The Greatest Song

Background

Musica is a music and entertainment retailer in South Africa.

Every year they run a pro-bono campaign to promote Deaf Awareness.

In 2009 Musica chose to donate hearing aids to 4 hearing-impaired children, giving them the gift of hearing. The aim was to establish as much coverage and participation as possible, for a budget of roughly £2000 GBP.

Idea

A social media campaign titled ‘The Greatest Song’ used Twitter, Facebook and a purpose-built microsite www.greatestsong.co.za to ask people one simple question:

“If you were hearing for the first time, which song would you want to hear?”

The public was encouraged to cast their votes on any of these channels.

People who wanted to join the conversation had the option of joining the Greatest Song Twitter feed and/or the Facebook group. The TV ad (with a two week burst of negotiated free space) drove people to the site and Facebook group.

Results

The response was overwhelming, gathering 264 Facebook group members, 154 Twitter followers and a total of 4,487 votes at the Greatest Song website within three weeks. Third party web endorsement and dedicated Talk Radio exposure was generated at no cost. In addition, Yoko Ono herself waived the rights to the TV ad’s soundtrack ‘Imagine’ in support of the initiative.

Our Thoughts

A lot of people are making a good living appearing on conference platforms, telling us that traditional media are defunct and that social media are the future. Actually, there will always be a role for TV and print advertising but there are now also new ways to talk to people in new places. What The Jupiter Drawing Room shows us is that there is just media, and the smartest agencies know how to use old and new together to telling effect.

Couldn’t help but notice that while all the votes were for U2’s ‘One’, the agency preferred Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ for their ads.