Timing of Campaign: October 11, 2016 to January 9, 2017.

The Goal

In addition to sustaining and entrenching a strong listener base and sparking referrals for new listeners, the goal of boom 97.3’s first-ever online campaign was to achieve 10,000 online mixtapes and a 3% lift in app downloads.

Target

Men and women in the GTA aged 30-45.

The Insight and Strategy

Agency No Fixed Address had an opportunity to leverage one of boom 97.3’s biggest strengths: the carefully curated playlists that made the station such a success with Torontonians who grew up in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s.

The agency mined a key insight: life gets complicated as you get older, and music takes you back to a simpler time. For the target, their youth was a carefree time that was devoid of adulthood stresses. Music played a special role as the soundtrack.

No Fixed Address discovered that people love sharing their music preferences. They can express a sense of ownership and feel rewarded when given an opportunity to tell their story or share a memory that only music can evoke. The tension of physical music players of the past and online music consumption of today became fertile ground for the creative idea and online program.

The Plan

Anyone who grew up in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s has made a mixtape. Whether it was for a high school crush or summer jams, the mixtape wasn’t just a collection of songs – it was an expression of themselves through the music they loved.

So the agency created mixtapeofyou.com – a fun and engaging site experience reminiscent of making a mixtape. Everything felt like the real experience, from the skeuomorphic design to details like pressing play and record. The team integrated the experience with Spotify’s API to ensure there was a broad enough selection to generate a range of mixtapes.

The program was designed to get people to create, personalize and share their own custom mixtape in their social feeds and even get it played on-air.

Technology and Tools

The website platform was created in partnership with Spotify and featured every song the station has ever played. The algorithm pulled from more than 100,000 songs, spanning three decades, with an exponential personalized number of custom mixtapes generated.

User Experience

Intuitive and simple, every detail was designed to take people back in time. Users selected their tapes, a wide selection of retro labels, and took a trip down memory lane. They were asked five fun questions such as “When did you graduate high school?” or “When was your first kiss?” and based on the answers, the site curated a unique mixtape. Listeners could then personalize things even further by replacing tracks and creating fun names.

Supporting Channels

The team had paid, owned and earned channels working in concert to build scale and maximize amplification. They used established digital properties to boost value and achieve digital objectives, and promoted the mixtape generator through paid media on Facebook. boom 97.3 radio hosts also created their own mixtape to share with loyal listeners.

The team also used the station to reach its existing listeners with a fun competition. Adopted as a part of everyday programming, one lucky listener was given the chance to have their mixtape played at 10:10 a.m. The agency engaged influencers like Jennifer Valentyne and Gowan to create and share their personalized tapes with their audiences and fans. Ultimately, it was the social media campaign and engaging UX design that drove people to, and through, the digital “Mixtape of You” experience.

Results

With cassette tape nostalgia at its peak in pop culture, the campaign surpassed every engagement benchmark on a shoestring budget.

-More than 70% of site visitors created a mixtape
-More than 14,000 mixtapes were created at last check
-78% of the tapes were shared on social media
-10% app download increase compared to one year ago
-More than 2.5 million targeted impressions were generated within the GTA
-466,000 engagements with the campaign social media posts

The campaign reached more than 400,000 Torontonians – a full 75% of boom 97.3 listeners. As well, the site user flow created a sticky experience, with a bounce rate of 23% – well below the industry standard of 55%.