Boy band settles debut nerves with right Tonic

Tonic has designed a website for Polydor boy band Triple Eight, aka 888, to aid the marketing push ahead of a debut single due to be released later this month.

Described as ‘lads’ lads’, five-member Triple Eight’s styling is more edgy and urban than the ‘polished look’ of boy band rivals, says Tonic managing director Robert Kennedy. ‘The hope is that their attitude will appeal to boys as well as girls; that they’ll be more than boy band fodder for the traditional audiences in the gay community and among young girls,’ he says.

The website – www.triple8 world.com – includes a section called Sound Off where fans can vote for a topic for the band to ‘express their attitude’ about, Kennedy adds. ‘It’s a bit uncensored,’ he suggests. A video diary-styled area also allows the band to show ‘what they get up to’.

Tonic design director Simon Heys, responsible for the creative, says the aim was to generate ‘sticky’ content that increased interactivity and the sense of an ‘unofficial’ website serving a ‘fan community’.

Triple Eight’s single, Knockout, is released on 21 April.