VH1 reached more than 25,000 consumers under a viral marketing campaign last week to boost viewership of Save the Music: A Concert to Benefit The VH1 Save the Music Foundation.
Actors dressed in bright pink operating scrubs cruised New York City streets on April 15, staging “music emergencies” to generate awareness of the concert, which debuted April 17 on VH1. “Emergency Music Support” teams carried stretchers supporting different music instruments at Grand Central Station, Union Square, the James A. Farley Post Office and Times Square shouting, “Save the music!” and “Rescue the instruments!” to draw crowds. A1968 vintage Cadillac ambulance accompanied the crew.
Consumers who stopped for the action received individually wrapped “music saver” candies, which advertised the show’s date and time. Boston-based Universal Consulting Group, which handled the promotion, distributed 10,000 mints in all.
“We wanted to do something people were going to be talking about,” said Jeff Frumin, CEO of Universal Consulting Group. “It was a fun, playful way to get the message across. It was a big success.”
One million viewers tuned in to the Save the Music concert, said Nigel Cox-Hagan, senior VP-creative and consumer marketing, for VH1. Cox-Hagan applauded Universal Consulting Group’s efforts, saying the agency “found the best possible way to get to the viewers.”
The stunt was part of a greater effort to promote the Save the Music Foundation, which since 1997 has donated nearly $30 million worth of music instruments to 1,200 public schools in 80 cities. VH1 sponsored a number of citywide events to build buzz around the Save the Music Foundation, Cox-Hagan said.
In February, the Save the Music Foundation donated $1 million worth of musical instruments to New York Schools. In turn, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg declared the week of April 4-11 as Save the Music week in the city.
“Not only was it a nice tongue in cheek, irreverent way of saving the music, this was a way to…still be in the spirit of working with charity,” Cox-Hagan said. “It was a very unique effort to get to the consumers.”
Print ads, banner ads, on-air spots supported. The Save the Music concert will re-air at noon April 23 on VH1.
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