this campaign for tommy hilfiger jeans was the brain child of creative director ucef hanjani and produced at kbp under his supervision back in 2002, before viral campaigns had a name or became a category. the campaign at the time was referred to as the "tommy jeans unreleased cuts" and the idea was based on one simple notion that was deeply rooted in the brands dna; music.
the idea was to create a community of musicians and fans by offering a competition where young bands would have a chance at a record deal with AH records as well as appear in hilfigers ads, while promoting the concerts. of course all this "brought to you by tommy hilfiger jeans".
the above postcards were also handed out at music venues in new york, boston, los angeles, chicago, seattle to drive contestants participation.
along with the post cards, announcement ads ran in music magazines to further spread the word. the idea was to create a panel of judges, including quincy jones, to select the top contestants from the thousands of submissions.
the selected bands were posted online in an effort to drive traffic. this "of course" coincided with the launch of tommy's redesigned website.
the unreleased cuts section was clearly indicated while online shopping and general site remained functional through out the contest.
the videos were uploaded and fans and viewers alike were able to vote online for their favorite band. while band members promoted the site for their own means, this democratic campaign and offer spread through press and blogs and word-of-mouth alike.
the final contestants were flown to NY for their initial record session where they were photographed by british photographer liz collins under the art direction of ucef hanjani.
the ads continued to announce the contest as an ongoing effort to give back to the music industry what it gave in fame and fortune to hilfiger.
in a way a morally positive endorsement while achieving its goal of marketing. no celebrities were involved and the cost of the campaign for its exposure was comparatively nominal to hilfigers previous efforts.
the final phase of the campaign idea was the music tour which was to be sponsored by hilfiger brand.
this final phase unfortunately did not materialize in the scope that was intended due to various alliances and legal matters but the campaign itself had served as a means to reconnect to the youth and the music industry without breaking a reasonable budget. our purpose with this post, is ultimately to share how we think about communication outside of the means generally available.
tommy hilfiger: online viral campaign
