Myspace Music Goes Offline

I read a really cool book, ironically called, Chasing Cool, a year or so ago and it changed my perception of advertising. The book centered around companies looking to replicate the success of something that was perceived as "cool" and do it themselves. Most of the time it failed miserably. Now I am starting to see websites look beyond Internet Marketing for additional exposure and the results are similiar in pattern.

Yesterday I finally checked the mail and opened up the new copy of Wired Magazine. This is one of two physical magazines I subscribe to and I genuinely look forward to it every month. After the mind blowing articles I always look at the advertising and what they are trying to do with it.

When I got a few pages in I was surprised to see Moby hanging out and talking music with me. It seems that the artist most of us forgot about is now doing some promo for the new and heavily debated Myspace Music. In the ad, pictured below, Moby lets us know what is in his New York Playlist and that we can find it at myspace.com/moby.


I like the fact that is appears as if Moby hand wrote the note and picked bands and songs that he actually listens to. But is it enough to get me to sign into Myspace and either

• go listen to Moby's Playlist,
• browse through more artists and user generated playlists than I know what to do with or
• wait for 20 pages to load to create my own abbreviated playlist?

Having something offline to promote something online has always been a hard sale. The reason is simple, there are extra steps involved. If you are reading the magazine at the beach or at the doctor's office, you need to wait until you are in front of a computer and head over to the site. Even couch potatoes have to open their MacBook and surf their way into your network.

Another aspect is that anyone that is an active user on Myspace is probable aware of the New Myspace Music. It has dominated the homepage and the user backend pages since it launched a few weeks back.

Will the print campaign convert new users?
I don't think so. Do you?

Will it bring back old users who fled to Facebook?
Again, I don't think so. iLike applications work plenty well inside of Facebook and having Pandora, iMeem or Last.FM open in a 2nd tab has never been a problem before.

Did Moby play to the demographics of Wired Magazine?
Actually, I like that move. Moby is a bit of an underground hipster, a gadgetier and, well, a geek that fits right in. Was there someone more "now" that would be a better fit? Yea, probably, but won't that always be the case?

Will the campaign work?
It depends on what the idea of a successful campaign is. I believe that Myspace has done a great job of spreading the word on the service and what you can do with it. The reason for the awareness is that the more people that use the service the more money Myspace makes, duh, no brainer there.

We need to also remember that the record labels also have a stake in Myspace Music and want it to succeed. You cannot deny the power that 100 million users have, and how that can translate into not only music sales, but also tickets, merch and streaming of these playlists.

If the idea of the campaign is to convert new users or bring back those that jump ship, I believe that this will be an ill fated attempt. The reason is simple; if you are looking for new, groundbreaking bands, then you already know to go to Myspace. If you are also looking to spend a few hours waiting for music players to load, sort through 5 million+ bands in an unsearch friendly environment and get error messages and CAPTCHA's everytime you want to tell a band they are awesome, then you already know to go to Myspace.

I love how they are branching out. AdRants states that this is the first time Myspace is advertising outside of their own walls. My opinion would be to make those walls more attractable by getting the worker bees to make the site better, faster and more user friendly. While the updates have been more frequent in recent months, the overall perception and feel is that it's still a mess and the bandwidth simply cannot be handled.

The fixing of the site seemed to work for Twitter, I even forgot the name of that whale they used as a mascot.

My question today is, can a print campaign drive "new" users online or does it just serve as additional promotion to something users already knows exists? Let's get it going in the comments.

*Addition*
My good friend from the Daily City, sent over this picture they took from the Big Apple showing Lil Wayne aka Birdman Jr. aka Lil Weezy showing off "Beats That Stick With Me." How much does that cost Myspace out of P & D?


-Greg Rollett

Why Record Labels Should Not Create Ads

I started another new site, Gen-Y Rock Stars, to promote a few music marketing e-books that I am launching. (Ahem, cheap plug, 1st ebook is coming on Monday and its ahem, free).

Anyway, I am monetizing the site and I was happy that Google is giving me image ads in AdSense vs. their traditional text ads with a mere 3 posts on the site. What I came across this afternoon was an ad for a musician's new single and I know he won't go Google bankrupt anytime soon.


The ad in question is missing at minimum:

• Name of the artist
• The name of the single
• The name of the album

I had no idea who this guy was, staring at me on the Interweb.

Upon clicking the ad, I came to the landing page that was built with Social Media in mind. With a mini site widget from Gydget, a link to a Facebook page, Amazon link and picture slide show, RCA is thinking viral. Only its for an artist that may not be reaching the tech-savvy younger demographic. The singer-songwriter crowd may be better suited for a different type of campaign. I could totally see RCA artist Scary Kids, Scaring Kids utilizing this type of Social Media techniques.


To go back to ad creation, I think the record labels understand the importance of visibility, search and the power that Google has to create traffic. I also think they know that they need to assist with building a buzz for their artists. What they need to do is remember that while a "call to action" is extremely important, it is also imperative that web surfers know what they are clicking on.

When launching any ad or AdWords campgin for a musician remember to try and include the following:

• Artist name
• Current single
• Album
• Release Date
• Upcoming tours
• Featured guests
• Call to action
• Website, blog or (so last year, but) Myspace page

Hopefully RCA will see their return (or lack thereof) on investment and start creating not just "cool" visual ads, but ads that create band and brand recognition.

Oh and how did I know this way RCA and not Ray LaMontagne himself? It has a little logo on the ad itself and links to and RCA Records landing page.

Better luck next time.

-Greg Rollett

Killer Relevancy for Your Ads

You go to store to buy the new Mike Shinoda x DC kicks that you want to wear this weekend.
You read ProBlogger because Darren helps you get better traffic, write better posts, etc.
You eat pizza at the place on the corner because it is close and usually affordable.

I could go on and on on with things that we do everyday. We do them because we know what we want. I want those shiny new shoes, I want to get more readers and I want some pizza. I want them because they are interests that I have and that I know (obviously).

Online ads are clueless.
For how smart computers are, and that good old Google Algorithm that can't be cracked, added to the countless number of VC dollars that are being spent on ad networks and so on, they can not put the fact that my favorite band is Gym Class Heroes and I like pizza.

We are working with an ad network for the Facebook App we are launching at the end of the week and let's just say that, well, it's not looking good. With click through rates around 0.002% on Applications right about now, we are going to need some killer traffic to grab some nickel beers at Cheyanne Saloon on Wednesdays!

iPhone and Relevancy
One reason that I am loving the iPhone is the fact that some App Developers have given me relevancy. Take iWant. It looks for anything from food to bars to shopping and gas all based on my location. That is relevancy.

So, how can ad networks start serving ads that are as relevant as the free information that is available through Google searches or using Apps like iWant?

1. The sites, be it the Social Networks like Myspace and Facebook, need to let the ad platform look at the data in full. Facebook is doing better at this, but Myspace on the other hand keeps wanting me to click on Kottonmouth Kings ringtones. Sorry, already have all 10 albums and I am a music producer, so I can make my own, thank you.
2. We need better advertisers and more inventory of these better advertisers. The reason there are so many ring tone ads are because there is an influx of these companies that want to advertise and not enough quality, name brand advertisers that are available for the common blogger or website owner. With Myspace serving a billion or so page impressions a day, there are just not enough quality ads to go around.
   
3. While I am not opposed to CPC, CPM and CPA, they do NOT work in every situation. For our Facebook App, users are promoting concerts that they have attended or are going to. For someone like Warped Tour to come in and demand CPC is absurd. We can wrap-up our site for the advertiser and create a brand presence within the application. But we can also trigger people to search for their friends that are going to Warped Tour, maybe they already have tickets and they want to "share" it with their friends. Maybe they even buy a ticket from our affiliate partners. So they didn't get the click through, but they got people talking, and talking provokes action.
   

The problem with this method is that there is no direct relation to ROI for the advertisers. While Social Media tools like Radian6 have started to figure out the picture, there is simply no way to calculate how people made their decision and how they got there from Social Media tools and site sponsorships.

I am no algorithm genius, but I do know that if you are going to be showing me ads (Lord knows as this blog grows you will see some, I would like to buy my wife something nice for Christmas), show me something that I might like to action for.

4. Lastly, make better ads! 90% of banner ads suck, they just do. They turn us off visually and usually send us to a landing page that doesn't convert us for shit. Don't mislead me. Give me something worth clicking and I bet you will get more relevant clicks.

Now, I'm off to look for sexy singles in Orlando (watch my AdSense change because of this sentence) and download some sweet hip-pop ringtones. See you this weekend with my new Diploma from the University of Phoenix!

-Greg Rollett

Relying on 1

Tiger Woods is out for the season.

What star teams lose their star player midway through a season, it usually means regrouping and pulling in some talent from other teams or the minor leagues in hope of a spark in the player's absence. In the case of golf, no one can come close to replacing Tiger.

Forget the trophies and the prize money. Heck even forget the fans for a minute. The biggest losers are the sponsors. Tiger makes more money (over $100 million) on sponsors than any other athlete on the planet. When he can't wear his Nike visor and drive around in his Buick, those sponsors are throwing their money away. Without the star in a league of nameless faces, tv sponsors and advertisers are quickly leaving. Live event ticket sales are dropping. Golf is in trouble.

Golf's Problem
They relied on one man to carry their entire operation. Nike relied on one golfer to sell their golf clubs and advertisers only want to place big dollar ads when Tiger was putting on Sundays.

Golf is bigger than Tiger. Yea, he kicks ass and wins like no one Gen-Y has even seen (yes, he's better than Mike), but no one has even tried to compete in a way that rivals Tiger's popularity. Why doesn't Nike have a push for a 2nd golfer? They have an abundance of Basketball, Baseball and Football players all getting the same air time as Mr. Woods. And, actually their bigger stars in those sports don't win anything close to what Tiger does (A-Rod? Kobe? Chad Johnson?). Ok, maybe some MVP's, but no champions like Tiger's a champion.

The Problem With 1
As an entrepreneur, working one idea at a time puts you at a huge disadvantage. If that idea fails, then you have wiped yourself fresh out of the game. No more endorsements and advertisers. Financial backers won't rush to give you more money anytime soon. On the other hand, if you come into the game with multiple options, you have more room for more successes and ultimately more failures.

Even with one product, you need to have multiple layers for which you can get your fans, users and advertisers involved. We are launching a Facebook Application in the next few days (more to come later this week!!) and I'll break it down to you like this:

Monetization:
Affiliate revenue
Direct selling of sponsored placement
Ad Network
Cross promotion with interactive site

For Users:
4 levels of interactivity

1. What you do
2. What your friends do
3. What everyone does
4. How you compare

We are allowing for multiple layers to give an ultimate experience for everyone involved. If our affiliate revenue is not doing so hot this week, we have backups in the other forms of advertising. If a community member doesn't want to import their own data, they can see their friends data and integrate that into their profile and so on.

The idea of multiple streams of income is nothing new. Even the idea of spreading your message across multiple platforms - print, tv, internet, social media and so on is a marketing no brainer.

The more opportunities you give yourself to succeed, the higher that probability becomes.

How others do it:
Grooveshark - They not only came out with the Grooveshark platform and network, they then introduced Grooveshark Lite and now Tiny Song. In doing so, Grooveshark is effectively creating more opportunities for themselves to not only showcase Grooveshark but to service the different needs of music lovers.

Doterati - This is a new Central Florida Interactive Marketing and Tech association that is giving value to not only the members of the community, but also to the sponsors and companies that wish to be a part of this growing demographic. The value comes in the form of an online resource center including training, a job board, video archive, a Wiki, blog postings as well as traditional networking events, live speakers, meet and greets, panel discussions and other activities. It offers the community multiple points of entry and access.

Don't Follow in NIKE's Footsteps
Nike is left high and dry after losing Tiger for the season. If you lose a key component, player, developer or financial partner, what effects will that have on your business?

By creating 2 star players, you not only give yourself that back up plan, but you give yourself 2 chances to win the title. If Nike began to brand a Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh or whoever as a top tier player, give them the "Tiger Push," they would have double the coverage and double the chance for their hats, t-shirts, clubs and balls to be center stage on Sunday afternoons. As it goes now, they will have to rely on a comeback tour sometime next spring when Tiger's knee recovers.

Do you have a Tiger Woods project, that will kick ass, season in and season out? What happens when that no longer works, what do you do then? Are you waiting until it is too late? Let me know in the comments. I'd love to hear what you are doing!

-Greg Rollett

Recap of AD2 Orlando's Future of Advertising Event

Just got home from AD2 Orlando's Future of Advertising at Citrus on Orange Ave in Downtown Orlando, pretty tired. But I want to get this out there and rehash some of the things I picked up and learned. Im going to go through this session by session. So here she goes.

Guerilla Marketing Session led by Forest Young of PUSH


-High respect + no love = brands (customers b/c we have to be)
-Low respect + high love = trends (newest movie, cd, etc)
-High respect + high love = lovemarks (Apple-brand ambassadors)

-Need disruption and cause a wow factor
-Hopscotch is the ultimate viral brand
-Have volunteers act as the promotion for the event (hand made signs and promo)
-Homemade grassroots signs and promo, hold rally, put campaign into action, celebrate the event that you are being a part of
-Thank you cards for volunteers. Make site with all the pictures of the volunteers, use internet to amplify th results
-Go to high visibility, trafficked and media driven sites
-Guerrilla works best with integrated forms of marketing and media
-Future is profits, profits, profits with minimal financial investments
-Sweat vs financial equity
-Do the right thing. Ethics vs intrusive
-Works best when amplified
-Future of advertising is now, what are people doing now?! Pay attention to current trends


Erik Hersmon from Zungu


-Social Web is who you are and what you do
-Unorganized and un-centralized, you have no control
-2 scenerios a) oh crap, what do we do? and b) how do I call attention to myself
-Story about Dell. Last year their customer service sucked and their customers let em know. 50% of conversations online about Dell were negative. They created 3 sites (blog, idea storm and forum). Now they are at about 23% negative, still not good but much improved!

5 TIPS TO THINK ABOUT
1. Have a blog strategy
2. Leverage customers
3. Start conversations and start listening
4. More real PR and less advertising
5. Internal Champions

B2B E-MAIL-MARCELLE TURNER (MINDCOMET.COM)


Challenges of deliver ability:
-Bounces on the rise
-Anti SPAM rules getting tougher
-Only send useful, relevant emails to people that ask for them

Stay current and competitive
-Test
-Double opt in and easy opt out
-Report SPAM link
-Send from dedicated IP address

Viral E-Mails
-Broadcast outlets multiplied
-Analytics are measurable
-Low cost
-Dynamic content
-List build

RYAN FRAZIER- FUTURE OF OUTDOOR –CLEAR CHANNEL


Problems with old billboards
-Turnaround times
-Production costs
-Limitations

LED TECHNOLOGY ALLOWS THEM TO:
-24 HR Turnaround
-No Production Costs
-Unlimited possibilities
-Unlimited color
-Basically a flat screen on the highway
-1250 Spotsper day per advertiser
-Target specific people at different times of the day
-Community dialog
-Only 13 markets now but they will be everywhere

WAGNER BUCCI DOS SANTOS-EXPERIMENTAL MARKETING


-Tell me I'll forget, show me I may remember, involve me and I will understand!
-Consumers market-how do we connect with them?
-Much more competitive and crowded today
-Consumers are in control

EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING
-Bridges the disconnect between consumers and brands
-Persuades comsumers emotionally
-Every major brand has a experiential campaign
-Has become more than just impressions, we need to see ROI
-Impulse buying is based on emotion, this is where we try to hit them
-Creates a viral approach if done right

They wrapped the day up with some Q and A, a few beers and some great connections. Very excited for this event and it didn't disappoint. It's been a wild week already and shows no signs of slowing down. I'll post more thoughts on the event tomorrow. Till then, enjoy and feel free to steal my notes!

-G-Ro

AD2 Orlando Presents the Future of Advertising Tonight

I will be heading out in a few to Downtown Orlando for AD2 Orlando's Future of Advertising Event. Here's the details:

Five industry visionaries host a discussion as panelists on "The Future of Advertising." Each will bring their own insight into the mediums and messaging technology that advertising professionals will use in the future.

Featuring:

• Forest Young of PUSH - Guerrilla Marketing
• Ryan Frazier of Comcast - Outdoor Marketing
• Marcelle Turner of Mindcomet - B2B and Using User Feedback in Email
• Erik Hersman of Mindcomet - Social Media and Blogging
• Wagner Bucci dos Santos of Beloved Marketing - Experiential Marketing

When: Wednesday, October 17, from 6 – 8 pm
Where: Citrus Restaurant (821 North Orange Avenue in downtown Orlando)

Hope to see some familiar faces there, including Katrina Priore of Create Magazine! I will hopefully be covering the event live as it happens (WiFi permitting) and if not look for a wrap up tonight.

Have a good one Orlando!

Facebook Strikes Again With New CPC Flyer Ads

Good for Facebook. Good for advertisers. Same for members.

You can never please them all but Facebook is at least getting on target with their advertisers. Their flyer advertising just got a nice boost in the form of “Flyers Pro.” They will continue to host the “Flyer Basic” in the traditional manner.

Flyers Pro will offer advertisers the opportunity to have auction-based, cost-per-click ads within the flyers. Whereas Flyers Basic targeting capabilities include gender, age and specific college and regional networks, Flyers Pro options promise all of the above plus a range of keyword data included in user profiles. For instance, marketers can deliver messages based on a person's political affiliation, relationship status, or personal affinities such as favorite music, books or movies.

"We added the CPC pricing option to give more flexibility to advertisers and to better serve those running Flyers in order to get users to take an action, like visiting a Facebook event page or another Web site," the spokesperson told ClickZ.

Reports the ClickZ article: “Since their debut in March 2006, Facebook's homegrown Flyer ads have offered the easiest way for marketers to reach users of the hyped social network. The site has thousands of Flyers live on any given day, according to a spokesperson, yet the self-service ads have often performed poorly on traditional digital advertising metrics, according to anecdotal reports shared with ClickZ and others posted on the Web.”

Facebook says Flyer ads have historically found favor with small businesses and individuals placing user-to-user ads to promote groups or events. While the company said its new features were created with similar goals in mind, the quick feedback mechanism provided by its CPC system may help drive experimentation and broaden the advertiser base somewhat. If that happens, budgets and average CPC rates should rise.
Gotta say that they might be on to something. Facebook is staying in the headlines and everything seems to be positive. This will initially get advertisers motivated and interested in the new methods. We’ll have to wait and see how the numbers work out in the next few weeks.

Facebook is killing em out there, Myspace needs first aid. (Play off Jay-Z, but it’s sooo sad and true, Rupert, step-up and act fast!)

-G-Ro

Calling all Local Business! Still Wasting Your Budget with the Yellow Pages?

For local businesses with a tight advertising budget, the battle between print and online advertising has become somewhat of a title bout (think Tyson-Hollyfield I-when we all cared). What’s going to happen, is a dominant champion will arise and internet is that new champion.

Print still controls the bulk of money spent for local business advertising (Yellow Pages, etc) but the Internet is rapidly on the rise and gaining ground. A recent study done by TMP finds that shoppers are now more than ever researching online and buying locally.

"Offline local search, White Pages and Yellow Pages directory advertising is a $15 billion market and fairly static," said Stuart McKelvey, CEO of TMPDM. "Online local search is a $1 billion market and growing. The fact that two thirds of our online panel use online search as their primary source of local business information suggests that advertisers should consider the allocation of offline vs. online local search investments.”

The internet will continue to gain ground as marketers find new ways of implementing strategies into websites, blogs, social networking, online directories, bookmarking sites and more. The rise in popularity of sites such as www.yellowpages.com mean that even the phone book companies are making a huge effort to reach the people searching online.

Most individuals who search online still buy and visit offline merchants and services (brick and mortar sites). In the study mentioned above, 33% still consider print yellow pages as their primary source of local business info.

If you tip the glass over this means that 67% are using the internet and other means for getting their information.

The change is a coming people! The only question now is, how far behind the train will you be?