Visit Seattle Crafts Innovative Use of City’s Legendary Music at Heart of Branded Programme

Seattle’s music scene has flourished for decades and has long been a major draw to what Visit Seattle calls the city’s “renaissance traveller” noted for their love of live music, collecting vinyl, and attending music festivals. Determined to find a new way to highlight this key element to attract new visitors from this group, they have partnered with MTV to use “deep cuts” at the centre of a thrilling content-rich campaign created by marketing agency PB&.

Today’s biggest music enthusiasts know that a “deep cut” is a song that is less widely played and less well-known than other songs on the same album or by the same artist. Thus, Visit Seattle’s new episodic docu-series showcases the journey of Alto Moon (recent “American Idol” contestant and queer, black pop star), as he sets out to recreate the hit song I Will Follow You Into the Dark by famed Seattle band Death Cab for Cutie in a completely new style.

The series will be distributed digitally through MTV, paid social, YouTube and Visit Seattle’s owned channels, adding to a library of entertainment-based content on VisitSeattle.tv. The song itself will be available on Spotify.

TAMMY CANAVAN, CEO, VISIT SEATTLE: “Much like Seattle itself, music is in a constant state of reinvention. Enabling Alto to come to experience the city firsthand – its weather, the smells, the texture, the vibes, the people, the spirit of the city – has led to a new view of not just the song, but Seattle. We hope it inspires others visitors to come and explore our amazing city as well.”

Through three episodes, according to Britt Fero, PB& CEO, “Alto taps into inspiration that only Seattle can provide, leveraging the stories around him to create a deep cut all his own. This isn’t about being inspired by surface-level stereotypes – this is about taking a deep dive into the rich culture and history of Seattle and seeing how it inspires a totally new version of a well-loved song.”