Range Rover goes viral with OK Go and their new geo-mapping app

Marketing Tip: Hire awesome band, add geo-location app, throw in some cool visuals and voila! Last night in Los Angeles, musical innovators OK Go took to the streets with their instruments to embark on a five-hour, 8-mile parade. Using Range Rover’s Pulse of the City app, which utilizes GPS technology, they made a giant geo-art OK Go sign, branding themselves into the fabric of L.A.’s city streets.

The idea behind the “Evoque Pulse of the City” project, spearheaded by Range Rover Europe to promote the Evoque, their latest automobile, is for OK Go to create a beautiful, geo-mapped, street parade in celebration of their home city, Los Angeles, California. The band described the project as a “big, awesome psycho-spatial geo-musical techno-sonic parade party.” Range Rover wants consumers to do the same thing with their own streets in their own city and with their own designs, using the app’s technology to “write, draw, dance and scream out loud the things you want to tell the world about the place you live and love. When that’s done the band will pick the best ones to accompany an exclusive video launching in January 2011.” The campaign fits in with Range Rover’s description of the Evoque, calling it a car that was inspired by some of the most exciting cities in the world.”

Ever wonder what your day looked like? Created by Fantasy Interactive, Inc. Range Rover’s Pulse of the City app tracks your journey around a city and then “brings it to life with a unique visualization.” I haven’t played with it yet, but if it’s really awesome, I’ll let you know. Range Rover “wants to bring the world’s cities to life through the people that make them amazing.” Every month they will be asking users questions about their city and the answers will become part of a larger visual project.

The electric parade began yesterday afternoon in Los Angeles as OK Go and an accompanying parade played songs from the band’s new album, “Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky,” as well as dozens of covers.

The app is available for free in the iTunes store and in the Android marketplace.

See the pump-up video from the band promoting the idea:

OK Go was a smart choice for Range Rover. The band is notorious for its awe-inspiring stunts that go viral. Check out one of my favorite music videos of theirs, which garnered over 19 million views.