SONG CONTEST BLOG

In 2007, Detroit-based rock act, Schaeffer, were selected as the winners of Breaking the Band 1, our international band competition.  As part of their prize package, they embraced the opportunity to work with We Are Listening’s TV and radio guru, Jon Delange.

Jon, who continues to mentor the band to this day, helped them achieve national awareness, first at radio and then with television networks by scoring placements in their original programming.  Annually, they have preformed during Austin’s SXSW event.

Eventually, the group emerged as America’s favorite in the FreeCreditScore.com band search which began with a shortlist of more than 100 hopefuls showcasing nationwide.

Now, The Victorious Secrets, the band’s new alias, are engaged in a $30 million advertising campaign.

As the new face of FreeCreditScore.com, they will be featured in a series of television commercials slated to debut during the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards next month.  They will also receive a $10,000 check, a Gibson Guitar prize package and Pearl drum kits, and a studio session with the music industry’s best of breed.  They will also walk the red carpet at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards and have the opportunity to perform on the 2010 VMA Tour.

Here are The Victorious Secrets, in all their glory:

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Whether you’re tricking out your MySpace page or performing at your local venue, you should always consider the things you can do to collect more email addresses.

Believe me, there is nothing more important than your email list…

…Except what you do with it!

Using an online newsletter service allows you to create gorgeous newsletter designs yourself, turn new fans into subscribers, track how many of your readers are actually reading your message, and schedule promotional campaigns.

It’s powerful marketing on autopilot, simpler than you thought possible and more potent than you probably realize.

Of all the newsletter services I’ve used, Mad Mimi is the friendliest.

But for good measure, here is a list of some other newsletter tools, some that I’ve tried and some that I haven’t:

Campaigner
ConstantContact
Emma
FanBridge
FanReach
Graphicmail
iContact
LetterPop
MailChimp
MyNewsletterBuilder
Newsberry

Click here and here for inspiration.

Owning a Gibson guitar is like owning a BMW.

It’s a statement.

For BMW, the “German Engineering” stamp is impervious to Lexus.

For Gibson, “Made In The USA” is just as sacred.

It takes decades to establish the reputation that Gibson has achieved.

Yet only minutes to flush it down the toilet.

Gibson, like many heritage brands, engaged itself with a young spunky marketing consultant that dazzled its management team with social media catchwords like “viral”, “buzz” and “tweet”.

How the conversation went down:

Spunky Consultant:  “You’re doing everything wrong.  Everything!”

Gibson Management:  “We are?  Sales are up.  Overhead is down.  What do you mean?”

Spunky Consultant:  “Sales Shmales.  It’s not about the money, it’s about your brand equity!”

Gibson Management:  “Sales Shmales?”

Spunky Consultant:  “You want to connect with your fans, engage with your customers and create a conversation around you, see?”

Gibson Management:  “Will that increase sales?”

Spunky Consultant:  “Forget sales already.  I’m going to get you buzz.  You do want buzz, don’t you?”

Gibson Management:  “Does buzz increase sales?”

Spunky Consultant:  “Look, do you want followers or not?”

Gibson Management:  “I… guess… that… we… do…”

Spunky Consultant:  “Great!  Make the check out to…”

So what happened the next day?

Gibson launched a new website that displays each of its exquisite instruments in the light that they deserve.  Best of all, on every page of the website, beneath the featured instrument, they included threaded comments (like on YouTube) where visitors can comment on the featured guitar and the community can vote the comment up or down.

This is spunky, dynamic, web 2.0-ish online social media marketing at its finest!

Except for one thing…

The most popular comments, those that received the largest number of votes, make Gibson look like a Buick, not a luxury premium.

One comment in particular, truly struck a chord with me.  Here it is at No. 1 with 452 votes for the Gibson Les Paul Dusk Tiger:

I can see the salesmen at Guitar Center now: Salesman: “Hey man check out the new Gibson Dusk Tiger! It’s got all of these amazing features!” Customer: “It looks kinda stupid.” Salesman: “Yeah but it tunes itself! You can dial in any tone you want on this baby!” Customer: “Can you dial in a less stupid looking finish? My band will laugh at me if I turn up to a gig with that thing” Salesman: “It only comes in the one color, but it’s LIMITED EDITION! There’s only gonna be 1000 of these made!” Customer: “I think it’s a limited edition because there’s a limited market for these things. Even then I doubt that there are enough guys out there wearing the leather pants, wolf t-shirt and eye makeup necessary to look as stupid as this guitar. And those guys usually don’t have $4000 to waste on what is basically a gimmicky Les Paul dressed as a gay tiger, so you’re going to have a hard time selling these, aren’t you?” Salesman: “Like you would not believe”

Where do you think Gibson went wrong with its online marketing strategy?

Leave me your thoughts please.

I have a long list of contacts.  That is, I have thousands of email addresses.

When I import my list to Flowtown (from Gmail for example), I get:

1. A demographic analysis of my contacts (name, gender, location etc.)

2. A snapshot of their whereabouts on social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.)

3. A simple tool which delivers my group message to their email inboxes (perhaps their social network inboxes in the future!)

Simply brilliant!

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I just discovered that anyone can create their own custom M&Ms!

Just imagine:  Every bite with your message, artwork, logo or face on it.  How cool is that?

You can also choose from a variety of personalized color schemes and packaging.

It’s so awesome you have to check it out.  Yum!

Launching this month, Freak is a new drama made for MySpace from the creators of American Idol, Fermantle Media.  Freak will air each week in 15 minute doses on MySpace, with sponsoring brands, Red Bull and Tampax, tied into the plot… It’s a semi-reality treatment reminiscent of MTV’s The Hills with a social networking twist where fans of the show follow the characters’ individual MySpace profiles and take part in the content, context and direction of the show.  Best of all, you can submit your band’s MySpace profile for consideration for the program’s soundtrack, here.

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ReverbNation has officially launched the much-anticipated Sponsored Songs Program previously covered on this blog and, with that, revealed the sponsor behind the initiative: Microsoft Windows.  1000 handpicked ReverbNation artists are being featured on www.MySpace.com/Windows from June 24 through September 24, 2009 and their songs will be available for download for free.  Participating artists will be compensated by Microsoft for every free download to the tune of $0.50 in exchange for a Windows advertisement embedded on the digital artwork.  The three-way partnership is a potentially break-through digital distribution model, providing corporate brands with the means to tap into new, music-centric audiences and creating a fund for independent artists to finance their marketing and distribution activities.  If ReverbNation can find a way to scale this idea (i.e. bring on board more sponsors) and roll out consistent promotions, I am confident that indie artists from every musical sphere will be lining up to get on board.  While I’ve come across some cynics since the launch, I fail to see the downside.  Here is Microsoft’s point of view.

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This Saturday June 13th at 12:01 EST, registered Facebook users will be able to register a vanity URL to replace their current, random URL.  Early birds will have the opportunity to claim the most sought-after names and, hopefully, secure a URL that’s consistent with their other web properties.  Names are limited to numbers, letters and decimal points (e.g. facebook.com/jane.smith or facebook.com/janesmith).  Make the change here: http://www.facebook.com/username

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MySpace and Toyota have teamed up to promote Rock the Space, an unsigned artist contest where the winner wins a record deal with MySpace Records plus $10,000 worth of Fender gear.  There’s an entire experience around the submission process, from uploading music and photos to customizing your “demo tape” widget and getting your friends to add it to their page.  The design-your-tape wizard is pretty cool.  Five finalists will be selected for a public vote.  Deadline July 1st.  Free to enter.  Details here.

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