‘Take On Me’ was the global breakthrough hit for Norwegian pop act a-ha back in 1985, helped in no small part by its pioneering promo video featuring a melding of pencil-sketch animation and live action. The video won a raft of awards and is held up as one of the most innovative pop videos of all time.

And it has endured, with the official video (at the time of writing) sitting at 906m views on YouTube. Based on its play history, Warner Music and the band are predicting that it will cross 1bn views later this year.

While we are used to modern digital heavy hits from the likes of Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande quickly sailing past the 1bn-play mark, catalogue videos rarely come near this milestone. Indeed, the only videos made before 2000 to rack up 1bn+ views on YouTube are ‘November Rain’ by Guns N’ Roses, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ by Nirvana, and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen. Even the perma-memed ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ by Rick Astley is only at 572m views.

This, then, is very much a big deal for a-ha. As such, Warner is running a competition asking fans to predict when it will reach 1bn views. They go to a page on the band’s official site and enter the date and time when they think the video will hit 1bn views.

Whoever gets it right (or is closest to the exact moment) will win a trip to Trondheim in Norway to meet the band and see them perform on 7th February 2020.

It’s a straightforward prize for what seems a deceptively simple idea but which is really a deft bit of catalogue marketing. By turning this into a competition, it will dramatically boost plays of the video and help surface the rest of the band’s catalogue in the YouTube recommendation bar.