Marshall Berlin Takeover #NeverStopListening

When Marshall asked us – as an experiential marketing agency – to plan, design and carry out an activation for their new product launch in our hometown of Berlin, we jumped at the chance. No other headphone brand stands more for an unsurpassed sound, an individual and unmistakable design and an unrivaled image.

Founded by Jim Marshall in 1960, influenced by the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, and cherished by millions of music lovers worldwide, Marshall has a unique history, shaped by authentic and honest music.

This is the guiding principle behind Marshall’s “Never Stop Listening” campaign: listening matters – it’s the heart of what Marshall does, but it’s about more than just listening to music. Listening also happens when people take off their headphones and tune into each other – that’s powerful and potentially world-changing.

With these thoughts in mind, we created a guerilla marketing campaign in Berlin, but we had to turn up the volume. Berlin is a city of extremes and contrasts, so we decided to take it over – completely. To make everyone turn their heads.

Our Berlin Takeover stretched over three weeks and kicked off with an out-of-home classic – wildposting.  In cooperation with our service provider, Berlin’s Mitte, Kreuzberg, and Friedrichshain districts were covered with over 2000 OOH posters featuring four motifs from Marshall’s “Never Stop Listening” campaign. Preparing Berliners for seeing a lot more of the brand within the next couple of weeks.

For the second and third week we planned something special. Checking out some intriguing names, we came across Berlin- and London-based street artist Freddy Chalk. Together with Freddy we created a series of activations for the Marshall Berlin takeover. Across two weekends in four locations, Freddy recreated in chalk a Marshall campaign image of the legendary, one-time Berliner Iggy Pop. His portraits each took more than twelve hours to draw – captivating thousands of passers-by.

Alongside the street art activation, and together with one of our partners, we illuminated various hotspots across Berlin for two weekends by projecting videos and images of the #NeverStopListening campaign onto Berlin’s buildings at night. Creating a digital mural and turning the heads of the city’s denizens.

CLY was excited to welcome a new client for this guerilla marketing activation – we can’t wait for the next one!