164 The Best Digital Marketing Campaigns in the World
programme, but also incorporated interactive features that would involve and
engage the audience, building a feeling of involvement and community.A month before the programme was to be broadcast, unedited footage from
12 cameras of the band playing the concert was made available on the web.
Users could switch between the cameras in real time, editing the feeds to
produce their own unique viewing experience over the internet. Each user’s
activity was recorded as a series of colour-coded bars that coincided with
their camera choices, and the resulting ‘rainbow’ was shared on the web.
Users could compare their rainbow to those of their peers, and post their own
‘rainbows’ as widgets to their blogs, social media profiles and websites.All the rainbows created during the campaign were accumulated as an archive
of cascading rainbows that could be viewed online. The whole rainbow
concept tied in perfectly with the title of Radiohead’s latest album ‘In
Rainbows’.Results
No advertising was purchased as part of the campaign, but the website was
featured by many prominent blogs and news websites both inside and outside
Japan. The highest level of activity occurred immediately after the event, and
the widespread coverage enhanced the brand image of both the artists and
the broadcasting company.Lessons
Co-creation is becoming a much-used trend and opportunity in the world of
marketing. Digital has the power to accentuate co-creation to levels unexperi-
enced by other media.Marketers, consider the possibility of your customers playing around with
your brand. Is it so bad to be parodied in viral marketing? What is worse than
being talked about? Exactly.