Though I’ve never fully embraced Asher Roth’s brand of white boy rap, I have to give the 25-year-old MC credit for trying to improve his connection with fans (and gain some added exposure in the process of course) by hooking up with BBH New York’s Masashi Kawamura and Hal Kirkland on this pretty nifty form of digital self-promotion.
You might remember Kawamura and Kirkland from such One Show award-winning work like Sour’s “Hibi no Neiro.” Here, the creative duo continues to dabble in music-themed projects on the side with Asherrothmusic.com, which satisfies Roth’s request to build a website that he could literally carry in his wallet.
To accomplish this, the BBH boys brought on augmented reality firm Saqoosha, which in turn printed an illustration of the website on a card the size of a credit card. Whenever Asher or one of his buddies photographs the card, that photo becomes the home page of Roth’s site. When fans visit the site the first thing that they see is the latest updated picture.
Meanwhile, Roth was supplied with his own uploading app for his iPhone, which allows him to update the site from anywhere in the world. Each image is dated and labeled so that fans can make a connection with the context in which the photos was taken. The technology specifically used was FLARToolKit, a program that tracks the design and shape of the card and then literally launches the site’s interface from its surface.
While the growing, evolving image gallery is cool for fans and all to glare at, we personally prefer the boom box that lets us decide if we should ultimately give Roth’s music a second chance. We’re still deciding.