Forget what you know about your local. Desperados turned the tables by turning them into turntables. In over 60 venues across Ireland, customers were given the chance to play on a set of bar furniture that were transformed into playable instruments. 

With collaboration at the heart of the process, we collaborated with London based Nervous Squirrel. “Using a combination of Mogees, Touch boards and Raspberry Pi,with no small hint of invention, experimentation and fun, we changed how people saw ‘instruments’ and ‘musicians’ forever in the on-trade.” – Nervous Squirrel.

BYOBEAT plays into the emerging trend of DIY culture by putting the power into peoples’ hands to become the creator, free to explore in Desperados’ DIY musical playground. We gave people a chance to be part of a collective night of musical creation, forming the largest DJ crew in Ireland.

Desperados BYOBEAT (that’s bring your own beat) was a first – not just for Ireland, but the world – becoming the first playable bar area.

The music didn’t stop there; the beats created on each night were recorded and is currently in the process of being turning into an actual BYOBEAT LP to allow anyone that got a chance to play on the night relive the moment – and maybe even spot their own beats on the track. These records commemorating the events will be sent to all accounts as well being available to play on Spotify.

BYOBEAT has been chosen as the brand's global activation of the year and is currently being rolled out across Europe. 

The campaign recently won three awards in the APMC Star Awards, the promotion excellence awards that over the last twenty-five years, have rewarded and recognised best in class promotional marketing campaigns in Ireland & internationally.