OK Go At Cannes: Official Video Winner Announced, Brand Partner For Completed Album TBD
OK Go, well-known for their creative work with music videos, outsourced their next one to the Saatchi & Saatchi Music Video Challenge. The winner was announced last week at Cannes but what is yet to be announced is who they will be working with for their next album. OK Go are hoping to team up with one brand or a related group of brands to partner with for all creative projects related to the 17 songs they've completed.
Last week's Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, a major gathering for advertisers, didn't seem to move the needle for the music industry though it's definitely of importance to numerous musicians. In an Adweek interview with Damian Kulash, the OK Go frontman discussed a bit of why he was there and what's happening with their new album which is already recorded though the full release won't come till sometime next year.
OK Go – I'm Not Through (Video by Nelson de Castro)
Part of the week's festivities included announced the winner of the Saatchi & Saatchi Music Video Challenge for which video makers competed to represent the new song "I'm Not Through."
Nelson de Castro, whose video is shown above, was the Grand Prize winner while BJ Golnick won the People's Choice Award.
But OK Go was also there to seek out brand partners for projects related to their upcoming album. Stated Damian Kulash:
"We have a new record. It's actually a record and a half—17 songs. So, we'll be putting out some stuff this fall, and then a full-length release early next year. We would love to find a single brand to work with for the entire thing, or a small family of brands. We wouldn't wind up having to do the same thing over and over again. And we'd be able to make much more interesting stuff if each project doesn't have to be distinct from the others. It would be really fun to plan 12 or 18 months of awesome stuff that actually connected to itself."
Kulash pointed out that OK Go is increasingly more like a media company than a band and that they don't just want to make music videos:
"We're talking to several brands right now. And we'll see what happens. We won so many Lions last year that a lot of agencies and their clients will take the meeting, and talk the talk, and kind of disappear. But the record being finished means we're ready to go out in the world and do stuff. We released a game a month ago, and it was really successful. That's made a difference in convincing a lot of people we talk to that we're not secretly talking just about videos."
Sounds like we can expect an interesting year or so of nonstop creative OK Go activity.
Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch/@crowdfundingm) also blogs at Flux Research and Crowdfunding For Musicians. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
