THROUGH THE DARK

Short List
TitleTHROUGH THE DARK
BrandGOOGLE
Product / ServiceGOOGLE PLAY MUSIC
CategoryD02. Use of Mobile
EntrantR/GA SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation R/GA SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Media Placement ESSENCE DIGITAL Singapore, SINGAPORE
PR POEM GROUP Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Production R/GA SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Production 2 EXIT FILMS Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Production 3 XYZ STUDIOS Melbourne, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Hamish Stewart R/GA Sydney EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Michael Armstrong R/GA Sydney CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Blake Kus R/GA Sydney ASSOCIATE TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR
Jess Bateman R/GA Sydney DESIGNER
Shruti Rai R/GA Sydney SENIOR EXPERIENCE DESIGNER
Aaron George R/GA Sydney SOFTWARE ENGINEER
Kate Allan R/GA Sydney COPYWRITER
Justine Cusack R/GA Sydney SOCIAL STRATEGIST
Cory Nicely R/GA Sydney MARKETING SCIENCES MANAGER
Julia Rush R/GA Sydney PRODUCER
Natalie Brend R/GA Sydney SENIOR ACCOUNT DIRECTOR
Jeff Donios R/GA Sydney SENIOR TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR
Gertjan Leppers R/GA Sydney EXECUTIVE PRODUCTION DIRECTOR
Mike Daly Exit Films DIRECTOR
Kim Wildenburg Exit Films EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Marco Palmieri XYZ Studios LEAD ANIMATOR
Richard Osellame XYZ Studios SENIOR TD
Stevie Watkins XYZ Studios CG LEAD
Garett Mayow XYZ Studios EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Eran Hilleli XYZ Studios LEAD DESIGNER
Gina Moore XYZ Studios CG ARTIST
Tim Murphy XYZ Studios CG ARTIST
Heath Pagram XYZ Studios ANIMATOR
Eran Hilleli XYZ Studios ANIMATION DIRECTOR

The Campaign

We started with one of Australia's best-known and most loved acts: Hilltop Hoods. Their track, Through The Dark, is a deeply personal song written by band member Dan Smith (MC Pressure) about his son Liam’s battle with leukemia. Raw and real, the song connected deeply with audiences. The idea was to bring that to life, translating its conflicting emotions into something that would give a sense of a father’s world turned upside down and a journey through fear towards hope. The ambition was to create an immersive digital experience where users navigate through two simultaneous 3D worlds, The Dark and The Light, by rotating their mobile device.

Creative Execution

The lyrics were our narrative guide: powerful words that convey a tangible sense of a father’s world turned upside down by his son’s illness. To bring them to life, we crafted two complete worlds existing in parallel, the Light and the Dark, to represent the emotional highs and lows of caring for someone who’s battling cancer. The result is a seamlessly flowing interactive film where users navigate their own path through fear towards hope by rotating their mobile device. Driven entirely by code, the film is rendered in real-time in the mobile browser. To allow users to move between the two worlds, the cameras were mapped to the mobile device’s accelerometer.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Through the Dark transformed the Hilltop Hoods’ song into an immersive digital experience, meticulously rendering the two complete worlds so that users could move between them with unprecedented interactivity. Digital technologies were pushed to their limit, positioning Google Play Music as an innovator in the crowded, streaming landscape. With over 400,000 unique user interactions, social share of voice for Google Play Music doubled to 24%. And best of all, we drove lots of traffic to the album - and the thousands raised for CanTeen helped launch Side of Stage: an initiative conceived by the band to help young Australians living with cancer access live music and meet their favourite artists.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Through the Dark is more than an immersive interactive experience, it also promoted two key messages: Google Play Music’s innovative outlook, and a deeply personal cancer song by the Hilltop Hoods. Users engaged with both messages simultaneously, generating action on two levels.

The strategy was to position Google Play Music as an innovator and active supporter of the Australian music industry by collaborating with local artists and creating exclusive content fans would love. The insight: it had to go beyond sight and sound, giving fans a completely new experience, using technology in a way only Google could, while remaining true to the artist’s vision. Our technical ambition was to create an interactive digital experience that was not only beautiful and original, but groundbreaking. And because Through the Dark was such a personal song for the band, we wanted to convey its moving story on the most personal of devices - mobile. We also wanted to leave a legacy, giving youths living with cancer ongoing access to live music. So each click-through from Through the Dark to the album on Google Play Music generated a $1 donation to CanTeen to kickstart the initiative.

Links

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