| Title | TWEETDISCO |
| Brand | MOBILCOM DEBITEL |
| Product/Service | TWEET CONTROLLED JUKE BOX |
| Category |
A01. Innovation |
|
Entrant Company
|
STRG.DK Hamburg, GERMANY
|
|
Advertising Agency
|
STRG.DK Hamburg, GERMANY
|
Credits
| Martin Stasun |
Strg.dk |
Art Director |
| Johannes Gemürr |
Strg.dk |
Junior Art Director |
| Pepe Wietholz |
Strg.dk |
Executive Creative Director |
| David Aguirre |
Strg.dk |
Creative Director |
| Michael Schlykow |
Strg.dk |
Project Director |
| Christian Kochbeck |
Strg.dk |
Account Manager |
| Helen Förster |
Strg.dk |
Project Manager |
| Christian Heinsohn |
Strg.dk |
Lead Developer |
| Bettina Goerendt |
Mobilcom Debitel |
Brand Manager |
| Lars Wöhrmann |
Mobilcom Debitel |
Brand Manager |
The Brief
The brief of mobilcom-debitel, one of Germany’s biggest mobile-communication companies was to find a connection between digital lifestyle and offline events, with the aim of approaching Germany’s digital natives.
On most parties, the DJ is in control of the music and therefore the vibes at a party. We wanted to know, what would happen, if the party guests were in charge of the music, giving them the opportunity to pick songs out of a limited selection using their smartphones. Thus, we modified a jukebox from 1992 with a RaspberryPi, connected it to the Twitter-API and created a Twitter account for the jukebox, via which the machine was able to communicate with the people. After requesting a song via Twitter, the jukebox adds it to the playlist and informs the party guests about who was the one who picked it. On a microsite the playlist is visible, just like hitlists and a social stream.
The technology we developed is publicly released and ready to be used at several follow-up events in Germany. It took around 50 days to develop the hard- and software including the microsite, 20 days for art direction and 15 days of project management. The budget was 95.000€.
The TweetDisco represents the establishment of a never seen interactive communication- and party format, which gives people the chance to be part of the party, both digitally and physically. Through the integration of twitter in the communication process, people get in touch with the jukebox, as well as with the online community. The TweetDisco perfectly combines the analogue technology of a common jukebox with the interactivity of social media. Due to the TweetDisco’s functionalities, it is possible to send a tweet directly to the jukebox to request a song. For the first time, people are able to influence the flow of a party – simply by using their smartphones and twitter accounts.
The biggest challenge for our designers was to combine modern technology like LED boards with retro components like a jukebox and neon lights and bring it all together on a microsite and at the offline event. A completely restored and digitalised jukebox from 1992 provides the basis and central idea for the TweetDisco. The communicative and technical core of the machine is a single-handedly modified single-board computer, a RaspberryPi, which cares for a smooth communication between the analogue technology from the 90s and the twitter API. Through a specially developed interface, signals can be exchanged between jukebox and backend. The most important part of the project was to bring digital lifestyle to the real world and make social media sizable.
It is the world’s first tweet controlled jukebox, using CDs. In the future, the TweetDisco will be sent to several follow-up events, like parties, barcamps, festivals or to corporate events. People are also able to rent the jukebox for their own parties by applying on Facebook or on the microsite.
The long-term goal is to make use of the jukebox on different occasions, like at parties, festivals, in bars or at private events. Right now we are working on a smaller/ slimmer version of the TweetDisco, which we could draw to people via a Facebook raffle. However, the jukebox shall remain an exclusive product, only used at special events visited by a large number of digital natives. It is the aim to create a “must see” effect – our target group has to want to come to a TweetDisco event when it is happening in their hometown. We also received a lot of emails of people asking whether they could have the jukebox for their own parties.
During the first TweetDisco event we generated over 1.000 tweets and a digital reach of more than 120.000 Twitter users. The jukebox is the perfect tool to generate positive buzz, reaching friends and followers of the attending people.