Philips Electronics' contest in tune with aspiring musicians
Philips' recording sweepstakes lets composers upload their original tracks to SoundCloud
The Offer: As part of Royal Philips Electronics' "Obsessed with Sound" campaign, aspiring composers uploaded original tracks to SoundCloud for the chance to have their pieces recorded by Holland's Grammy- winning Metropole Orchestra and produced by the legendary Steve Lillywhite.
The Data: Created by Tribal DDB Amsterdam in conjunction with Stinkdigital, the $1.7 million "Obsessed with Sound" campaign, which originally launched last year, reached 21 million U.K. customers after only 14 days and garnered significant sales increases for Philips. The contest attracted over 1,000 submissions.
The Channel: Mobile and outdoor displays steered traffic to Facebook, where visitors could listen to and "like" contest submissions. The page, with almost 65,000 fans, also contains behind-the-scenes footage and access to the interactive Metropole site.
The Creative: An online advergame featuring the 52-person Metropole enables visitors to "Hear Every Detail." While a track plays, users can click on any musician to isolate his or her specific contribution to the whole. Career stats and playlists are linked to the artists' personal Twitter feeds and blogs.
Verdict:
John Gagné is SVP and executive creative director at Proximity Canada. Gagné, who joined Proximity in 2006, leads one of the largest creative departments in Canada. He is based in Toronto.
This is a well-funded, broadly produced program. The integration of Philips' sound recording and playback technologies with celebrity and acclaimed music professionals is tight. It has star power with Steve Lillywhite and the Metropole Orchestra, it has credibility with Philips and it has a restraint and polish that lends the whole experience stature. For all that, the response thus far has been steady though quiet. Question for the strategists on this one: Is the field here too rarefied?
