Arcade Fires' music video: Using creativity and story on Google, Twitter and Youtube to increase Word of Mouth

Today we look at how social media has brought interactivity to the music industry....gone are the days where music videos and concerts are simply passive viewing experiences. With social media, individuals can get involved in creating the music videos they want to watch and share them with friends online; people can customize music videos to tell their own personal stories. Similarly, watching a concert can now become an interactive and social experience.

One case study with the band, The Arcade Fire, recently came to my attention at work. After looking it up on WARC (in an article titled, 'Google: The Wilderness Downtown'), I discovered that this campaign won the prestige Cannes Lion award 2012. Have a read here...

Arcade Fire, The Band

Arcade Fire is a 7-person, Indie rock band based in Quebec, Canada. The band has been popular amongst fans of alternative music since they released Funeral in 2004. They are now known for albums such as Neon Bible and The Suburbs, which won the 2011 Grammy awards for Album of the year, as well as the 2011 Polaris Music Prize.

In recent years, the band has also been known for their interactive music videos, which invite fans to take part in their stories. They have developed three such videos for 'We use to wait (2010), 'Sprawl II' (2011) and 'Reflektor' (2013)...

The Wilderness Downtown Google Experiment

The Wilderness Downtown is the interactive, social media version of a music video for the Arcade Fire song, 'We use to wait.' It is a Google Chrome experiment; a multi-browser, HTML5 project which allows individuals to become part of the music video...To view the project, fans must put in the address of their childhood home. Following this, they can watch a music video built around them and their personal geography. Images of fans' childhood homes are interwoven into the clip, making it relevant and meaningful to viewers. In the clip, people are also given the opportunity to write postcards to their past selves. The clip is shown through several windows, which pop up and disappear as the story progresses...

You can make your own video here: http://thewildernessdowntown.com (Google Chrome must be used and it is browser heavy) or you can view an example below, though the full experience doesn't come across as well as trying it for yourself...But how is this all related to social media?

 

Well, fans can share the experience in a number of ways: they can share their video, with their childhood neighbourhood embedded in it, with others on social media pages like Google+ and Facebook. They can send a static url of the postcard they write to friends or out into the public. Chris Milk, director the video, created an invention called the Wilderness Machine, which has been programmed to swap postcards with random senders- sort of a message in a bottle concept. Each postcard can be "planted" (a graphic of a tree appears on the screen) and individuals who recieve a postcard can respond to them (they have a special code returning postcards to the sender). This can start conversations between fans of the band. Additionally, The Wilderness Machine scans and tweets the postcard messages to its Twitter account, one postcard message a day. 

Because the campaign was so 'cool', it also generated a lot of word of mouth advertising and buzz on social media when it was released...check out the tweets from celebrities:

Ashton Kutcher – 10M followers

"this is about the coolest thing I've seen in a long time http://bit.ly/cUptyg"

Jimmy Fallon – 5.3M followers

"New Arcade Fire video-directed by Chris Milk – type in your childhood address – it's really cool. http://bit.ly/bGqWer"

Ben Stiller – 2.6M followers

"http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/ Taking it to another level."

Rainn Wilson – 3M followers

"If u go to one website in your life, make it this one: http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/"

Stephen Fry – 4M followers

"This is just too impossibly splendid for words… http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/Try it"

Not long after it was launched in 2011, it had already generated 4 million visits, with many visitors creating content and sharing it with friends. What was so successful about the whole project? Well, I believe it was quite creative. It was one of the first interactive music videos launched which allowed fans to take an active role in their viewing experience. It exhibited elements of co-creation - providing fans with a beautiful and nostalgic framework to develop their own stories and shape their own entertainment. It was also easy to share, which meant that fans only had to click to pass on their videos and spead word of mouth. Further to this, Arcade Fire co-branded with Google and experimented with new technology (HTML5). This also helped to drive SEO and online discussion, as Google would not only promote the music video, but people would be interested in it due to its use of advanced technology. Pretty creative way to market music!

YouTube Concert

Following the release of the album, The Suburbs (which featured the song 'We use to wait' and The Suburbs, below), Arcade Fire also teamed up with YouTube, Veveo and American Express to perform a live-streamed concert in New York City. According to Mashable and Google, the online stream-concert attracted 3.7 million viewers and offered a range of interactive features. For example, people could play with a 'Choose Your Cam' function, switching between the directors' stream and second camera. They could also view fan-generated images, showing various childhood suburbs. 

The results? The album sold 765,000 copies in the US. Also:

The album debuted at No. 1 on the Irish Albums Chart, the UK Albums Chart, the U.S. Billboard 200 chart,^[4] and the Canadian Albums Chart.^[5] 

While its difficult to attribute the exact sales made due to social media promotions and activities, the Cannes Judges awarded this campaign for its creativity, integration of different channels and its high level of reach.

                                        

In conclusion...

Songs are about stories and creativity, performance is about sharing and experience; Arcade Fire knew this and incorporated these ideas to promote their music. They tailored the story of their music video so that it was local and personal to viewers. They made the project one of co-creation, both with customers and other brands (Google). So the music video was made 'together' with fans and was sharable with the wider community. All this  helped to generate online hype that propel the band's popularity and album sales.

Read more about The Wilderness Downtown here:

http://mashable.com/2010/08/30/arcade-fires-chrome-video/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/lifestyle/turning-page-views-into-album-sales/
http://socialmedia.hpc.unm.edu/?p=360

Key Points to take away:

• Be creative in social media  marketing - choose different platforms or create your own, and develop unique content to get customers talking and sharing your brand online.
• Involve elements of story and play on nostalgia, particularly customers' personal stories. People love to share their own tales and are more likely to remember marketing campaigns that involve narrative.
• Experiment with something new, like new technology. Nothing gets people talking like new concepts!
• For established brands (e.g. Arcade Fire), it is worthwhile co-branding and cross-promoting with other popular and relevant brand names (Google) to generate excitement and online discussion.
• Make social media content and campaigns local, personal, sharable and collaborative. This will increase chances that the content, and the brand, will get discussed by customers online.

Become The Wolverine! Virtual experiences + social media (Part 2)

Virtual experiences + social media in entertainment marketing

On my last post, we talked about using virtual experiences with social media to attract customers and augment offerings in travel campaigns. But virtual media can be used for more than just tourism advertising. Consider entertainment and film-based marketing. Younger audiences often develop fandoms for their favourite movie or TV characters, particularly if they are superheroes or fantasy characters - just think of all the Comicon conventions or midnight blockbuster film screenings where individuals dress up as Star Wars, Harry Potter or X-men characters.

Entertainment firms can take advantage of this and create shareable virtual experiences that allows audiences to become the characters they love. By doing this, firms create additional value for their audiences; they augment the entertainment they provide, turning it from a passive viewing activity to an interactive one. Audiences are not just waiting to be entertained...they can join in the fun themselves. The more fun they have, they more likely they are to share experience with others on social media. This co-creates value, leading to greater promotion for the product and company. Let's look at a creative film campaign that used virtual experience and social media to attract its audience.

Case study: The Wolverine Augmented Powers Campaign

20th Century Fox studios wanted to attract audiences to the new The Wolverine film. As the sixth installment in the X-men series, the film was not expected to receive the same hype as it predecessors. Because of this, the studio needed to make the film stand out to their target audience. To achieve their goal, the studio decided to create campaign that would augment the film for customers by providing them with a virtual experience where they could becoming the lead character of the Wolverine. 

This experience was not offered through an online game, but through actual kiosks placed in shopping centres and cinemas in 17 different countries according to Mashable. Individuals could play on the kiosks for free. When they approached, a Microsoft Kinect sensor would transport the user to a scene from the movie where Wolverine fights a Yakuza soldier on top of a speeding bullet train. Individuals would become 'Wolverine' in the battle, their swift hand movements turning into claw swipes on screen.

To link this to social media, the kiosks would take pictures of individuals engaged with the virtual experience and post it on their Facebook walls as well as on the official fan page.

This campaign was strong because it reflected a great understanding of the target audience; it appealed to them effectively by giving them the chance to live out their fantasies. According to the studio, the activity augmented the film; 'By slicing through obstacles and defending themselves from ninja attacks, fans would experience a virtual thrill ride, based on an exhilarating scene from the up-coming movie.' By providing a virtual experience through game kiosks, the company changed the film (the product) from a viewing experience to a fun, participatory experience. 

This not only got fans involved with the movie, it also enticed them to share the experience....so it was a smart idea to provide players with a photo memento to be shared on social media. The photos allowed players to arouse the curiosity of their Facebook friends and helped them to recommend the activity, and the film, to others. I think the shareable element was a great idea and might have been better if the kiosks had recorded short videos of players. Videos would have demonstrated the actual activity. It could have also helped to generate a higher level of online discussion about the campaign if players had used funny or 'cool' moves. 

Nonetheless, the campaign was highly creative and played a part in promoting the film in countries such as Mexico, New Zeland and The Phillipines. In the end, The Wolverine generated ticket sales of over $370.5 million USD internationally, which was about three times more than the films' production budget of $120 million. 

More information about the campaign can be found on Mashable and the inspiration room

http://mashable.com/2013/07/02/be-the-wolverine-kinect/

http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2013/wolverine-experience-augmented/

After reading this case study, do you think it was a strong campaign? What other industries might benefit from creating campaigns with shareable virtual experiences? Leave a comment and let me know!

Key points to take away:

• Virtual experiences can help to create a strong social media campaign in experience-based industries. This can include tourism (as discussed in our last post), but also entertainment, where audience members often seek to be like their favourite movie characters or Hollywood celebrities.
• Virtual experiences help to transform passive experiences (advertisements, films etc) into interactive experiences.
• To be linked effectively to social media, the virtual experience should include a shareable element, a photo, a video or some digital token that can be embedded on peoples' Facebook profiles/blogs/ Twitter feeds/ Pinterest accounts and shared with friends or followers. This helps to arouse awareness and interest in the campaign (friends may go try out the virtual experience too) and in the product (as a result of this advertising, they are likely to become aware and interested in the product as well.)

Send your Facebook profile to South Africa! Become a back-up dancer in Hong Kong! Virtual experiences + social media (Part 1)

Welcome to post #6! Today, we explore virtual experiences on social media, looking at 2 creative travel campaigns for Cape Town, South Africa and Hong Kong.

Virtual experiences: An Introduction

Social media marketing is about creating an experience for customers, not just using social media to conduct straight advertising and selling. A few weeks ago we looked at a successful case study where US TV station, HBO, used social media updates and games to lead audiences to Game of Thrones events offline. This highlighted one way of creating fun experiences for customers using social media.

However, organisations can also create fun experiences for customers online. By providing simulations of real-life experiences, companies can allow customers to 'try' products or services before they buy them. Or if they have already tried these offerings, a virtual experience can augment products and services, using interactivity, animation and graphics to bring the product or service to life for customers. If this is conducted on social media, individuals can not only enjoy the virtual experiences themselves, they also share them with with friends, family and peers.

Virtual experiences help to generate word-of-mouth advertising because it allow customers to tell interesting stories about the product or brand. According to Mangold and Faulds, from the article 'Social Media: The Hybrid Element of the Promotion Mix,' stories are memorable and repeatable. By helping to create stories that individuals can share about a brand or product, virtual experiences help to drive online brand discussions. Below, we will look at two creative case studies that have succeeded in creating brand discussion online:

Case Study 1: Send Your Facebook profile to Cape Town Campaign

Advertising firm, Ogilvy, helped to create a social media campaign for Cape Town Tourism that sent individuals' on a virtual holiday to the city through Facebook. Individuals could sign up and select the aspects of a holiday they were interested in (shopping, dining, adventures). This information was then used to tailor content to individuals' timelines. To send peoples' profiles on a virtual holiday, Ogilvy and the Cape Town tourism board put photos, videos and status updates that not only entertained individuals, but made it look like they were actually on holidays in Cape Town to their friends! Individuals who joined up for the program also had the chance to win a real trip to Cape Town.

This campaign was quite smart because it used virtual experience to give customers a taste of what it would be like to visit Cape Town. There were many different pictures and videos that were placed on individuals' profiles that displayed the beauty of city. Rather than give people a tour of the main attractions, this campaign took individuals to the secret gems of the country and allowed them to visit small communities and beatufuil natural mountains and beaches. By conducting this campaign on social media, pictures and experiences were 'shared' naturally, as peoples' friends and families would be curious with the Cape Town content appearing on their newsfeed.

What were the results of the campaign?

Overall tourism up by 4% and bookings for the following year up by 118%. On social media:

Case Study 1: Hong Kong Summer Spectacular Dance campaign

As mentioned in a previous post on this blog, Hong Kong hosts many events during the summer months including a large pop concert with many Chinese performers. To attract audiences from Asia to travel to Hong Kong and attend these events, the Hong Kong tourism board created a virtual music experience for audiences. Individuals could create their own music video and become dancers - they just had to upload their photos and their face would be placed on a pre-recorded dancers' body. This would create a funny videos that individuals could share with friends on platforms such as Facebook or Renren Wang (chinese social media platform).

                     

This campaign used virtual experience to give individuals a taste of 'stardom' and allowed them to experience the fun activities taking place in HK during the summer. These music videos not only showed the summer events, they were also outrageous and humourous media clips that amused individuals and enticed them to share with friends. According to Mangold and Faulds, outrageous content generates discussion and sharing online. In addition to this, individuals could encourage their friends to go on the Hong Kong Tourism website like their videos. The individual with the most likes could win a trip to Hong Kong with free accommodation. 

What were the results of the campaign?

The campaign received over 3000 submissions and the videos recorded received over 300,000 views. The site also had over 50,000 page views. Overall, the campaign raised travel to Hong Kong during the Summer months from the target destinations including Korea, China and Taiwan. 

Why were these virtual campaigns so successful? 

There were a few things that both campaign did that helped to increase success:

• Both campaigns gave audiences fun experiences that they might not yet have experienced in real life, e.g. travelling to South Africa, dancing in a music video
• Both campaigns were interactive and allowed individuals to personalize their virtual experience, e.g. select your holiday interest, select which photo to upload and which dancer to become
• Both campaigns provided avenues to share the content, e.g. on Facebook and other websites
• Both campaigns used competitions to incentivize viewing, participation and sharing. 

This is what I have observed. But please leave a comment... let me know if you have noticed other things that have made these campaigns successful! Would you try a virtual travel experience on social media? Would you share it? 

Key points to take away from this post:

• Make virtual experiences ones that customers haven't had the chance to experience in 'real life.'
• Allow these experiences to be personalised and shared across social media.
• Use virtual experiences to give customers a taste of the product or service being sold.
• Make experiences outrageous or humourous to generate discussion and sharing.
• Provide an incentive to share content!