Napster relaunch animations. We had to find a way to take Napster's notorious image into legitimate brand territory, and big shiny ads didn't seem like the way to go. So the backwards launch was born," said Quentin Shuldiner. "In the months leading up to the official launch, we seeded a series of animations on the Web that told their story in a way no other marketer ever would. We took the Napster logo and created a character, sort of an anti-critter, who broke out of jail and was now hanging out in Hip Hop videos, stuffing his pants at a Metal show and tripping with Rastas. And without spending a dime in paid media, these Webisodes were soon seen everywhere from obscure German music sites to CNBC. As the Webisodes took hold virally, we ran more ads. But in a way that never smelled too much of advertising."
