brand-m

Re-gummed. Wrigley France plumped for a rather tame (read ‘ugly’) augmented reality music-mixing experience for the Gallic promo of its 5 chewing gum. In Australia, the brand has been far more cool and creative with mixology.
The 5 Feed, created by Clemenger BBDO, is a social media platform that gets consumers taking the work of commissioned Oz artists and playing around with it. “The 5 Feed is a continually evolving sensorial experiment, and you can be part of it,” the brand says. “Download and play with the work, remix it, mash it up, and then feed it back in to continue the stimulation.”

Tuning brands. AEG and music marketing agency Frukt want to bring brands and bands closer together. That’s why the two outfits have teamed up to launch Brands, Bands and Fans: Live!, a series of events for senior UK brand managers to learn about the potential of music to work for brands.
The show kicks off 16 November at London’s O2 venue ahead of that night’s Beyoncé gig with a seminar and workshop aiming to make brand managers au fait with using music to engage consumers with content, sponsorship, experience and activation. Invitees also get access to a VIP suite to watch Beyoncé perform.

Go gig. Microsoft is turning to crowdsourcing with its new UK online community Xbox Reverb. The destination gives music fans the chance to get together and organize live concerts, with the first show, featuring the band Dananananaykroyd, slated for 15 September.
“Xbox Reverb is a music community which lets you and other likeminded music-loving people (although animals are allowed) to influence the creation of live gigs, featuring some of the hottest talent, that this fine set of isles has to offer,” MS says

By Simon Fuller. Sound moves. Not only is online music service Spotify a cool hit with band fans, it’s catching on with brands too.
Fiat, for one, challenged consumers to come up with inspirational tracks for their summer feel-good Spotify playlist, with a dedicated online destination allowing visitors to suggest tunes for the list – with a chance to win a free subscription to Spotify as an added incentive. The most popular tunes, by the way, have been from Macy Gray and Queen.
20th Century Fox, teaming up with Absolute Radio and Shortlist magazine, hit on the branded playlist idea too, with an emphasis on romance.

By Steve Mullins. Pens out. Olympus has joined forces with Vice mag to showcase the photographic work of four female celebs. For the Stories Of The Eye campaign, Daisy Lowe, Alice Dellal, Miquita Oliver and Lovefoxxx, have been tasked with documenting their lives using the new Olympus Pen E-P1 camera.
Supermodel Lowe will do eyeStyle and offer a glimpse of her life. Dellal – another very super model (grunge) – has the eyeDoWhatILike brief that will invite us into her world. TV presenter Oliver will show us around her home abode under the eyeLondon banner, while musician Lovefoxxx does eyeTravel and takes us on tour.

By Simon Fuller. Brand tuning. We hear enough noise about the benefits music can give to brands. But what can an Internet radio station offer?
US-based Pandora, which describes itself as a personalised music-discovery service, started up back in 2000 and is based on something the outfit tags the ‘Music Genome Project’. In short, that means a raft of artists and songs are analysed by a team of experts, with the end result that site’s users can type in a band name and Pandora comes up with other acts that might appeal.
But its Pandora’s potential as an ad platform that should excite brands. The site has over 32 million registered users and has already hosted campaigns for the likes of Brita, which sponsored the exclusive streaming of the latest Dave Matthews Band album, and Vitaminwater, which stumped up for three channels on the Nat-radio platform.