How do you launch an Internet radio station in a music market dominated by algorithmic streaming services? How do you build a brand within one of the most famous brands in the world?
With its global network of mastermind artists and expert hosts, Red Bull Music Academy Radio has been broadcasting highly curated programming online for more than 10 years. With a new and improved site and app scheduled to launch, the beverage brand knew it needed a stronger positioning for the Radio platform, in order to appeal to a broader audience. The first step would be the U.S. market. Given the challenge of facing a crowded space dominated by streaming giants, RBMA Radio turned to Your Majesty to start from the ground up and get the word out.
CLIENT
Red Bull Music Academy Radio
AGENCY
Your Majesty
DATE
August, 2016
ROLE
Strategy, Art Direction, Design, Motion
We started with an immersion workshop with Red Bull’s senior management teams to clarify RBMA Radio’s positioning, benefits and values. After evaluating the workshop insights and conducting in-depth research, we crafted coherent and cohesive brand positioning, manifesto, voice, identity, design systems and a creative platform to drive the big message: You need to hear this! You can find all the music you want online, but tune into RBMA Radio to find the music you didn’t know you were looking for.
We solved four main objectives:
1. Drive awareness and traffic to RBMA Radio
2. Be flexible enough to promote shows with vastly different audiences
3. Craft cohesive out of home, print, digital, social, retail, packaging and PR messaging
4. Communicate the brand’s strong musical perspective with a sense of urgency
On the web, rich media banners pulled real-time, on-air show information to drive immediacy and click-through. Offline and at the local level, we ran traditional and guerilla (takeover) advertising, PR, market-specific content and influencer/partnership support timed with Red Bull-sponsored festivals.
RBMA Radio’s traffic has increased astoundingly, and all the buzz has enabled it to solidify contracts with more high-profile hosts and artists. The success caught the attention of many new fans and rollouts are planned for additional markets. A huge win for our clients—and for music lovers everywhere
BRAND GUIDELINES – The brand guidelines introduce you to the basic elements of the RBMA Radio identity system and explain how we use them to build the brand.
ARTIST – Charli XCX performs at PC Music Presents: Pop City, part of RBMA Radio: Live from Los Angeles, on July 20, 2016. Photographer: Philip Cosores / Red Bull Content Pool
BOOMBOX 4-PACK – After a brief from the Canadian Red Bull team we created a custom bi-lingual 4-pack that folds into a boombox. The fold instructions can be found inside the package.
EXCLUSIVE MAGAZINE – As part of the relaunch we created a magazine to introduce all the new shows.
ARTIST – Bruiser Brigade live on-air inside the RBMA Radio Pop-Up in Detroit, MI, USA on 23 May, 2016. Photographer: Jeremy Deputat / Red Bull Content Pool
OUTDOOR – In everything we say for RBMA Radio there is a sense of urgency and edginess. Using this vibrant blue makes RBMA Radio stand out and catch your attention in any medium.
BUS COVERS – The custom underline is a signature graphical element from RBMA Radio. The underline helps to emphasize the campaign message "You need to hear this."
TRAIN COVERS – The campaign work is defined by the vibrant blue background, the big brand awareness headlines, and the blue treated photography.
TYPES OF WORK – There are 2 types of work within the brand; Campaign and Show work. The Campaign work is defined by the vibrant blue background. Show work uses the same grid principles as the Campaign work but it has a white background so the personality of the artist comes through by their photography. The color of the headlines is inspired by the photography and complements the photography colors.
The shows on RBMA Radio follow two formats: Concept and Artist. Artist shows all begin with “Made to:”. Artists have creative freedom on RBMA Radio. “Made to” let’s people know these programs have been crafted by an individual.
HAND PAINTED WALL – The typography for RBMA Radio headlines is all caps, bold and underlined. It’s loud. It’s urgent. It’s immediate.
WILDPOSTINGS – Photos are cropped tightly to focus on the subject. By cropping tightly we create tension and therefor causing a sense of urgency.
SOCIAL MEDIA – For both Facebook and Instagram we created guidelines for promoted and regular posts. As well as posts for Twitter.
DIGITAL ADS – We created both static and animated HTML5 banners. Some of the banners pulled real-time, on-air show information to drive immediacy and click-through.
MOTION – Animated work for RBMA Radio has the same sense of urgency as the graphic language. It's not too sleek. And it has a little bit of an uncomfortable and disruptive feeling by using a few quick cuts and an overall fast pace.
ARTIST – DJ Quik performs at RBMA Radio presents United States of Bass at Union in Los Angeles, CA, USA on 15 July, 2016. Photographer: Jeremy Deputat / Red Bull Content Pool
BILLBOARDS – In multiple cities we placed billboards to announce the relaunch.
STOREFRONTS – For each city that had a radio popup we created custom window wraps for the local Red Bull Studios.
CREATIVE DIRECTION
Erik Jarlsson
ART DIRECTION
Alvin Groen, Johnny Chang, Erik Jarlsson
TECHNICAL DIRECTION
Tore Holmberg
DEVELOPMENT
Koalition
PRODUCTION
Grace Steite, Anton Stromberg
RESEARCH & STRATEGY
Josh Cohen, Grace Steite
DESIGN (Rebranding)
Alvin Groen, Johnny Chang
DESIGN (Launch Campaign)
Alvin Groen, Kristofer Delaney
DESIGN (Magazine)
Alexander Strand Kristensen
PRODUCT PROTOTYPES (4-Pack)
Sheridan & Co.
MOTION
Alvin Groen
COPYWRITING
Brian Wilkens
