South Rocket Droogs Calls on NYC Pay Phones for Contest

Call it a combination of new media and old, old media – Instagram and pay phones. The New York City pay phone collection might be dwindling – when is the last time you or someone you were with had to use a phone booth?- but as part of a contest from new-shop South Rocket Droogs, snapping an Instagram picture of certain pay phones around the city can actually win you prizes. You’d have to use the #SouthRocketDroogs to win one of 10 prizes, all of which you can see on the agency’s Tumblr.

The official title of the contest is “The Payphone Hashtag Project,” simple enough. South Rocket Droogs, led by Roberto Max Salas (no stranger to viral hashtaggery), is looking to make a grungy splash. And, although I’m a fan of artistic allusions and Malcolm McDowell, pay phones might be too specific to get the job done. A recent Pew survey found that 91% of adults in America own a cell phone, which leaves a select few people who might wander toward a pay phone and an even more exclusive group of people who know about this project and wander toward pay phones. But, you can win an ad campaign for your business, so maybe there will be a pay phone rejuvenation. It can happen.

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360i Minds Behind Oreo Super Bowl Tweet Promote Web Singalong

Singalongs can be messy affairs, like when that guy with the bad voice thinks he can hit soprano notes, or any Journey song comes on at a bar. A tweetalong, however, might be the perfect digital response to help us control our  unprofessional musical urges. Creatives from 360i and the Brooklyn band Rumors teamed up to create a website that might help promote “Slow Down,” a single off of the band’s album XOXO.

The site, essentially a digital singalong, compiles tweets from around the world that hashtag specific words in the song. As the song plays, different tweets pop up alongside the lyrics. And if you want to take a moment to read different tweets, scrolling over the hashtag automatically pauses the song. To continue the song, simply move the mouse again.

This isn’t the first time 360i took an innovative approach to ahead-of-the-curve content. During the Super Bowl blackout, the same Dentsu-owned firm’s creatives slid out some topical content for Oreo (more on it here). Brands have to use Twitter to stay relevant in our culture, but how they go about doing that has been hit-or-miss thus far (with more misses than hits). The success of Rumors will ultimately come down to the quality of music, but this blip on the social radar screen could earn them at least a fan or two.

FYI, Matt Wurst, director of digital communities at 360i, will be keynoting Mediabistro’s April Social Media Marketing Boot Camp. Go here for more info.

Credits:
Senior copywriter: Nick Panayotopoulos
Senior art director: Roberto Max Salas
Creative Technologist: Tore Holmberg from Your Majesty.

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