Friday, August 19, 2011

TV On The Radio Pops Up On Heineken Light Billboard Band plays surprise concert for brand

By Gabriel Beltrone
Courtesy of Adweek.com

A global marketer's ad space might not seem like the most likely venue for a beloved indie rock band to play a concert—except maybe in an act of protest.

Nonetheless, TV on the Radio popped up on the corporate circuit Wednesday night, taking the stage in front a Heineken Light billboard in downtown Manhattan for a short show that received minimal advance publicity.

The concert, organized by Heineken creative shop Wieden + Kennedy New York with assists from production house Relevant and public relations firm MSL, continues the brand's new "Occasionally Perfect" campaign, a series of efforts to cast the beer as the appropriately quirky drink for alternative fashionistas and their alternative gatherings. Previously that meant fantastical TV spots about handlebar mustaches at bare-knuckle boxing matches and snakeskin blazers at off-shore snake fighting events.

The upshot of latest component hopes to convey: This billboard, under normal circumstances a totally banal piece of media, actually becomes compelling once you put a popular musical act in front of it.

Of course, the promotional video cut from the event perhaps shows best how quickly the billboard returns to being boring.

No comments:

Post a Comment