We decided to give “starman” David Bowie his very own constellation. Together with the Royal Belgian Observatory we identified 7 stars in the form of Bowie’s iconic thunderbolt and named it ‘Stardust for Bowie'. The thunderbolt became the key visual of a digital mourning place, a microsite were all Bowie fans could upload their music in the universe with a personal message."It was not easy to identify the appropriate stars," says Philippe Mollet from MIRA. "Studio Brussels asked us to give Bowie a unique place in the galaxy. Referring to his various albums, we chose seven stars - Sigma Librae, Spica, Alpha Virginis, Zeta Centauri, SAA 204 132, and the Beta Sigma Octantis Trianguli Australis - in the vicinity of Mars at the exact time of his death. The constellation looks like an exact copy of the iconic Bowie lightning. "
The Brief
This campaign was launched via a smart PR outreach program, leaving any other media investments unnecessary. The fans and the press made the campaign travel the globe.
So, with a cost equivalent of a 7-set banner campaign we were able to let thousands of people upload and comment their favourite Bowie song in a mediaspace viewed by millions. A very limited timespent by the agency, zero external production costs, zero media investments but a stellar return in reach.
Creative Execution
Stardust for Bowie was an exemplary low cost, yet impactful creative campaign.
And, as it was a tribute campaign, it had to go fast. Very fast!
The agility of the agency team to finish this project in less than a day after the tragic event was remarkable. No hesitations, no opposing opinions, the well-oiled and multi-disciplined team was going overdrive on creative adrenaline. Convinced about what this tribute could mean for all Bowie fans.
Strategy and creation was done in less than half a day, design followed immediately. While three developers worked non-stop during a whole night and a whole day to finish the site on time, we had to officially pin-point the stars in the form of a thunderbolt, upload the whole Bowie catalogue (including the album covers) and create a message upload module.
Results
Although it is virtually impossible to measure the emotional value of our action for the millions and millions of fans we have reached, we did try to access a few figures to measure the impact of our investment.
If you’d compare the efforts with the results, Studio Brussels paid 8 cents per uploaded goodbye message. Which equals two M&M’s.
Without any paid media, 200.000 people said goodbye to David Bowie on the website and we collected 1.1 million shares and comments on social media.
We’d rather not count impressions as people will get suspicious when we talk about zero comma zero zero euro per impression.
When David Bowie died, radio station Studio Brussels felt that Bowie fans all over the world were looking for a proper way to express their grief.
Stardust for Bowie brought mourning Bowie fans as close as they could to their idol. First we registered a new constellation in the form of Bowie’s iconic thunderbolt. Then we invited Bowie fans to choose their favourite song and upload it in the constellation, adding a personal text. Stardust for Bowie became a place where Bowie fans shared their grieve and traveled the globe.
It’s borderline impossible to properly pay respects to a musician as massive as David Bowie. Studio Brussels wanted to give David Bowie a fitting tribute: an own constellation. Along with public observatory MIRA, Studio Brussel registered seven stars in the form of Bowie’s iconic thunderbolt. Bowie takes on a symbolic place alongside the 88 existing constellations. The homage to the 'Starman' is linked to an online action "Stardust for Bowie" developed on Google Sky. Listeners and fans of Bowie can create a personal tribute in the Bowie constellation on www.stardustforbowie.be. Each visitor may assign a favourite song and leave a short personal text in the shape of a star.