In the U.S., branded content is a pay-to-play platform. Typically, broadcast opportunities are limited to integration in, or sponsorship of, existing network content. There have been some rare cases of brand-created content being broadcasted, but they came with multimillion-dollar media buys. This was the first time in history that brand-created content aired on major networks, for free. On top of that, while most content of this kind has to bury brand for the sake of entertainment, we turned our brand into the entertainment — essentially creating a 60-minute commercial for Nashville that aired on national (and international) television as pure entertainment. The network even sold ads against our 'ad'.

Most tourists thought Nashville, Tennessee was only for country music fans. But in reality, Nashville had evolved into the most diverse music scene in the world. A must-see destination for all music fans. Our challenge was to change perceptions and inspire people to plan a visit. Problem was, Nashville had a low production budget and absolutely no media budget.

So when we realized that some of the biggest rock stars in the world had actually moved to Nashville, we knew if we could get them to help us tell the story of the town’s transformation, we would not only have compelling content, but could leverage their huge social followings to promote it.

The Black Keys, Kings of Leon, Ben Folds, The Civil Wars and 20 other famous artists signed on to be part of the project. Not as paid spokespeople, but simply for the love of the city they call home. The result was a one-hour documentary, 'For The Love Of Music'.

We tapped into the musicians’ 24 million social followers by creating social kits with custom bonus content that the artists posted on their sites—driving people to view the film.

Music sites and blogs took notice and as the buzz spread, ABC took an interest and offered to air the documentary. What was essentially a 60-minute commercial for the city of Nashville, ran as pure entertainment on one of the biggest television networks in the world. They even sold and ran ads against our “ad.”

To promote the film’s broadcast premiere, we reached back out to the artists with more custom social posts. The Black Keys, Kings of Leon, Eric Church and others posted and tweeted them to their millions of followers.

The musicians featured in the documentary are some of the biggest celebrities in the world, with a combined social reach of over 20 million people. Because we had no media budget to work with, we leveraged the artists’ social channels to drive viewership—creating custom social kits with bonus video content for each of the 24 artists. Eric Church, Kings of Leon, The Black Keys and others posted the videos, helping spread word of the film. We also leveraged owned channels, including visitmusiccity.com, which featured the film trailer, information on the cast, mobile app, and how people could view the film.

'For The Love Of Music' far surpassed any previous marketing efforts by the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau. 24 of the biggest names in music starred in and promoted the film to their more than 20 million social followers, for free. It aired on some of the biggest television networks in the world, including ABC, Foxtel, Palladia, and CMT. The film even gave ABC a 38% bump in ratings in its on-air debut. It has been talked about in magazines, featured on music blogs, news sites, and even Southwest Airlines’ company blog. Since the film debuted, visits to visitmusiccity.com have increased 787% and hotel bookings are up 18%. Nashville has attributed the film to helping spark the biggest tourism boom in the city’s history, all without traditional advertising or a dime spent on media.