“The music visualizations are so creative. This site is not afraid of visual breathing room—everything was just in its place.” —juror Libby Bawcombe
“Iconic and memorable experience that keeps you wanting more.” —juror Harold Jones
Overview: To promote Bob Dylan’s collector’s edition box set, titled The Cutting Edge 1965–1966, Sony’s Legacy Recordings commissioned ad agency Havas New York and production company Studio6 to create a site that would reach a younger generation of Dylan fans. The firms discovered that Dylan had recorded the box set’s songs in two separate studios, both named “Studio A.” Naturally, this discovery called for a virtual Studio A with a modern interface. Avoiding clichés like mixing boards and microphones, Studio A Revisited features a minimal user interface designed for touch and a responsive site that can be enjoyed on any platform.
•The experience digitizes Dylan’s Studio A recording sessions—some of which have never been heard by fans.
•Visitors stay on the site for an average of 20 minutes, a rare feat for such a site.
•More than half of the site’s visitors have been under the age of 44.
Comments by Studio6:
Was the project part of a larger promotional campaign? “Bob Dylan: Studio A Revisited has always been about the music. It’s a project for which we were able to unearth amazing treasures from an artist at the height of his career and put them, quite literally, to good use. We believe that this work is more than a promotional website for a box set release. It’s a vital, dynamic part of Bob Dylan’s canon—and the most accurate depiction of the mid-1960s recording experience.”
Were there any specific demands that made the project easier or harder? “The brief from Sony’s Legacy Recordings required us to find a way to break through the clutter of music streaming services like Spotify, reach a new generation of fans and grow Dylan’s fan base beyond the aged 50 and older demographic. We had to do all of this with a very limited budget. To make the experience relevant to a global audience, we created a responsive website that can be enjoyed across platforms, including mobile. We wanted fans to be able to touch the music—and feel touched by it.”
What was the response to the site? “Given the limited promotional budget, our key performance indicators for the Dylan experience were threefold: user engagement, audience age and press coverage. We delivered an average user session of 20 minutes—an unheard of number for a site of this nature. More than half of the organic visitors were under the age of 44. And we were able to generate real journalism—not just press release regurgitation—in media outlets like the A.V. Club, Rolling Stone and WIRED, delivering more than 100 million press views during our two-week launch window.”
