Branded Entertainment is very restricted in Germany. On public TV-Stations it is forbidden by law to use obvious product placement. With music, there is the governmental institution GEMA, who controls and represents the rights of the artist. In the case of our street musicians, we either relied on the original compositions of the street musicians, or used traditional folk music that are royalty free.

We took street musicians from a place they were ignored (local stores), to the one place people least expected to see them: the internet. To do so, we filmed 50 street musicians and turned their touching performances into interactive banners. For the first time, street musicians did not play in front of shops. They played in front of online shops, surprised online shoppers could not only enjoy the music, but they could also donate money as easily as on the street. One click was all it took to support projects for the homeless – or to share the whole experience via social networks. Our beggars not only had their own Facebook page. They were also featured on a dedicated microsite, where people could read about their lives and listen to more music. In addition, thanks to our PR campaign, there was a big media echo online and offline.

The promotion resulted in 3.5m page views, many new members for the German Red Cross, more than €12,000 in donations and huge media coverage – online as well as offline. On a particularly cold German winter, this simple idea raised awareness for homeless people – and helped finance urgently needed support.