Theo Skye

For the band's second album release, the label wanted to do something different... something mobile.

Vampire Weekend was on the verge of releasing their highly anticipated second album, Contra. Their record label (Beggars UK) wanted to do something different to spread the word and generate buzz, so they came to me.

I conceptualized, designed, pitched, and built this HTML5 mobile ad unit as a creative "army of one" in Medialets' earlier days (late 2009). After it successfully launched in the NPR iPhone app, I was able to attend the album release party, meet the band, and experience them directly expressing their gratitude to me for the creation of "...that great ad that really helped us out!" It was awesome.

Here's how it worked: Upon tapping a subtly animated banner, the ad would expand and begin playing the band's pre-released featured single, Cousins. The album's cover art. was displayed and intuitive, animated cues invited users to rotate their iPhones to landscape orientation. When they did, the album art slid away to reveal an underlying clip from the album's frenetically-shot music video. Users were prompted to shake their iPhones to edit the video. Upon shaking, the video clip would change. Users could shake again to see another looping clip, then another, and so on. The album could also be purchased from iTunes and downloaded directly to the user's iPhone with just a couple taps.