Category Interactive Design Client Universal Music Publishing USA Agency / Designer Airborne Digital Media
Owl City - Talking Owl App
Brief
The key aim of this application was to generate a media buzz around the launch of the American artist Owl City’s UK campaign for the number one spot at the beginning of 2010. A cross platform, artist managed desktop application capable of ‘playing’ the artist’s live Twitter feed as speech via an animated version of the Owl City mascot. The gadget had to serve up exclusive artist media and news and allow posting and display of fan comments in connection with existing community feeds.
Result
Talking Owl received 10 minutes of prime time airplay on the Fern Cotton Radio One morning show during the opening stages of the campaign. Owl City gained the number 1 spot for the single Fireflies in the UK charts for 3 consecutive weeks. To date the application has generated 52,200+ downloads for Owl City continuing to keep fans in touch long after launch.
Solution
Ostensibly a technical solution as opposed to a design one for this off the wall music promo tool. A mix of obscure University speech synthesis project, reams of ActionScript and a large serving of php jiggery pokery all wrapped up in a nice cross platform Adobe Air package. Talking/Dancing Owl and interface courtesy of Flash.
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