Thumbs down for American Express’ ‘Your live story’

American Express has teamed up with Mark Ronson and Channel 4 in an interactive campaign heavily relying on submissions from the community. 

The credit card company said the campaign will aim to “uncover the UK’s best music experiences – the memorable stories behind the shows, in celebration of American Express’ involvement in live music and its award-winning ‘Preferred Seating’ programme launched last year”.

The micro-site is hosted on a branded section of the Channel 4 website, and simply asks for people to submit their experiences with the rather weak incentive of the best being made into a short film with the soundtrack being produced by Mark Ronson.

To be honest I just don’t get it. What does American Express have to do with music, and live music at that?  Music is “sex, drugs and rock and roll”, and American Express just isn’t.  It is ‘business’ and it is ‘winning’. It is not hedonistic trips and sweaty mosh pits.

This is exactly the opposite of everything that Disney did well in their ‘Let the memories begin’ campaign.  Disney have earned the right to ask for contributions; they have chosen an area that they “own” in asking for memories from holidays at Disney’s Parks and Resorts.  It fits, it feels right.

Amex and music just doesn’t.  If they were to sponsor tours for a while, and then sponsor some music awards (Mastercard and the Brits) or festivals then they would be earning the right.  But at the moment they are just two random things coming together and as such, I predict little success.  And with 10 videos and 60 photos so far, compared to the millions of people that have undoubtedly viewed the competition, early results aren’t looking good.

The final nail in the coffin is that I have searched the website and have not found any mention of the preferred seating programme which this is apparently celebrating.

All in all, this is not a social media success in any way.  Sorry.