Dancing to an Essence tune
Take a hot new boy band. Take some Facebook-friendly teenage girls. Take an idea. Shake them up and see what happens.
Brief
Sony Music wanted to launch US Band Metrostation across Europe. It was going to be a multi-platform affair. Our job was to grab the attention of thousands of teenage girls in seven separate European countries. To get them talking about the band. And ultimately, buy the single. No pressure then.
Our insight
Teenage girls spend a lot of time hanging out on social networking sites. We needed to find a way to integrate with their day-to-day communication stream. To piggyback on the ways they talked to their friends. That way we could create some real noise. But only if the idea was strong and entertaining enough.
Solution
Metrostation had a hit single called 'Shake it'. It had a catchy chorus which moved us to an idea. We built a unique Facebook Application in Flash around the chorus. To use the app, the girls could choose one of eight different 'shakes' depending on their mood. Then they'd add a personal message and send it on to their friends. When it was opened up, the app would play Metrostation's chorus and simultaneously shake their entire Facebook screen. It was slick, intuitive and entertaining. The menu of eight shakes could be previewed by holding the mouse over them, so making a choice was fun. And because we'd designed it so the users' contacts were available through the application, it gave the girls their entire network of friends to choose from. Making it easy to send it to whoever they wanted to. Finally, after shaking the page, the app gave the recipient a choice. They could view the full Metrostation music video. Or click through to iTunes and buy the track.
Results
The app proved as catchy as the tune. Approximately 120,000 shakes were sent in seven weeks. Of those who received it, about 30% went on to play the full music video. We did a pretty good job of targeting our creative idea, too. 86% of the audience were in the 13-19 core demographic. Another spin off was the information gleaned for Sony's database. Back-end we broke down the types of shakes sent by geography and individual. All in all, a hit.
