Sometimes I wonder how magazines will survive the onslaught of handheld digital devices. Then Virgin Digital takes the visual treasure hunt into the music world with this ad. To appreciate print like this, you have to sit and hold a relatively large image in your hands. That’s what magazines have to make us want to do more often.

The Creativity Print&Design E-mail, April 20, 2006

The Art Directors Club announced the winners of its 85th annual awards earlier this week, with a mere five Golds handed out in the Advertising realm. The lone print or outdoor winner was this musical treasure hunt for
Virgin Digital, from Ground Zero, which appeared as both magazine
spreads and posters, winning in the latter category.

"Looking to create
an experience that would genuinely engage people, rather than something
to just flip past, we made this piece with more than 70 visual
metaphors of musical artists and bands," explains ACD/writer Kristina
Slade. Tagged "Exercise your music muscle," it’s so dense with references it could give you a hernia. "It
challenged music fans to see how many artists and bands they could
spot," says Slade, and in no time at all it became viral print, as
"dozens of blogs, music-related websites and online communities around
the world spontaneously promoted it by embracing the challenge," she
notes.