MTV's Boy Band BioDome Sells Soda to Voyueristic Teens

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Client: MTV, Dr. Pepper, Cartel, Wal-Mart, KFC

Teeny Boppers love boy bands. They obsess over what type of cologne they wear and what foods they eat, and they ponder the everyday ins and outs of the most private parts of the boys' lives. What better way could you cross promote your product than by asking the band Cartel's fans to be flies on the wall during a month of band practices?

MTV, Dr. Pepper, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Wal-Mart teamed up to capitalize on this "Band in a Bubble" promotion for Cartel's newest upcoming album. For thirty days the young band members lived in a bio-dome bubble in Seattle, Washington, engaging fans that approached the bubble, recording songs and consuming large amounts of Dr. Pepper and KFC.

(click to view)The promotional site for the campaign includes a fireworks of components to get users engaged and excited. Users have to log in to participate in the interactive parts of the campaign, but once they do they have the option of  designing band t-shirts, uploading, viewing, and commenting on user-generated photos and video, as well as giving them access to audio uploads from Cartel.

(click to view)The greatest part of the campaign is that the points you receive from purchasing Dr. Pepper give you timed access to the webcams hidden around the bubble (including one in the shower). Points you accumulate can also be applied to merchandise on the site.

The band itself did a grand job of promoting the new album, as well as the products sponsoring the event. Even I caught myself tuning in to the show on MTV to watch what wacky things the band members would do next.
-- Krisserin Canary, associate editor, iMedia Communications

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Remember the Biosphere 2 Project in Arizona from 1991 to 1993? We all tuned in to see what was happening inside this sealed earth-like environment. Well, welcome to 2007 and the power of the internet. Today we can take a "bubble," insert a little-known band, surround the band with hype and webcams, add a dash of MTV and Dr. Pepper and stage a live reality show for a shorter time. After all, who wants to stay in a confined space for more than a few days? (Sorry Paris, but even you got sprung quicker than this band.)   The site itself was a great encapsulating edifice. It worked to show daily updates, live coverage and could use the ability of the media tie-ins to drive the daily viewership. At least that is what I thought until I took a look at the Alexa rankings of the site; it hardly produced a "blip" on the internet, and the traffic patterns were even lower the day of the live show than they were leading up to the event. Was the bubble a local NYC media punch and not one that took the web by storm?

In order to enter the bubble and interact with the media, you needed to first establish an account. Considering the demographic the site is targeting, I think this was a road block. Creating an account actually asked more demographically-required info than my last passport application. And then I had to read through the terms of the other six people that they wanted me to co-reg with. Once again, this MySpace generation wants it all and does not want to give it all away in order to get in. But I pounded on my keyboard to gain access.

(click to view)Once in I was able to wander through some bios, video and photos. The opportunity to redeem some points to get some gear was there, but since I had none, I explored on. I felt a little let down as there was not much to do that really engaged me from an experience standpoint.

Overall I think it might have been a good media launch pad and a well-designed site, but it lacked the authenticity of a community event and felt more like a brand staged band website.
-- Dylan T. Boyd, VP of sales and strategy, eROI, Inc.

I guess there are two ways to market to the youth culture: subtly or blatantly. This site definitely leans towards the latter. I'm in the business of advertising, and even I was a little taken aback by the amount of corporate sponsorship surrounding this idea. Dr. Pepper, KFC, Wal-Mart, they all want a piece of this group.
 
All that aside, however, if you provide this target audience with something cool and relevant, they probably won't care if it's from a corporation. And the heart of this concept is cool. While online voyeurism is nothing new, doing it properly on this scale isn't something I see every day. Doing it with a band, rather than a bunch of unrelated and generally unbalanced teenagers, is also a nice twist. The team did a nice job of providing lots of content for the band, and I liked how they embraced user-generated content, too.

(click to view)The news section, blogs, videos and pictures were all updated regularly, which can be a pitfall with many ideas like this. The crossover tie with a television show on MTV was also a cool feature; it just goes to show how mediums are blurring together more and more. Overall, it's a neat concept, provides tons of unique content, and was probably a hit with the people the site was aiming at.
-- Chris Gatewood, creative director, Freestyle Interactive