Media. In 2013, the brand spent $19.027 million, down from $26.716 million in 2012.