CASE ASSIGNMENT: One Direction In 2011, pop music sensation One Direction became the first English music group to reach the number one spot on the Billboard 200 chart with a debut album. Assembled by Simon Cowell in 2010 and introduced on Cowell's The X Factor television series, One Direction quickly amassed tween fans in England and the United States through a unique interactive marketing campaign. According to the campaign's narrative, a One Direction superfan who went by the moniker "1DCyberpunk" stole the band's laptop, promising only to give it back when fans proved their support by completing a series of social media-based challenges. Active participants were rewarded with exclusive content and events, culminating in a massive online album listening party during which the laptop was finally returned.

The fifty-day campaign was developed by marketing firm AIS in conjunction with One Direction's record label, Syco. According to AIS Creative Director Richard Coggin, "Syco had a lot of great contentvideos, merchandise, singles, albums, lyrics, running orders, signed photos, radio and TV appearancesand our brief was to glue it all together and engage the fans on a daily basis. Filtered through 1DCyberpunk, the content became more valuable and sought-after." Though complex and often difficult to manage, the campaign was a success, netting 200,000 participants, twelve trending topics on twitter, and more than 2.5 million views on YouTube. Perhaps most importantly, it laid the foundation for a passionate U.S. fan base that was desperate to see the band in their home country, buy the debut album, and send One Direction to the top of the charts.

The cases are designed to ensure that you apply the concepts in real business situations. The summary should focus on (1) the key business problem(s) /opportunity(s) that needs to be addressed (2) state any new information required to bring the case up-to-date and current (this necessitates searching for information outside of that provided by the case such as surfing the internet to address what has happened to the company and/or industry since the time of the case), (3) offer substantiated recommendations to address the stated problem(s)/opportunity(ies). Your recommendations should effectively integrate both case and current information to offer viable options for the company/industry. Your summary should at least 200 words.