Ford wanted to change public perception of their brand to something younger, cooler and more relevant. Music would be a vital part in this strategy, but how could they quickly establish credibility in an arena in which they had no history or heritage?
What three things does every band have in common when they’re just starting out? A Fender Stratocaster, a Marshall amp and a Ford Transit.
These three iconic symbols formed the bedrock of our approach, and allowed the Zeitgeist Agency to secure hundreds of key placements across publications as diverse as the NME, The Guardian, Dazed and Confused and the Daily Telegraph. The press releases we crafted were published unedited; all with brand mentions and links to the Ford microsite/Facebook page. Three years later, the hundreds of millions of opportunities to see The Zeitgeist Agency generated have established Ford as a credible player in music and transformed Bands in Transit into a key platform for fans of emerging music.
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Fred Perry are sponsors of Dot To Dot Festival and the bi-monthly Sub-Sonic nights but wanted to maximise the editorial exposure for these shows and the video content created. All the content acts as a driver back to fredperrysubculture.com, the brand's music platform. How do you create engaging content that's editorially viable?
Iconic British brand brings the Best of British emerging and tipping point bands to Europe and North America and the UK.
Acting as the music comms agency for the brand our coverage pre, at-event and post event ensures that the brand's regular forays into the live music space are talked about by all the right media, coverage is outstanding and ultimately that the shows sell out. Moreover the seeding work we do editorially for the video content has cemented the brand across all tastemaker media in the UK, central Europe and the USA with regular placements across titles such as NME, Q, Artrocker, MSN, The Independent, Pitchfork, Buzznet, Culture Of Me and Intro to name a but a few. To make the content editorially viable is tricky but we have the knowhow. These titles speak to the brand's target audience and the resulting traffic back to fredperrysubculture.com from our millions of opportunities to see has made this a key platform for music news and features.
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Jägermeister's messaging shifted with an emphasis around their ice-cold association, but how best to articulate this and garner the required exposure for meaningful impact?
Send ex-Busted and Fighstar frontman Charlie Simpson to the coldest inhabited place on earth to play The World's Coldest Gig at temperatures of minus 30° and smash a Guiness World Record in the process.
This was a news story in the truest sense. The resulting editorial stories and earned placements of the branded content made for an all encompassing campaign that achieved over £1m worth of media value and not only established the ice-cold messaging but also further entrenched Jägermesiter within music and it's target demographic.
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During a quiet period in terms of consumer announcements Sony Entertainment Network's objective last year was to maintain and build awareness of their digital content services in Europe. But how do you speak to as many audiences as possible with one activity?
Get a great live act, with social and editorial currency laying somewhere for the first time. Set forth Santigold, playing Ibiza on a roof top.
With a competition mechanic pre-event and 61 placements for video content across all key sites in the UK including MSN, The Evening Standard, The Independent, the Bauer Network of sites, Q, NME, SBTV, and Huffington Post the reach and warmth for the brand for this intiaitive was extremely effective. A perfect example of how to take a brand activity 'out of the room' reaching millions via an aspirational show with an aspirational artist.
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In 2013 the festival market is saturated and although Reading & Leeds Festivals are arguably the most respected events in the summer calendar, there is the challenge of speaking to new audiences with a fresh tone of voice.
New for 2013 and to reflect audience preference this year the festivals have dedicated Dance and Urban stages that will bring the best of these genres to the shows alongside the expected huge hitters on the main stage.
The Zeitgeist Agency have a wealth of festival experience, and working with Reading & Leeds promoters Festival Republic we are bringing a completely new approach to the communications for the festival. All communications with the media are fully interactive and based around easy to navigate newsletter style press releases and links to fully integrated, dedicated micro sites. The brief was to breathe new life into the campaign and speak to audiences over and above music fans. Music and festival titles are key of course but we are pushing the reach into travel, action sports, gaming, tattoo and wider lifestyle titles. There's a huge emphasis on engaging targeted websites and blogs that have smaller, but hugely dedicated followers.
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Sound City is an emerging music showcase and business conference that takes place annually in Liverpool. The team behind the event want to further establish the brand in competitive international conference marketplace. How can this be achieved?
Build the music proposition and conference in the UK into a market leader, attracting the best international music talent and speakers from around the globe that are leading experts in the music, creative and digital industries. Establish a series of international offshoots that build the brand internationally.
By moving the festival to the very start of the season ahead of its competitors The Zeitgeist Agency cemented the message that Liverpool Sound City is the first festival of the summer, and the place to see the key bands that will break over the summer . The coverage generated positioned the Liverpool event as one of the most important business conferences and the Sound City brand as a key player in the international sector with coverage in the Financial Times, Guardian, Times and Independent. A number of media partnerships have been secured that help the brand communicate its messages to music loving fans and potential delegates in the entertainment industry. The growth in the past 3 years has been huge. Sound City shows have taken place in Dubai, New York, Texas and Norway and a further Sound City event will take place in Athens, Georgia at the end of 2013.
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The University of Manchester opened a brand new visitor centre at its Jodrell Bank Observatory and wanted to drive fresh audiences to this scientific institution. How do you bring music and science together successfully in the festival environment?
The Lovell Space Telescope at Jodrell Bank is the 3rd biggest satellite dish in the world and in turn the biggest projector screen on the planet. By marrying the science elements from the observatory with the talents of the bookers of Kendal Calling (Best Small Festival for several years at the UK Festival Awards) and some of the biggest acts around and you have a truly unique proposition in the festival marketplace. Science is the new Rock n' Roll - with Live From Jodrell Bank, you get both.
The Zeitgeist Agency executed wide ranging campaigns across print, radio, TV and online ensuring that the science activities receive as much prominence as musical acts such as Elbow and The Flaming Lips. We exploit the passion of these bands for science and secure coverage in national and broadcast titles with them talking about their love of science and excitement of playing at such an iconic landmark. The Elbow show in 2012 sold out in under an hour, and Live From Jodrell Bank is expanding from an initial one day event to 4 individual events in 2013. It's also the biggest science event in the UK.
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There's more than enough competition for editorial space for UK festivals, so there has to be huge differentiation from other global events to make any impact in the UK.
With a 5-day line-up that is arguably as strong as any festival in the world this year (Blur, Arctic Monkeys, Queens Of The Stone Age, Kings Of Leon, Rihanna and a huge wider arts and fashion line-up) and a full ticket with camping for €93, why wouldn't you travel to Open'er?
We have achieved blanket preview coverage in all festival guides and the travelling party of key UK media to the festival this year includes tabloids, high-end style, key music, specialist, travel and broadsheet titles. The pre and post event coverage will take this festival into the position of being the key international show for 2014.
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