The Rock Clock Wakes You Up With Dwayne Johnson's Awkward Singing and 'Scary' Ring Tones

Today is Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's birthday, and before his fans have had a chance to send him happy wishes, he's delivered a present to them, the "Rock Clock," a motivational alarm clock app designed to help them achieve their goals, with daily videos of encouragement from him everyday. The app is the latest initiative out of Project Rock, the lifestyle brand Mr. Johnson debuted in March with Droga5 and WME/IMG. "Time to not only set our goals together, but we gon' hold each other accountable for accomplishing them too," he teased last week on Instagram. The mobile app, available for iOS and Android, extends the Project Rock mantra, built on the idea of helping people people "chase greatness and achieve greatness," said Dany Garcia, Mr. Johnson's longtime manager and founder of talent and media management company The Garcia Companies. The "Rock Clock" invites users to input their goals and mark a completion date for each. It also features 25 different alarm tones, all curated by Mr. Johnson and some of which feature his own voice and sense of humor. In one, for example, he sings awkwardly to acoustic guitar: "Good morning sunshine! Yeah, that's what The Rock just said. Open your eyes, and get your candy ass out of bed." In another, he just says, repeatedly, "Ring, ring," getting increasingly menacing with each repetition. In a few others he mocks sleepers-in by calling them "Jabroni." Popularized by The Rock, it's a riff off the term "jobber," a wrestler who loses just to make his opponents look better in the ring. Key features also make it unique to The Rock's "all-in" mentality. For one, it doesn't have a snooze button. "We were trying to work out how to make a snooze button work when it was actually Dwayne who said, 'Fuck, there shouldn't be a snooze button,'" said Droga5 Global Alliance Director Nick Phelps. Users also have the option to wake up at "Rock Time," synchronized to when Mr. Johnson wakes up each morning (warning, this can be as early as 3:50 a.m.) and every day, Mr. Johnson will deliver an ephemeral personalized video message, Snapchat-style, to help give fans that extra push. "He controls the master app," said Ms. Garcia. "When they wake up [the message] will be there and will be gone in 24 hours. If you snooze, you lose." "Project Rock" debuted earlier this year with a branded Under Armour Bag that sold out in ten days. The idea for the brand has been an idea nearly two years in the making, said Ms. Garcia. "We were at a point a few years ago where we were really enjoying what was happening in his career and were wondering, 'Is there another way to serve the audience,' which is a fundamental tenet to who DJ is. He's absolutely audience-driven first. This comes from the days of wrestling and the world of WWE. From early on we learned the importance of how do you take care of an audience, how do you move them?" Even given his busy schedule, Mr. Johnson is very active on social media, with 50.1 million followers on Instagram, 10.1 million on Twitter and 55,743,174 Likes on Facebook. Mr. Phelps explained that in conceiving the Project Rock brand, the agency team looked at the trajectory of his career, which saw Mr. Johnson rise out of a failed attempt to become a pro football player and go on to achieve fame in the wrestling world and then as a blockbuster Hollywood star. "He fought his way back," said Mr. Phelps. "That's what fans are connecting to. He gives them strength, and his emotional generosity is never about him, it's about the fans." One of the things Mr. Johnson's team learned through collaboration with Droga5 and WME/IMG is "it's not about how strong or funny or how loyal Dwayne is," said Ms. Garcia. "It's the fact that they all felt DJ helps you get through things. He's the type of guy that will help you get to an end point because that's how he lives his life." Next up, Project Rock will deliver a charitable component, what Ms. Garcia says is almost "like a Project Rock Academy" focused on youth that will incorporate the The Rock's tenets and best practices. This article also appears on Adage.com.

The Rock Clock Wakes You Up With Dwayne Johnson's Awkward Singing and 'Scary' Ring Tones

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