Happy Face
Experiment
CLIENT
Jagwar Twin
PROJECT
Even while the world is burning around us, we put on a “happy face”, hold a smile and continue going on with our “normal lives”. With this idea as the backbone to Jagwar Twin’s new single, we concepted and executed a release strategy to bring fans not only into the world of Jagwar Twin, but also into a digital experience where they could immerse themselves into an upside down world, inquiring what it really means to be Happy in society.
SERVICES
STRATEGY
CONCEPT
CREATIVE DIRECTION
NARRATIVE
DESIGN
INTERACTIVE DESIGN
DEVELOPMENT
ACTIVATION
MARKETING
PR
2.0 Driving Anticipation
LIGHTING A FANBASE ON FIRE
Months into the dormancy of COVID, the Jagwar Twin fan base had been enjoying weekly guided meditations together, but had no inkling that new music was coming down the pipeline. To create a buzz we dropped cryptic social posts simply linking to Deathofmygeneration.fun with no explanation.
This cryptic landing page featured a bunch of seemingly disconnected copy rambling about the world gone mad and happiness while prominently featuring a countdown and a phone number asking fans a simple question “Are you content?”
Fans could sign up to receive launch drips via SMS and if they called the phone number, they would be met with a manifesto asking them to leave a message answering the question “Are you content or content?”
3.0 FAN-SOURCED SOCIAL MEDIA
THE VOICEMAIL LOOP
We took the fan-sourced voicemails we collected and repurposed them back into additional buzz building social content to create more fan anticipation, confusion, excitement and action. This content continued to keep fans hanging on every post leading up to the end of the countdown.
4.0 SITE LAUNCH
The Smile-Triggered Unlock
At the end of the countdown, we unveiled the song title and branding through a series of manifesto-like social posts that drilled home the meaning of the song while leaving the fans with a a final thought … “There is a test involved, like there is in every moment, but my hope is that it will make you think about the world you want to create and help you to see yourself more clearly.”
The site opened with a bomb going off behind a happy face following the user’s mouse cursor throughout the screen. After giving access to the camera, fans are asked to look into the camera and put on a happy face. Through facial recognition we are able to check the fans emotion and, once they are happy, start a countdown.
Fans who held their smile were treated to hearing the song before it was available on DSPs but if the user started to lose the smile we would flash “SMILE MORE” at them. Lose the smile altogether and the song came to a screeching halt.
At the end of the experience, fans were presented with an animated GIF of their experience which dynamically showed them how long they lasted. This content was shareable to all social media platforms, amplifying visibility for the experience.
5.0 GATED MERCH CAPSULE
BUY!BUY!BUY!
"Hollywood on your timeline telling you what to wear and what to like and how to be!"
We wanted fans to hear these lyrics and ask themselves if they are the user or the product, so we created a limited edition merch capsule, backed by a custom e-commerce store, that could only be unlocked by sitting through the whole song without losing a smile.
7.0 SINGLE RELEASE
OUT INTO THE WORLD
We leveraged our industry relationships to ensure Jagwar Twin’s first independent release got the visibility it deserved.
- Spotify playlisting @ It's Alt Good, The New Alt, New Noise, PopRox, All New Rock, and NMF Canada.
- Amazon Music faceout on Breakthrough Alternative as well as features on Top Alternative Radio, Fresh Alternative, Control Alt Repeat and other marketing support
- Apple Music playlisting @ Breaking Alternative and New in Alternative
- Pandora features on New Alt Now, Your Alternative Happy Hour (playlist), New Alternative (station), This Year in Alternative, and Alt Select (stations)
- Soundcloud featured Happy Face on their Fresh Pressed playlist
8.0 VIDEO RELEASE
VIDEO RELEASE
We partnered with long-time Jagwar Twin collaborator Ryan Fleming to bring the video for Happy Face to life. Leveraging chroma, we were able to drop Roy into the matrix and bring the dance of the arch angels to life, further immersing fans inside the upside down world.
There are always two forces at work. Dark/Light, Chaos/Order, Negative/Positive. Subconscious/Conscious ... like a battery. A human is like an in between, animating unseen forces.
The Happy Face music video is currently the #1 organic video release on the channel and since the release of Happy Face we've seen a 200% increase in channel views and a 1000% increase in channel subscribers
