• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, August 18, 2005

Yahoo! will break a broad, multi-channel campaign to promote its unlimited subscription music service. Running from August 28--the day of MTV's Video Music Awards--until the end of the year, Yahoo! Music will use online, television, radio, outdoor, and guerrilla marketing to spread its message: "Over A Million Songs--5 Bucks a Month--This is Huge."

To represent the campaign visually, partner agencies OgilvyOne and Soho Square enlisted artist Craig Robinson and his colorful, pixilated renditions of popular musicians known as "mini-pops." The miniature, Lego-like versions of Green Day and Missy Elliott will perform on rich media units throughout Yahoo!'s network of sites, and MTV.com, as well as other sites.

For the sake of interaction, one particular execution allows consumers to instruct mini Missy Elliott through a dance lesson, called "Bounce with Missy," while another, entitled "Trick Daddy's Frequalizer," asks users if they're "Ready to Get Your Freak On," while mini-pops rock to the beat. Users can also make the mini-pops dance to the sound of their own voice.

To promote the online service, Yahoo! is using every medium at its disposal to make Smith's mini-pops as synonymous with Yahoo! Music as silhouettes dancing against a colorful background are with Apple's iPod.

"Our goal is to make this iconic imagery for Yahoo! Music," said OgilvyOne's Executive Creative Director Arthur Ceria. "Starting at the VMAs in Miami, everyone we want to reach is going to become very familiar with the mini-pops as the face of Yahoo! Music."

One television ad will feature Green Day's mini-pops performing their hit "Holiday," and then recommend that viewers "Lose it to Green Day."

In May, Yahoo! took the digital downloading space by surprise when it launched its unlimited service, giving consumers unlimited access to a catalog of over a million songs for bargain basement prices. The cost of the service--$4.99 per month for an annual subscription--is much cheaper than the cost of rivals' services.

RealNetworks Inc. charges $179 a year for a similar subscription service; Napster charges $14.95 per month for a subscription service that works with a portable player, and $9.95 per month without the portability option.