Not content with bog standard flyer promotion, US industrial-rockers Nine Inch Nails have started an absorbing worldwide trail in a move to promote their new album.
The unconventional campaign started early this year by viral marketing agency 42 Entertainment has captivated NIN fans around the world, who have been slowly uncovering content from the highly anticipated concept album ‘Year Zero’ due out on the 16th April.
The whole promotional puzzle began back in January when a fan latched on to the idea that the iamtryingtobelieve
slogan featured on their 2007 tour t-shirt was actually a promotional
website for ‘Year Zero’. Soon the word spread like wildfire across
various blogs and online forums kick starting a frenzy amongst NIN
fans, desperate to get a sneak preview of the upcoming album.
The
trail was taken a step further when fans found USB sticks in the
bathrooms of the venues of their European tour each containing mp3s,
pictures and cryptic codes, leading them on a wild goose chase through
various websites containing phone numbers, puzzles and bizarre
political conspiracies to get their head around.
The
unabashedly viral campaign by marks a change in the way that material
can be promoted and recalls the similar marketing techniques used for The Blair Witch Project back in 1999 by getting fans totally immersed in the product before its release.
The fan run website echoingthesound.com has been acting as a platform for those hooked on the trail so far to group together up and ponder over their findings.
As the album release approaches undoubtedly more and more clues will be unraveled - just make sure you dodge the hoax sites.
Visit http://yearzero.nin.com/