Meteor crawls into social media feeds with musical graffiti

Mobile phone brand promotes festival via urban art timelapse video and “cab sessions”

Lisa Comerford, Meteor’s head of brand and communications, with graffiti artist Omin at his half of the “Meteor Crawl Wall” in Dublin.
Lisa Comerford, Meteor’s head of brand and communications, with graffiti artist Omin at his half of the “Meteor Crawl Wall” in Dublin.

When Meteor launched as Ireland's third mobile phone network in 2001, it was seen as a "disruptive" brand, says Lisa Comerford, the company's new head of brand and communications.

Now many of its customers “have grown up with us” and Meteor’s focus on sponsoring music events such as the Camden Crawl “reflects the evolution in our customers’ tastes”, she says.

The company has kicked off the countdown to this weekend’s Meteor Camden Crawl in Dublin with two campaigns “inspired by the on-street, urban vibe of the festival”, according to Comerford.

Designed to capture the interest of its target market on social media, the #MeteorCrawlWall was a graffiti “battle” between two strictly first- name-only street artists, Omin and Conan, who created music-themed work on a wall near the Mercantile bar on George’s Street last Saturday.

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A time-lapse video of the urban art showdown has been produced, with social media users incentivised to vote for a winner through a competition to win gig tickets and a smartphone.


'Cab sessions'
Meteor will also run a fleet of "free cab rides" via specially wrapped Camden Crawl taxis during the three-day festival, and plans to release recently-filmed footage of "cab sessions", which show the reactions of passengers on the receiving end of surprise serenades.

The line-up of the festival, a relative newcomer to the Irish music calendar, mostly comprises emerging artists but is being headlined by Liverpudlians Echo & the Bunnymen – a band that predates the advent of Meteor by some two decades.

Meteor is also the sponsor of the Paul McLoone Show on Today FM and the Choice Music Prize. The mobile phone network was previously associated with the Meteor Music Awards, but decided in 2011 that the event had "run out of steam".

Laura Slattery

Laura Slattery

Laura Slattery is an Irish Times journalist writing about media, advertising and other business topics