THE SOUND OF SASS

The digital gurus at SASS, Cheshire's leading brand communications agency, have developed a smash-hit mobile phone application that has swiftly become an overnight global success.

Tub Thumper, a touch-screen drumming application, is the brainchild of Anthony Diver and Andy Todd, who developed the game as a remote way of playing their favourite instruments, having a bit of fun and showing off their digital skills.

Tub Thumper has proven so popular with the masses, it has notched up more than 71,000 downloads since its launch, 41,000 of which were in its first 12 days of release. It bagged the number six spot on Google’s top ten download chart for its new Smart Phone, coming in just two places behind the ever-popular global phenomenon and music recognition programme, Shazam.

The application is available to owners of the Google Smart Phone, the Internet giant's rival handset to Apple's iPhone, and is downloadable from Google's Android Market, which houses its software applications.

Anthony Diver, Head of Digital at SASS, commented: "We are delighted with how well Tub Thumper has taken off, word of mouth has spread so quickly, it has been a classic viral success.

"We wanted to put our money where our mouths are professionally, by testing the market with a cutting edge design, demonstrating how brands can and should be exploiting such a fast-growing media channel. A great way of doing this was to create something simple and fun, like a virtual drum machine for a phone, charting its success and marketing it appropriately, getting it into the hands of key online opinion formers in order to create brand advocates.

"From the initial idea to upload, the whole process only took us two weeks, and once it was live on Google, we marketed it through all the usual digital and e-PR channels – and the rest was done for us by the users – we couldn’t have asked for anything more!"

The application illustrates SASS' adept digital abilities and creative foresight as one of the leading agencies in the North West to offer digital services to clients. Just one discipline within the creative agency’s six centres of excellence, which include Design, PR, Media, Advertising and Direct, SASS' structure is such that it provides an added value that solus agencies cannot, utilising the expertise of its other functions to support each discipline’s unique offer.

Andy Todd, Technical Architect for the agency adds: "People can play along to their favourite tunes on their phones with Tub Thumper, or they can create their own 'symphonies', without causing any of the disruption of traditional drum kits!

"You don’t need any musical ability either, it's just a bit of fun. Like Guitar Hero, which is hugely popular, we called it Tub Thumper as it's slang for 'drummer', so it's all a bit tongue-in-cheek."

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