SOH The Ship Song
Client: The Sydney Opera House / Agency: The Monkeys / Director: Paul GoldmanOne of the world’s most iconic buildings and most famous performance venues, The Sydney Opera House asked The Monkeys to pitch for a project. The brief was to democratise a building that was seen as an elitist venue that only had Opera and Ballet.
The idea we came up and pitched to the client was The Ship Song. A filmic journey through all the working spaces; the corridors, back-stage areas, stages, foyers etc. all set to a reworking of the legendary Australian performer Nick Cave’s 'The Ship Song'.
It was a ‘love project’. 100 artists, all with special connections to the famous building, filmed in secret over 12 exhaustive months of production.
A love song to the building and the artists.
The emotional idealism of Nick Cave’s song was showcased for a nation and the world.
The track was released on iTunes and made Australia’s top 40.
A 30 minute documentary followed the project and was voiced by the brilliant actor Guy Pearce and ran on cable network Foxtel and Qantas airlines offered to play it on every domestic flight - for free.
Below is the poster I designed to promote the project.
The Results
The impact of the campaign was extraordinary.
There was $0 spent on traditional media or PR at launch.
Promotion of the film relied solely on a first of its kind social strategy of launching on YouTube and across the facebook pages of the many artists and art institutons involved in the project and trusting their passionate fan bases to generate views and word of mouth. The strategy worked perfectly.
The story was covered by every national and many major international news organisations.
View the case study below.
• With $0 spent the project earned over $2 million in free editorial and social PR.
• 1.7 million shares on facebook in the first 24 hours.
• 40% increase in ticket sales (Aug. 2010 vs Aug. 2011)
Some positive press
Creativity: Editor’s Pick of the day
Mumbrella: Ad of the Month
