Indie Rock Meets Google Street View

20 Oct 2009

A campaign by indie rock band Editors to promote their third album uses a customised version of Google Street View to great effect. To convey the idea of London at night - a theme of the album In This Light And On This Evening - creative directors at Sony Music, Phil Clandillon and Steve Milbourne adapted Street View to enable users to preview album tracks.

It also gave fans the chance to explore the very areas of London which had inspired the music. Each of the nine tracks on the album has its own location, as well as a panoramic photograph shot by James Royall at night with band members and their loyal fans in the foreground. Users can unlock the photos by following the red arrows.

The locations on offer are usually unavailable on the regular Street View, and the modified version enables users to experience Editors’ vision of London at night at www.editorsofficial.com/streetview.

Meanwhile, the photos show Editors and fans striking poses which have meanings relating to the songs. All will be revealed in good time.

Clandillon and Milbourne reveal that, since 14 October, when the campaign went live, 35,000 people have engaged with the app. What’s more, each visitor has spent an average three and a half minutes interacting with it, dipping in and out of an average number of three tracks.

The campaign has also generated stacks of PR, particularly in the music press and on Twitter. Milbourne says: ‘As the album was written about London at night, we thought about London in Street View. This concept captures the imagination.’

Clandillon adds: ‘We always try to do things that haven’t been done before to generate interest, and this technology happened to fit really well.'

Here at Contagious we’ve been aware only of Fiat in France using Google Street View for those wanting a virtual test-drive of its 500C model. However, to our mind, the functionality wasn’t particularly intuitive and it didn’t show off the car to full effect. See what you think here: www.fiat500c.fr/explorer.

But in this case, by adapting the concept of Street View, Sony Music has sidestepped any privacy issues, while at the same time delivering a highly interactive campaign with a high talk factor. It's a great example of a band using technology to give fans an additional experience, and which rewards time spent on the site. We’d like to see more brands follow in Editors footsteps with some innovative uses of this popular interface.