Honda Battle of the Bands
The Honda Battle of the Bands program was created to celebrate, support and recognize the excellence of Black College marching bands and the unique academic experience of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Honda annually awards more than $200,000 in grants to participating marching bands during the program period. While the grants are a great opportunity to enhance their music programs, the most compelling component of the program for the 45 bands is the chance to be one of the 8 finalists selected to perform at The Honda Battle of the Bands Invitational Showcase in January.
Our role was to create an online destination that could convey the spirit and magnitude of the HBCU marching band culture online. We felt that there was a tremendous opportunity to create a community experience based on the inherent values of HBCU marching bands: competitiveness, showmanship, school pride and music entertainment.
Overall, as the most comprehensive destination for the HBCU marching band experience, the site features individual band profiles for each of the 45 bands, online voting, news and updates, user commenting and event information.
ONLINE VOTING
As the selection process for this event starts with online voting, we wanted to ensure the voting process was quick and exponential. For us that meant, allowing a user to make their votes and share their votes in one fluid motion.
CONVERSATION
The conversation and social traction are organic products of the experience created by leveraging the pride and loyalty from Fans, Alumni, Students and Band Members. Enabling this core group to have their voices heard, we ultimately increase engagement and awareness reaching new users daily. With commenting modules for each band, as well as the integration of the Facebook and Twitter API’s, all users are able to engage and further the conversation.
back to work.