Viral Marketing

CDs Are Being Left For Dead

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Matt Peterson in blog 10 Comments

You’re reading this right: the compact disc is a ship sailing on ‘E’ and nearly all engines are failing. I just recently read an article from Side Line Music Magazine that states by the end of 2012, if not earlier, major music labels plan to sink the CD-format ship and replace them with download/stream only releases. To be honest, is this really a surprise? In my opinion, not really. In my own experiences with buying CDs, this decline doesn’t effect me at all. Take into account I can recall every CD I bought over the last six years:

System of a Down- Hypnotize, Mesmerize
Lamb of God- Ashes of the Wake
Kittie- Until the End, Funeral for Yesterday
Arch Enemy- Rise of the Tyrants
In This Moment- Beautiful Tragedy
Drowning Pool- Sinner
Dir en grey- Uroboros: With Proof in the Name of Living. Live from Nippon Bodukan 2010
and…
The Very Best of the Rat Pack.

So where do the rest of the near 5,000 songs in my iTunes library come from? Downloading (maybe legal, maybe illegal). But, for as much as an album costs I spend twice as much–if not more–going to see bands in concert and buying merchandise.

Now back to you, CD enthusiasts. Finish crying and wipe away those tears because there is a silver lining: CDs will still be released. But, only for special and limited editions which, of course, will not be available for every artist.

The article continues to say that CD releases will be distributed by Amazon, which happens to be the biggest CD retailer in the world anyways. This would almost monopolize the CD market, making Amazon the one and only player in the distribution of CDs from major labels. On top of that, Amazon will offer its own MP3 streaming service alongside physical distribution.

We’ve seen this coming for a long time right? The CD is just another format in a long line of trends that have been thrown overboard into the Marianas Trench. Remember cassettes? What about 8-Tracks?

Why the change?

CDs can no longer keep up with the popularity of downloads and streaming music. In fact, CDs are no longer a cost effective format. Labels pay for distribution and stocking but if the CDs don’t sell, most send the unsold copies back to the label. This trend means big losses for music shops, many of which are having problems paying labels as is.

In Side Line’s release, the chief editor Bernard Van Isacker was asked if the CD would still exist in five years,

“Yes, but in a different format. Normal CDs will no longer be available because they don’t offer enough value. Limited editions, on the other hand, will remain available and in demand for quite a few more years. I, for one, buy only limited editions because of the added value they offer: a nice design, extra bonus gadgets, etc. The album as we know it now, however, will be dead within five years if it isn’t even sooner. I predict that downloads will have replaced the CD album within the next two years. I don’t see that as something negative, it just has run its course, let’s leave the space to limited editions (including vinyl runs for bigger acts) and downloads instead.”

What does this mean?

In the end, this decline means more money will be focused on marketing and press releases. This translates into big time opportunities and possibilities for companies and firms in the PR and marketing world. Heavy duty campaigns will be needed for artists when they release new music, merchandise, and tour dates to keep fans and listeners up-to-date on everything that they’re doing. A label, in conjunction with the artists they represent and endorse, will need to set up blast campaigns. This includes email marketing, social media blitzes, landing pages and more.

Most, if not all artists and labels use social media to send out blasts and online marketing campaigns to outreach and share with their followers. Did I mention, that’s how I found this article in the first place? When all is said and done, this provides a window for marketing, PR, and lead generation companies to gain business from the ever changing, evolving, and growing music and media industry.

Marketing Strategies That Work. Sincerely, Heavy Metal

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Matt Peterson in blog 5 Comments

There is a fact floating around that is scary, frightening and jaw dropping. Are you ready for the truth? Can you handle the truth? If you answered “yes” to those questions, brace yourself: Heavy metal music is the largest and most diverse musical genre in the world.

Now pause and let that sink in.

The term heavy metal, especially over the past decade, has warped into an umbrella term rather than one classification. This umbrella term has spawned close to a hundred sub-genres and continues to grow and diversify as new sounds, playing styles, techniques and influences are integrated and introduced. As it stands now, almost every country in the world has some sort of metal scene in its population, including war torn Iraq.

So with a force this massive, wide-spread and globalized as metal music why isn’t it represented in the market as such? It is; just not as much in the mainstream market. As it turns out, metal music is like a roller coaster rising and falling under new waves of music every ten years or so. It has actually always been there and still tends to always rise back to the top. But if it seems metal music is in a declining swing, why is it still so popular and widespread? Guerrilla Internet Marketing.

So what kind of marketing strategies are metal bands, or rather, their fans producing? They thrive on guerrilla marketing strategies through venues such as social media, P2P networks and crowd sourcing. For example, the band I Set My Friends On Fire started by making YouTube videos. After a case of widespread word-of-mouth the band is now touring world-wide.

One of the best examples of this type of online brand management and P2P marketing has been the success of the Japanese metal band Dir en grey. Since their current line up formed in 1999 they have toured and played venues world-wide and are currently the most famous band out of Japan. How did they become so popular? A cult-like following that markets the band 24/7 all over the Internet.

Up until 2005 DEG was only touring in Japan until they released their fourth album, Vulgar, in both Japan and Europe. Before even touring in the U.S. the band’s music was spreading rapidly and they were already a hit on the underground and independent radio music scene. Why? A rapidly growing market on the Internet. Dir en grey’s latest release Dum Spiro Spero (Latin for “When I breath, I hope”) peaked at number 9 on Billboard’s Top Hard Rock Albums in the U.S.

Not only will metal bands forming in this decade have to utilize this type of marketing strategy to sell their music and band image, but other companies and brands should as well. I myself have seen this very thing happen successfully for musicians who use new tools like Soundcloud to upload snippets of riffs and ideas that they’ve come up with, then posting them on Facebook. More musicians (and companies) could benefit from utilizing this technique and making these tools work for them. By doing so, they can brand themselves as a profitable entity; an entity that is marketable because of utilizing tools like social media.

The fact that metal music is the largest and most diverse form of music is largely due to the fact that these musicians have had to adapt in order to survive the market swings and now are some of the best at utilizing these new methods of online branding and marketing (crowd sourcing, social media, etc.). These techniques can be utilized by not only bands, but other entities like businesses, politicians and others who could use a boost in their branding and marketing image. Find your inner metal head, get out there and make guerrilla Internet marketing work to your benefit.

Business Goes Viral Asking ‘Will it Blend?’

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Pat Parkinson in blog 2 Comments

A Washington Post reporter interviewed Blendtec founder Tom Dickson this week for a story about kitchen appliances. Already a YouTube sensation, Dickson said the journalist found out about his company from an unlikely source.

Me with Blendtec founder Tom Dickson.

“She said the only reason she called is because her 21-year-old son said mine is the best blender in the world,” Dickson said in an interview in Salt Lake City.

This illustrates the power of viral marketing. Blendtec builds blenders, and millions of people have tuned in on the Internet to watch Dickson use his invention to “blend” everything from an iPad to a Justin Bieber doll.

“Will it blend?” Dickson famously asked before using his product to reduce glow sticks, an iPhone, Bic lighters and a camera to dust

With his company on track to do $360 million in sales next year, Dickson credited much of his success to his marketing campaign on YouTube.

“It’s gotten a lot easier to sell something, and it’s good,” he said.

In the spirit of a mad scientist, Dickson donned safety glasses, gloves and a white lab coat before he blended items on YouTube at viewers’ requests.

“On a budget of $50 you see the type of exposure that we have gotten,” Dickson said about the cheap publicity.

He had advice for businesses hoping to achieve their own YouTube fame.

“You’ve got to start with a good product and you’ve just got to have that good content that causes people to be interested,” Dickson said.

Indeed. A clip of Dickson blending an iPad was viewed nearly 12 million times. With people clamoring to see it, news reporters jumped into the fray.

About 1.4 million people have watched Dickson blend an iPad 2.

“Communicate with your audience relevantly and sincerely,” Dickson said.

Controversy often sells, but shocking content only gets you so far.

Getting noticed no longer means interrupting people’s lives

According to Blendtec Global Marketing Analyst Nathan Hirst, “We’ve managed to create something that people come to us to watch.”

Blendtec teamed with Orabrush this week to teach members of the Utah chapter of the American Marketing Association about creating content that millions will see.

“People who try to be viral, I think they struggle,” Orabrush CEO Jeff Davis said.

Viral material begins with “good writing” and “good content,” he explained.

Orabrush manufactures tongue brushes that help freshen breath by removing bacteria. Spots on the company’s YouTube channel have been viewed more than 38.2 million times. Though active on Facebook, Orabrush hasn’t used Twitter much for fear of diluting its message over too many networks.

“Be relevant on one channel, rather than irrelevant on five channels,” Davis said.

He described the four Cs of viral marketing:

Content
Consistency
Collaboration

And end your YouTube videos with “calls to action,” he stressed.

Both Orabrush and Blendtec have banked on models that are repeatable. For example, those who subscribe to Blendtec’s YouTube station see regular installments of Dickson’s “Will it blend?”

Orabrush offers the weekly “Diary of a Dirty Tongue” feature.

Focusing on the impacts of bad breath let Orabrush use edgy material most people didn’t want to talk about. Since then, customers produced their own product reviews and posted them on the company’s YouTube channel.

Though appealing, his videos do not have to look like they were produced on Madison Avenue, Davis admitted.

With 40 percent of media being consumed online, making a splash on YouTube does not require a flashy production studio or highly paid advertising execs, he stressed.

“You can take an item and put it in front of everybody,” Davis added.

A business with a successful social media strategy realizes the power of YouTube.

“There is a huge opportunity for people who are willing to put in the time and effort to understand the medium,” Davis said. “Every little detail makes a slight difference to the end user.”

Each day, content on YouTube is viewed about 3 billion times.

“You need to be there,” Davis said. “That’s where the eyeballs are.”

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