Mix Sherpa
Saturday, August 18th, 2007 |
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OK. . . The truth comes out. Ian Westbury’s one hit wonder from the 80′s was actually a viral marketing campaign for Sprint conceived by Organic.
Back in August of last year, Sprint came to the ad agency Organic looking for a way to create buzz and raise awareness for their recently launched Music Store.
They started the process knowing two things:
1. the space was very crowded – Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T/Cingular, Walmart and even my very first web design client FindBliss.com offer music downloads. Whatever we did, it had to stand out.
2. the audience they wanted to reach, called “Advanced Connected” in Sprint terminology, is extremely averse to traditional advertising and blatant promotion.
Their solution was to create an entertaining and engaging online destination featuring two “music experts”: Ian and the DJ. Each has a back story – Ian is a washed up pop star from the 1980s running a record store on Melrose and DJ is an aspiring turntablist, working in Ian’s store. Users participate by creating playlists and getting a personalized “expert” review of their choices.
To further embellish the story they created a music video for Ian’s one and only hit from the 80s, “Under the Moon”. Launched simultaneously on YouTube and Ian’s MySpace page, the video has gone viral, currently appearing on 25 sites. Music video legend Nigel Dick, (Tears For Fears, Guns N’ Roses, Britney Spears) directed both the “Under the Moon” video and the Mix Sherpa video performances.
The added value to the user – Sprint integrated a discovery and recommendation engine into the story about Ian:
Users engage with Ian and the DJ by creating their own playlists and in return getting an “expert” review of their choices. Users also get recommendations based on the newly created playlist. The added value for the users is the discovery of new music that fits their tastes and the reaffirmation of who they are and what their musical taste says about them.
Finally, piling a playlist and getting exposed to new music while interacting with a cool character will (hopefully) generate Sprint music downloads! Who wouldn’t want to take the playlist to the mobile? Especially if the recommendations will prove themselves as precise, or in Ian’s words:
You go to the site and select your own custom playlist. Through the magic they call a “logic engine” –
“I’m able to analyze your playlist – and maybe analyze what’s going on in that head of yours too. I’ll offer you everything in my arsenal with humor, wit and charm – naturally. My longtime employee DJ Supahboy5 is also online to interject with his own opinions on songs and styles. We’ve got information on bands and songs, and links to download everything you need to take your mobile phone to the next level“.
Visit the site:
http://www.mixsherpa.com/
See the entire Ian experience:
http://www.sprintspecialoffers.com/ian/index.html
