Hoffmaestro feat. Sweden
Swedish Public Radio
Issue 22 | February 2012
Agency
Forsman & Bodenfors
Creative Team
Art Director: Ted Mellstrom; Copywriter: Marcus Hogglof; Designer: Johanna Hofman-Bang
Production Team
Production Company: Rebenga
Other Credits
Account Directors: Andreas Engstrand, Nicole van Rooj Ekstrom ; Account Manager: Nicole van Roojj Ekstrom ; Digital Producer: Peter Gaudiano ; PR: Lina Thomsgard
Date
December 2011
Background
Each year, Swedish Public Radio hosts Musikjälpen. It is a phone-in show that lets you request songs to be played for money. Every penny is sent straight to charity. This year, Swedish Radio wanted to get teenagers actively involved in the weeks before Musikhjälpen in order to get a bigger audience and more donations.
Idea
Forsman & Bodenfors turned to Hoffmaestro, one of Sweden’s most popular bands among teenagers, and asked for their help.
Driven to a website by the radio DJ’s, teens could listen to a new track called “Your Ways” from the band and record their own contributions using their computer mic’s. If they didn’t want to sing or clap along they could use their computer keyboard to create synthesised sounds for the mix.
After two weeks of collecting recordings, the band created a final mix using many of the sounds uploaded by their fans. The song was released on iTunes and was given plenty of play-time on radio so that people would want to buy it and request it when Musikhjälpen went on air.
Everyone who uploaded a sound had their picture included on the online ‘cover’ of the song. They could also put their personal soundtrack on their Facebook page for friends to play.
Results
Musikhjälpen raised more than 18 million Swedish kronor (about £1.7 million GBP) breaking last year's record by 48 percent.
What’s more, the campaign continues to raise money. Every time the song is bought or played, the profit goes straight to the cause.
Our Thoughts
Radio is a medium ripe for innovation, partly because radio bosses are desperate for any ideas that make it more interesting than just a platform for numbingly awful 30 second commercials and partly because it’s the natural home for music.
For me this is a radio idea as much as it is digital because at its heart it’s getting people to create music others can listen to on the airwaves. I love it because of the simple insight that if there are a lot of people featured in the final mix, however indistinctly, then a lot of people are going to want to hear the song, buy it and ask for it to be played.
It is an idea that invites creativity, brings people closer to their heroes and supports a worthwhile cause. I’m sure it’ll be a hit at awards shows.
No surprise that Forsman & Bodenfors ranks No.7 in the world for creativity in The Directory Big Won Rankings, despite being a relatively small agency in a relatively small country.