When Unique Events tasked us with finding a band to kick off Edinburgh’s Hogmanay – we leapt at the chance. As a massive opportunity for a Scottish band, we needed a big, campaignable idea to match.

To meet this challenge, Leith Records created a name, an identity and a bespoke website, branded ‘Hog the Stage’. Media partners, The Skinny, helped us amplify the competition and document he campaign from beginning to end. Entrants were encouraged to upload a short biography and live mp3 to our website. 130 bands did just that. Leith Records, The Skinny and Unique Events shortlisted for the coveted top five acts. All the finalists were invited to battle it out at the HMV Picturehouse to win their spot at Hogmanay.

To determine the night’s running order in a fair and balanced way we shunned the tried and tested pick-names-out-of-a-hat route in favour of a more ambitious selection process. We let a ravenous Porky (a sizeable 3yr old cross between a large white and a land race pig) run riot inside a pen containing five identical apples, each once representing a finalist. Porky’s preferences dictated the order of the line up. We filmed these snafflings, and the Guardian posted the final film on their website.

Along with the discerning audience’s votes, we had five musical experts on the judging panel, including The Skinny’s music editor, the head of Ten Tracks, the manager of Scottish sensation Biffy Clyro and Vic Galloway. The latter judge and our host, Jim Gellatly, are two of the most influential characters in the Scottish music scene. They tweeted constantly in the run up to and at the finalists’ event, keeping their 5,000+ followers informed about all the action. Over 400 music lovers assembled at the HMV Picturehouse for the decider.

Winner, Kitty the Lion, enjoyed a good old knees up in front of 80,000 revellers at Edinburgh’s Hogmanay 2010. The hum about Leith Records had now become an audible buzz. In the first month The Hog the Stage website went live it received over 42,000 visits, generated 2,350 comments, 125,000 page views and around 10,000 facebook ‘likes’, as well as being featured in various media.