Let them Discover stuff – Muse lets fans piece together ‘United States of Eurasia’ song

Fuelling  DISCOVERY with youth is essential in engaging Gen C. You’ve got to give them an experience which fosters their curiosity.

In tradition of Nine Inch Nails successful ARG back in ’07, British rock band Muse recently released one of their new tracks, ‘United States of Eurasia’ by planting USB sticks (I think it was 30 or so) all across the world containing 5 second bits of the track – people then had to go out and physically find them, work together to upload them onto the web and piece it together to create the final track. The song, United States of Eurasia, has been divided into snippets and put onto USB ports, which in turn have been hidden in Berlin, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Moscow, Paris and Dubai, where there are secret ‘agents’ looking after them. When found, the stick has a code which must be entered at United Eurasia to proceed. When entered, a puzzle must be solved to unlock a piece of the song.

The Muse - sparked a global treasure hunt to piece together the song "United States of Eurasia"

Great example of how a brand is creating an interesting experience for their brand advocates. Instead of waiting for the song release and having a ‘download here’ option on their website, they’ve sparked a global treasure hunt around a song. Pretty cool and an example I’m going to talk about at Nokia World.