India-wide release, 11th May 2023: Global Creators Network – a branded content vertical of OML Entertainment, in collaboration with Swiggy and Warner Music India, introduced a one-of-a-kind partnership that enhanced the food ordering experience with music. The team at GCN played a crucial role in bringing together two iconic brands, Warner Music India and Swiggy, to create a unique engaging experience for their customers. Up until 7th May, Swiggy offered an intriguing element where the users’ food ordering journey was assisted by music. Global Creators Network expedited this unique partnership where millions of Swiggy users were able to order their favorite food, through the reimagined UI while listening to the latest single of Ed Sheeran, ‘Eyes Closed’ from his album ‘Subtract’, as they waited for their delivery.
As a part of the marketing strategy, Swiggy’s revamped homepage and the food delivery page integrated the ‘Big Blue Monster’ on a skateboard delivering orders on the Swiggy app. The blue-eyed monster, which is from the music video of “Eyes Closed” is a physical manifestation of Ed Sheeran’s grief and has gained massive popularity globally. The idea behind the in-app integration, including redesigning the home page and using the blue monster eyes as an icon, was to increase engagement and reach, besides eliminating the user’s boredom as they wait for their food while listening to Ed Sheeran’s song “Eyes Closed”. Posting a picture of the musician with the blue monster on Twitter, Swiggy also initiated a fun banter with Ed Sheeran – “What’s Ed Sheeran eating here? Wrong answers only” to which the global popstar responded in a witty way – “Chips WITHOUT Ketchup?”. The fun conversation saw various other brands like Disney India and Amazon miniTV join in.
GCN’s core focus is to nurture a synergetic partnership between brands and content creators in the digital space while also seeking to unlock their full potential, empowering them to connect with fans and build a community. With that innovative engagement, Swiggy users were able to take a glimpse of the blue monster from the 5th to the 7th of May while listening and connecting with Ed Sheeran’s deep expression of his adult life and what he describes and feels about.
Devarshi Shah – Senior Vice President & Business Head of Global Creators Network (OML), said, “At Global Creators Network, our focus is on promoting interaction and innovation, which enables both the audience and the brand to experience a fresh perspective. The collaboration between Swiggy and Warner Music India offers an unmatched experience that beautifully captures the intense emotions conveyed in the music. The outcome was enormous, as it engaged the audience to visit the Swiggy app and place an order, while simultaneously increasing the viewership of Ed Sheeran’s recent hit, ‘Eyes Closed’ from his latest album ‘Subtract’ which is out now globally.”
The album ‘Subtract” showcases not only Ed Sheeran’s remarkable talent as a musician but also his creative vision for storytelling through music videos. The music video for ‘Eyes Closed’ is inspired by the movie “Harvey” and a book he reads to his daughters about the concept of sadness. Sheeran’s goal was to illustrate how sadness can feel all-consuming, following one around and engulfing rooms, visible only to the person experiencing it.
Talking about the inspiration behind the blue monster, Ed Sheeran said, “I wanted to make a video inspired by movies like Harvey, where the main character has an imaginary friend who’s a giant rabbit that no one can see. Often sadness is something that follows you around, engulfing the rooms you’re in, and you can feel and see it, but no one else around you can. So I decided to create my own big blue monster for the video. He gets bigger and bigger as the video goes on, ’til he takes up whole rooms, and is all I can see, just like sadness”
Music and food have been two arts in perfect harmony, for ages. Food has always been a sustaining and soul-filling component of everyone’s life while music taps into something primal and feeds our souls. And, when great food and the right music pair up, it is a delight beyond words. On a similar note, the association between Swiggy and Warner Music India led the user to experience a collaboration one of a kind. The pop star’s album ‘Subtract’, which is the last in his mathematical series that started over a decade ago with ‘+’, serves as a prelude, details his emotional journey and explores the difficulty of moving through the world after loss. The album struck all the right chords with the audience making it Sheeran’s most personal and intimate album to date.
At the beginning of 2022, a series of events changed his life, his mental health, and ultimately the way he viewed music and art – and all these have been explicitly captured in the lyricism of the song. And what better way to offer the two intimate elements—food and music—than on a significant platform! In order to reach a wider audience, Swiggy teamed up with Warner Music India to mark Ed Sheeran’s emotional journey.