SONY | REC YOU | 2008
10,000 faces sang out across Japan. / SONY "REC YOU"
In 2008, SONY launched "REC YOU," a campaign built around a wild experience: send in a photo of your face, and it starts singing along to music. The submitted faces flooded banner ads, street-side screens, TV shows, and blog widgets everywhere. Digital technology and cross-media power combined as a trio to show off "the new world of Walkman."
The problem
Back in 2007, Naoki Ito (GT Inc.), who worked mainly on the web, said that "there are almost no examples in Japan that truly offer 360-degree communication." Rather than putting TV commercials at the center of a campaign, the idea of flipping things around—using mass media as the place to "debut" content first created on the web—was at the cutting edge for its time. The core idea behind "REC YOU" was figuring out how to connect the product qualities of the new Walkman A series, an MP3 player, with SONY's image of digital technology.
The insight
The thinking started close to the product itself: "how can users enjoy this new world of Walkman?" That question was translated into a system that maximized participation and interactivity. A face photo—something everyone has—was transformed using cutting-edge digital processing into a "singing video," and then published not just for yourself but for the whole world to see. That strangeness, that flat, slightly eerie quality, is exactly what drew people in and sparked the desire to "try it myself." Ito's philosophy of "advertising that delivers a physical, felt sense of excitement as an experience" runs through the entire project.
The idea
When you uploaded a face photo taken with a digital camera to the "REC YOU" site, it was automatically turned into a video of that face singing and bobbing along to music. These "singing faces" then flooded everywhere: the world's first real-time streaming banner ads, blog widgets, YouTube, mobile phones, street-side screens at Roppongi Hills and Shibuya, the KDes Designing Studio, the SONY Building, and more. They even appeared in a 30-minute original TV program, complete with a service that emailed you the date and time your face would air. It gave the people who submitted photos their own "debut" experience. Before the site even launched, a viral video featuring the production team NON-GRID was picked up by many blogs and media outlets, building buzz ahead of time—and that tactic worked well too.
What happened
More than 10,000 people around the world took part, and according to The One Club's award records, it had a major positive effect on Walkman sales. It was also widely covered in the media, including being featured on Yahoo!'s top news page, and became recognized as a new kind of brand experience. The idea, the execution, and the media planning came together as a trio, and together they were praised for matching perfectly with both the new MP3 player and SONY's brand image.
Afterthought
True to the tagline "Flooding across Japan, flooding across the internet," I remember really seeing these "singing faces" everywhere, both online and off. I wonder how the people who took part felt watching their own face pop up on a giant street screen or on TV. A little awkward, a little flat-looking, but somehow endearing too. Looking back now, the sight of these strange videos filling up the internet and the streets of 2008 still feels bizarre and incredibly cool. It was a campaign that packed in everything about SONY, Walkman, and the digital technology of its time—a true symbol of its era.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2008
