Sydney Opera House’s ShipSong Project is an awesome example of an arts organisation playing to their strengths. Great music. Great footage. Great use of social media (the full site has interviews and behind-the-scenes shots too).
Despite its iconic status, I’d never really fallen in love with the Opera House. This video changes that.
Absolutely captivating.
museum geek 
It is an advertisement.
It isn’t even one that has invited the people formerly known as the audience to be part of it.
Granted, it is a flashy advertisement, but art it is not.
Absolutely agreed that it is an ad. But it’s the first ad in a really long time that’s made me actually want to invest time/energy in both promoting it and finding out more.
I think about all the NSW tourism ads I’ve seen, and most of them seem to try to capture this sort of spirit and fail, which is why this is, to me, a really successful campaign. It shows the breadth of what the Opera House does, and does so beautifully.
I don’t think it’s art. I also don’t think it matters that the audience isn’t invited to be part of it – merely to watch it. But I do think that they have nailed what they do and made it enticing in a way that few cultural organisations do – and that’s cool.
P.S. – Sydney Opera House is trending on Twitter right now – so I guess it’s working as a social media campaign.
A spade is a spade. Not a social media campaign. That would imply audience involvement.
And with that budget either as cash or in kind any other organistion could do the same.
Fair call. You are right that viral marketing would be a more appropriate description.
I don’t entirely agree that its success as a campaign comes down to budget however. I think it works because it’s a simple idea executed well (granted, the money helps with the execution). But I think it’s an ad that can actually change the way the venue is perceived – particularly to people who live outside of Sydney and don’t necessarily have a sense of its role as a contemporary venue.
I don’t know. I can understand why you don’t like it Seb. I just think it sells its product exceptionally well – which is precisely what it’s meant to do.
I guess I’m a but jaded by these sorts of things. Take a look at a collaborative project that included the audience (in fact most of the town) in it’s production. Musically far inferior naturally but I think much more ‘authentic’.
http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/27/6730473-awesome-youtube-lip-dub-proves-grand-rapids-is-awesome
And here’s the back story to the SSP.
http://www.campaignbrief.com/wa/2011/07/sydney-opera-house-and-three-d.html