American
Express
Unstaged.

Situation

The Unstaged music platform continued to be a success for Amex, despite facing competition from the rise of streaming services. Looking to keep the momentum going, Amex needed a high-profile hit for their platform.

Challenge

When the opportunity to partner with Taylor Swift arose, American Express approached the team at RadicalMedia to create a whole new type of Unstaged experience for the world's biggest pop star.

Solution

An Emmy award-winning 360° immersive experience, where fans inhabit the world of the Blank Space mansion, exploring hidden details and unlocking a series of clues to discover a unique gift from Taylor herself.

Designed for tablet and mobile devices, the app was architected with multiple viewings in mind: in addition to Taylor and her love interest, a collection of other actors provided backstory to the main narrative, carefully choreographed direction and editing allowing them to seamlessly move about the virtual space of the mansion.

Adding a layer of gamification and social problem-solving, the experience contains dozens of hidden artifacts to discover, as well as a series of puzzles to solve, which unlocks a gift for her dedicated fans. Through Twitter and Tumblr, fans shared solutions with each other and celebrated the solution together.

Social sharing of discovered artifacts was facilitated directly through the app and a collection panel allowed viewers to keep track of what they had yet to find in the mansions rooms. 

To promote the launch, the ad campaign consisted of print, out of home, social, radio and streaming ads, leading to over a million downloads in the first thirty days, a challenging feat given the busy holiday season.