Vienna is celebrating the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth throughout 2020. The city was at the center of his creative life, and was the location for the premieres of his works. In his honor, the Vienna Tourist Board branded the anniversary as Vienna 2020. Capital of Music. Like 250 years ago, Vienna continues to set the tone to this day when it comes to classical music. The first wave of measures to publicize the 2020 theme year was launched in 2019.
Vienna 2020.
Capital of Music
music2020.vienna.info: Declarations of love from people who are Viennese by choice
Just as Beethoven chose to build a life for himself in Vienna, the city is the dream place to live and work for many world-famous musicians today. This inspired the Vienna Tourist Board’s choice of ‘Vienna 2020. Capital of Music’ for the theme year. On the central campaign website, a number of – in some cases very – high profile figures shared their Vienna testimonials. A series of in-depth interviews – with global star Billy Joel, legendary film music composer Hans Zimmer, virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell and celebrated pianist Yuja Wang – gave an insight into global stars’ relationships with the city. Walter Werzowa was responsible for the sound logo to go with the 2020 theme year: the Austrian composer and audio branding guru (in 1994 he developed one of the most played sound logos of all time when he created Intel’s audio signature) returned to the city of his birth after 30 years in Hollywood. The interviews are posted on the music2020.vienna.info microsite, which also contains information in five languages about Beethoven, Beethoven events and various other aspects of life in the capital of music. The videos and website were promoted in 17 markets worldwide in a campaign entitled ‘All Ears On: Vienna’.
B2B Events in ten cities in Europe and Asia
Between September and December the Vienna Tourist Board set off on tour, taking in Rome, Hamburg, Warsaw, Zurich, Seoul, Beijing, Madrid, London, Moscow and Paris, bringing international media, the travel industry and expert audiences in tune with everything going on in Vienna related to the motto for the theme year and the Beethoven anniversary. The events were supported by Russo-German violinist, composer and director Aleksey Igudesman and British-Korean pianist, composer and comedian Hyung-ki Joo.
Interactive Beethoven audiobook for Amazon Alexa and Google Home
To promote the 2020 theme year, the Vienna Tourist Board also created exclusive content for the Amazon Alexa and Google Home assistants, producing a voice application as an interactive audiobook on the life and work of Ludwig van Beethoven. It recounts stories and anecdotes with surprising details that should intrigue even the most well-informed experts, revealing a great deal about the composer’s works and personality. Recordings of his music – performed by the Wiener Symphoniker under Philippe Jordan – provide the perfect soundtrack. Distinctive passages from each of Ludwig van Beethoven’s nine symphonies provided the score. The Alexa Skill and Google Action are available from the respective stores under Beethovens Wien for the German version and Beethoven’s Vienna for the English version. The app was advertised via digital performance marketing campaigns in the German-speaking countries, the United Kingdom and the USA, as well as the various channels operated by the Vienna Tourist Board and the Wiener Symphoniker.
Smart audioguide integrated into sunglasses
In a joint project with the Austrian National Tourist Board, the Vienna Tourist Board developed a series of interactive city tours for Bose Frames wearables, which first became available in Austria in June 2019. Ludwig van Beethoven takes wearers of these audio sunglasses on an acoustic tour of Vienna and New York featuring integrated loudspeakers and the new #RelatedToAustria app. In Vienna, visitors could borrow the glasses for free from the tourist information center on Albertinaplatz. The iOS version of the #RelatedToAustria – A Vienna Audio AR Walk app is available to download for free from the app store.
