Heartland

Viral marketing agency 42 Entertainment has created a network of Web sites to promote the forthcoming album Year Zero from industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails.

The network is based around a series of homepages and messageboards from a dystopian future, where the US is a fundamentalist Christian-controlled police state and many people are hooked on a new synthetic drug called Opal. The network begins from anotherversionofthetruth.com, where visitors can peel away a positive veneer using the mouse to reveal a darker world underneath.
In true viral fashion, the link to original site was in a message hidden in a picture of a tour T-shirt, with certain letters highlighted. This was allegedly picked up by fans, who passed on the information to others at fansites such as echoingthesound.org. Other techniques used to intrigue fans include codes to crack such as Morse and references to Biblical verses.

Other sites in the campaign include www.iamtryingtobelieve.com, www.bethehammer.net, www.105thairbornecrusaders.com, and www.churchofplano.com. All of the sites have a distorted overlay, a graphical technique used many times on Nine Inch Nails' packaging and materials.
42 Entertainment is best known for its I Love Bees 'alternative reality game' for the Microsoft/Bungie's Halo 2, which also included a network of Web sites but also included online elements where participants would receive phone calls and jars on honey in the post.

Dr. Moody wrote:42 Entertainment is best known for its I Love Bees 'alternative reality game' for the Microsoft/Bungie's Halo 2, which also included a network of Web sites but also included online elements where participants would receive phone calls and jars on honey in the post.

That one was amazing - so much to hear or see, with some of it being truly dark. Off to see what they've done for this one !

Nice, thankee!

sounds interesting, but really, another dystopian future with everyone hooked on some new drug?

8.5 wrote:sounds interesting, but really, another dystopian future with everyone hooked on some new drug?

Yeah, I know, it's a cliche but the network of sites are really well done - I've already found some great back story and you should try some of the email addresses for interesting responses !

Anyone heard the - intentionally - leaked songs yet? If not, go [url=http://www.symphonyofnoise.com/nails/YearZeroRelated/]here[/url/] and have a look around. Three mp3's up for grabs...

They've been playing loudly (sorry neighbours below) at Carpathian Towers all morning - and mighty fine they are too !

Do you think Trent might actually have, gulp, got it right this time ?

Sure sounds like it !

"Survivalism" back on form, many thumbs up !

Dr. Moody wrote:"Survivalism" back on form, many thumbs up !

"My Violent Heart" sounds like Pretty Hate Machine era put through Downward Spiral production - some of the latter synth hits are pretty crazy !

nice links
thanx

A third track, "Me, I'm not", has leaked.

A slow groove of a track, all held back and imminent until the end where he starts to let filters go and things get to fire off. Different again from the first two in style.....

Another intentional 320k leak left on a memory card in a washroom, it seems, complete with more highly coded links to viral marketing pages.

Linky please.

James Blast wrote:Linky please.

It was here 20mins ago but, as you can see, I was in the nick of time !

PM to follow - give me a few mins.........

Thankee

Damn, I was too late...

Ahráyeph wrote:Damn, I was too late...

I'll sort you right after Carpy sorts me

Thankee, James!

James Blast wrote:

Ahráyeph wrote:Damn, I was too late...

I'll sort you right after Carpy sorts me

Let me if it worked ok ?

Ta muchly.....

Yup it worked, just uploading it to youSENDit, stanby folks...

Here ye go.

Sorted! Thanks James and Carpy for sharing! Really worth it!

All the new stuff is being kept track of here :

http://www.symphonyofnoise.com/nails/YearZeroRelated/

I'm wondering if the 'glitches' in the static at the end of the phone message mp3 were intentional to form morse code. I mean, if they can hide a phone number in random noise only to be detected with a spectral analysis plugin, anything is possible...

All the viral stuff , codes and hidden stuff is being unravelled here...


http://www.echoingthesound.org/phpbbx/v ... sc&start=0

A friend of mine was at the show last night and she found the USB drive - lucky moo !! About the size of a 20p and with NIN scratched onto the side.

It leads to a new site which, I have to say, is a bit near the knuckle considering it appeared at the same moment the Oscars began.

http://www.hollywoodinmemoriam.org/

It's pretty bleak stuff, but brilliantly done.........

Appearance over substance? The three teaser tracks that have been "released" are utter crap. If the rest of the album is like this, even a silly marketing campaign won't help much with selling it.