DIGITAL CAMPAIGN 2012/2013 METEOR CHOICE MUSIC PRIZE

Al Fawaz Mazen #12250898

Butter Marlene Maria #12254381 METEOR Gupta Rohit #12252012

Le Malecot Angelina #12250870 CHOICE MUSIC

Plebiscito Valeria #12251522 PRIZE Stewart Aisling #12254211

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STAY TUNED

Marketing in the Digital Age

INDEX EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...... 8 1. Situation...... 8 2. Objectives ...... 8 3. Strategy ...... 8 4. Tactics, Actions and Control ...... 9 SELECTION OF OUR DIGITAL PLATFORMS ...... 12-26

I. TARGET AND CONSUMPTION ANALYSIS ...... 12 1.1 Target Group Analysis ...... 12 1.2 Digital Consumption ...... 12 1.2.1 Music Consumption Online ...... 12 1.2.2 Internet Consumption ...... 13 1.2.3 Smartphone Consumption ...... 14 1.2.4 Social Media Consumption ...... 17 1.3 Conclusion And General Recommendations ...... 21 II. IDENTIFICATION OF THE STRATEGIC AXES ...... 23 2.1 Vision ...... 23 2.2 Mission Statement ...... 23 2.3 Key Success Factors ...... 23 2.4 SWOT Analysis of the Digital Marketing Campaign ...... 24 2.5 Our Digital Plan For Bought, Owned & Earned Media ...... 25 2.6 Guidelines for a positive engagement ...... 26 BEFORE THE EVENT ...... 28-73 I. GOAL: FURTHER IMPLICATION OF THE METEOR STAFF ...... 28 II. GOAL: CREATING STRONG DIGITAL PLATFORMS ...... 28 2.1 Optimizing the initial pages ...... 28 2.1.1 The Meteor Sponsorship Landing Page ...... 29 2.1.2 The Choice Music Prize Homepage ...... 32 2.1.3 Seo Timeline ...... 36 2.2 Creating a Dedicated Facebook Page ...... 36 2.2.1 The Design Of The Meteor Music Choice Prize Facebook Page ...... 39 2.2.2 Facebook Page Activities ...... 40 2.2.3 Timeline ...... 42 2.3 Moving in Pinterest ...... 42 2.3.1 Enriching The Content ...... 42

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2.3.2 Creating A New Tab ...... 44 2.3.3 Pinterest Timeline ...... 44 2.4 Improving the YouTube channel ...... 45 III. GOAL: TRIGERRING THE STRATEGY ...... 46 3.1 Creating Our Pool of Ambassadors ...... 46 3.2 Influential Bloggers ...... 47 3.2.1 A Key Success Factor ...... 47 3.2.2 Influential Blogs ...... 48 3.2.3 Timeline ...... 50 3.3.1 Facebook Advertising Campaign For The Voting Phase...... 51 3.3.2 Facebook Advertising Campaign For The Treasure Hunt ...... 52 3.3.3 Meteor Amateur Musician ...... 53 3.3.4 Timeline ...... 54 3.4 Google Adwords Campaign ...... 55 3.4.1 PPC Campaign ...... 55 3.4.2 Keywords ...... 56 3.4.3 Campaign Settings ...... 56 3.4.4 Google Networks ...... 58 3.4.5 Negative Keywords...... 58 3.4.6 Timeline ...... 59 3.5 Banner Advertising Campaign Via Google Display Network ...... 59 3.5.1 Targeting Tools ...... 59 3.5.2 Setting The Price...... 60 3.5.3 Visual Example ...... 60 3.6 YouTube advertising campaign ...... 62 3.6.1 Why YouTube? ...... 62 3.6.2 Advertising Settings ...... 62 3.7 General information regarding the advertising campaigns ...... 63 3.8 Additional triggers ...... 63 IV. GOAL: CREATING AWARENESS ...... 64 4.1 Flashmob ...... 64 4.1.1 The concept………………………………………………………………………………...64

4.1.2 Succesful Flahmobs………………………………………………………………………..64

4.1.3 Making the video: user generated content…………………………………………………65

4.1.4 Timeline ...... 65

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V. GOAL: ENGAGING THE AUDIENCE ...... 66 5.1 The Treasure Hunt ...... 66 5.1.1 Teasing ...... 66 5.1.2 The Gameplay ...... 67 5.1.3 A Multichannel Game ...... 70 5.1.4 Timeline ...... 70 5.2 Deeper Connection Between The Fans And The Bands ...... 70 5.2.1 Band Profiles ...... 70 5.2.2 Do You “Like” Us?...Vote For Us! ...... 70 5.2.3 The “Irish Album Of The Year” ...... 71 5.2.4 Timeline ...... 71 5.4 Meteor Choice Music Prize App ...... 72 5.4.1 The 12 Days Of Meteor Choice Music Prize ...... 72 5.4.2 On The Day…...... 72 5.5 Meteor Youth Band Initiative: ...... 73 5.5.1 The Concept: ...... 73 5.5.2 The Band Formation: ...... 73 5.5.3 What Is The Prize ...... 73 5.5.4 Promotional Ad:...... 73 DURING THE EVENT ...... 74-80 I. Live Broadcast ...... 74 1.1 Web Users: ...... 74 1.2 Mobile & Tablet Users: ...... 75 II. Live Digital Interaction with viewers & attendees ...... 75 2.1 Practical information for the attendees ...... 75 2.2 Live Voting: ...... 76 2.3 Live Photo Streaming: ...... 76 2.4 Using dual screening to amplify the engagement ...... 77 2.5 Instant feedback and Comments: ...... 80 2.6 Notes on during the event: ...... 80 AFTER THE EVENT ...... 81-82 I. Meteor Choice Music Prize Photos & Clips Albums ...... 81 II. Meteor Winning Band broadcasts online ...... 82 III. Online feedback and suggestions ...... 82 IV. Paid/unpaid online media, news and blogs ...... 82 FORECAST ...... 84-85

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I. Engagement On Twitter ...... 84 II. Engagement On Facebook ...... 84 III. Engagement On Youtube ...... 85 MONITORING ...... 86 I. Landing Pages ...... 86 1.1 The Meteor Sponsorship Page ...... 86 1.2 The Choice Music Prize Homepage ...... 86 II. Social Networks, Forums & Blogs ...... 86 BUDGET ...... 88-89 TIMELINE ...... 90 EXHIBIT ...... 93-96 BIBLIOGRAPHY & WEBOGRAPHY ...... 97-99

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Figures Figure 1: Internet Use (Amas 2012) ...... 14 Figure 2: Smartphone Usage (Red C 2012) ...... 15 Figure 3: Explosive Growth in Smartphone and Tablet Ownership (Red C 2012) ...... 15 Figure 4: Smartphone Demographics (Red C 2012) ...... 16 Figure 5: Smartphone Demographics – Ireland (Red C 2012) ...... 16 Figure 6: Smartphone Trends (Amas 2012) ...... 17 Figure 7: Smartphone usage (Amas 2012) ...... 17 Figure 8: Age distribution of Bloggers (Sysomos 2010) ...... 20 Figure 9: Gender distribution (Sysomos 2010) ...... 20 Figure 10: Overview of Social Networks (Ipsos MRBI 2011) ...... 22 Figure 11: Online TV and Video ...... 75

Images Image 1: Overview – Digital Strategy ...... 10 Image 2: Owned – Bought – Earned Media ...... 26 Image 3: Guidlines – Positive Engagement ...... 26 Image 4: Meteor Sponsorship Landing Page ...... 32 Image 5: Announcement ...... 34 Image 6: Suggested new Meteor Choice Music Prize Homepage ...... 35 Image 7: Example design of the dedicated Meteor Choice Music Prize Facebook Page ...... 39 Image 8: Suggested boards for Pinterest ...... 43 Image 9: Suggested Pinterest Tab for the Choice Music Prize Homepage ...... 44 Image 10: Screenshot of the Meteor Choice Music Prize website – Judge Panel 2008 ...... 49 Image 11: Facebook Ad Campaign – Voting Phase ...... 51 Image 12: Facebook Ad Campaign – Treasure Hunt ...... 52 Image 13: Facebook Ad Campaign – Youth Initiative ...... 53 Image 14: Campaign 1 Settings ...... 56 Image 15: Campaign 2 Settings ...... 57 Image 16: Campaign 3 Settings ...... 57 Image 17: Banner Examples ...... 61 Image 18: Mini Site Displaying ...... 61 Image 19: Pay-with-a-tweet Button Implementation ...... 63 Image 20: Flashmob ...... 65 Image 21: Treasure Hunt Rules – Facebook Post ...... 67 Image 22: Barometer on Facebook Page ...... 68

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Image 23: Facebook Posts to release the clues for the Treasure Hunt ...... 69 Image 24: Live Broadcast ...... 74 Image 25: Mobile App – Concert Information Page ...... 76 Image 26: Mobile App – Live Game Page ...... 78 Image 27: Live Streaming Screen – Instruction Displays Page ...... 79 Image 28: Picture Example ...... 81

Tables Table 1: Live Streaming Screen – Instruction Displays Page ...... 33 Table 2 : Ireland ´s top Influencers (FB/Twitter) ...... 46 Table 3: Keywords – PPC Campaign ...... 56 Table 4: Negative Keywords ...... 58

Exhibit Exhibit 1: Audio Streaming Services in the UK (Nielsen 2011) ...... 87 Exhibit 2: Entertainment sites in the UK (comScore 2010) ...... 87 Exhibit 3: YouTube Partner Channels (YouTube 2012) ...... 87 Exhibit 4: Sponsorship Page Keywords ...... 87 Exhibit 5: List B Promoting Irish Music ...... 87 Exhibit 6: Promoting the Event ...... 87 Exhibit 7: Promoting the Event ...... 87

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. Situation Meteor Choice Music Prize is a national competitive music event which affords young or unknown artists of new Irish music an opportunity to share their talent and gain recognition. This music event will take place on March 7th in , . This is Meteor´s second consecutive year to sponsor the event. Building on last year´s sponsorship success, Meteor hopes to implement a bigger and better digital campaign for this year. It is expected that the campaign will span a 6 month period and to provide greater scope for building connections and interaction, thus giving Meteor an edge over its key competitors…Vodafone, O2 and 3 Mobile.

2. Objectives In light of this sponsorship Meteor aims to integrate its brand with music and in particular the music scene of the under 25 audience. In doing so, the company hopes to strengthen its relationship with this market and to grow market share in the long term. Throughout this initiative Meteor wishes to engage intimately with these young people and avoid merely adding their name to the promotion of the event. In this way an authentic relationship can be built between this age bracket in Ireland and the Meteor brand.

3. Strategy

Strategically, it is important to gain insight into the behaviour and needs of the target market and develop a plan of action to complement those effectively. Meteor defines its target audience as “value loving socials”. They prioritise social integration and crave a sense of social acceptance and belonging. Since the explosion of social media, the boundaries between their online and offline social networks are increasingly blurred. Although still consistent TV consumers, the most powerful means of reaching this audience has now become those online platforms to which they are constantly connected. Following from our market analysis, we recommend that Meteor is actively present on the most popular social media sites; Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest. Additionally, it is important to build and maintain a strategic connection between those platforms.

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4. Tactics, Actions and Control With a budget of €150, 000 Meteor should strategically plan their costs across all initiatives and resources paying attention to potential return on investment. Beginning in November, the campaign will interact with the target audience in order to increase traffic to the website as well as boosting brand conversation, mentions and Facebook “likes”.

Our digital marketing strategy aims to engage the target audience through the integration of digital advertising and creative interactive activities. The target group analysis and that of the social media use in Ireland lead us to choose Facebook (as a main hub), Twitter and YouTube as vital social media networks. The main website of Meteor Choice Music Prize should provide links to the company´s pages on those platforms. In order to raise awareness of Meteor´s presence on these platforms, paid ads and ambassadors will be used. The flashmob, band profiles, online voting and the Meteor Youth Band Initiative will attract people and generate exposure for the event. They will encourage them to “Stay Tuned” and track other digital activities. Three weeks before the event the treasure hunt will boost the hype surrounding the event. During the event people who are not in attendance will have the opportunity to watch it online and will be positively engaged through photo streaming, voting and instant feedback and interaction. Such innovative activities will lead to online buzz, both on social media networks and online blogs. Each element of our digital media campaign is unique and will give Meteor a digital privilege in promoting Irish music and will lead to a positive re-evaluation of the Meteor brand.

It is imperative that this strategy can be measured in terms of the brand equity created and return received on investment. By monitoring social media activity (likes, votes, tweets, mentions, website traffic, impressions etc.) on an on-going basis Meteor can adapt and tailor their activities to a rapidly evolving environment. The brief synopsis of our recommended strategy provided in this section will be explained in detail within this report.

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Image 1: Overview – Digital Strategy

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PART 1

MARKET ANALYSIS

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-SELECTION OF OUR DIGITAL PLATFORMS -

I. TARGET AND CONSUMPTION ANALYSIS

1.1 Target Group Analysis The goal of this part is to analyse the 15 – to 24 – year olds that represent the main target group of the company. The company calls its core target market the “value loving socials”. They are characterised as having a strong sense of community. Consequently their social networks, online and offline are vital for them. Even though the peer group mentality among this people is strong, they like to be seen as individuals. Nowadays these young consumers are content seekers, as well as generators, that are constantly consuming media. Besides TV, lots of hours are spent listening to music and surfing online. Furthermore they love to go to the cinemas, but are not interested in traditional newspapers. Importantly, they want to control what, where and how they consume media.

First of all the overall music consumption patterns in Ireland are described, followed by the Internet and smartphone consumption in this country. Following from this, the social media use in Ireland is looked at in further detail.

1.2 Digital Consumption

1.2.1 MUSIC CONSUMPTION ONLINE Data was not readily available for our specific Irish target. However, it might be relevant to have a glimpse at the European music consumption in general and at the UK one where it is possible.

Internet revolutionized the way people consume music. It is now more digitized and democratized than ever before.

Streaming websites are part of those ongoing uses that broke new grounds. It is an appealing service for our segment: more than 20% of the 18-24 years old use audio streaming service (exhibit 1).

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Recommendation: it would be advisable for the artists from our previous edition to be present on the top 3 music services in the UK (comScore Data Mine 2012):

 BBC radio stations – 45,5%  Spotify – 17,1%  Last.fm – 16,3%

Music streaming services generate high engagement rates. Spotify UK users spend more than 2 hours per month on average on the website (Nielsen 2011). These websites let you connect with friends by sharing the music you are listening to via the social media. We also note a constant growth in the music consumption on mobile phones – 15,8% of the European mobile users listen to music via this device (comScore Data Mine 2008).

According to the UK Music research (UK Music 2009), “music remains the most valued form of entertainment” for the 14-24 years old. Regarding the total minute spent on entertainment sites, music is in the top 2 positions after TV website and presents a growth of +92% from 2009 to 2010 (comScore Data Mine 2010) (see Exhibit2). An analysis of the content viewed on Youtube also confirms this statement. Indeed, online music videos are the most popular content as the music channel maintained the top positions (see Exhibit 3).

Recommendation: The music choice prize should have a more active Youtube channel.

Digital music consumption is in constant growth. According to IFPI, 3.6 billion songs were legally downloaded globally in 2011. The number of subscribers for paid music services has grown by 65% from 2010 to 2011.

Recommendation: The Meteor music store should be used to highlight the artists from the .

Some statistics on concert consumption can also be helpful as the Choice Music Awards is a musical event. 17% of the Irish 15-24 years old regularly attend a concert and 28% of the total Irish population saw one in Dublin (Arts Attendance in Ireland, 2010).

1.2.2 INTERNET CONSUMPTION In Ireland the Internet penetration is 70% (Red C 2012). By the end of 2011, there were nearly 1.69 million active internet subscriptions in Ireland which represents an increase of 2.6% in comparison to the year before. Interesting is that the total narrowband subscriptions fell significantly by 55.5%, whereas the cable broadband increased by 28.2%. Mobile

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broadband recorded a rise of 3.8% and all other broadband subscriptions rose by 14.3% (ComReg 12/20, 27).

Globally Internet users spend 18 hours per week online, where 1 in 4 minutes is used for social media platforms (Red C 2012). The overall number of Irish Internet users is 2,354. People in Ireland spend on average 20.1 hours per day surfing the Internet visiting 1,966 sites (ComScore 2012). Figure 1 shows the rise in the Internet use on a daily basis. The blue line on the top represents the 16 to 29 year olds. 77% of them go online every day, compared to 64% of the 30 to 44 year olds (Amas 2012). But the development shows that there has been a continuing growth within all age categories. Only 25% of the people surveyed said that they never use the Internet (62% of them were among the oldest age grouping) (Amas 2012).

Figure 1: Internet Use (Amas 2012) Not surprisingly, this data shows that the Internet consumption is growing steadily, as already mentioned above. The spending per month has increased by 10% to over 20 hours (ComScore 2011). That means that the Internet is constantly gaining importance and that companies should take advantage of that by advertising and communicating via online platforms.

1.2.3 SMARTPHONE CONSUMPTION Globally the number of smartphones owned increased significantly, almost doubled, from 19% in 2010 to 35% in 2011 and this number is expected to keep climbing considerably over the next months (Red C 2012). This trend is shown in figure 1.

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Figure 2: Smartphone Usage (Red C 2012) In Ireland, smartphone and tablet ownership has experienced an explosive growth in the past year. Smartphones are owned by 49% and 16% have got a tablet. Figure 2 shows that there has been an increase of 40% in smartphone ownership, as well as a high rise of 100% of tablet computers. By the end of 2012 every 3 out of 4 people in Ireland are expected to have a smartphone, while 2 in 5 will be owner of a tablet.

Figure 3: Explosive Growth in Smartphone and Tablet Ownership (Red C 2012) Figure 4 below shows that worldwide more men than women own a smartphone. Not surprisingly, the younger population, the group under 25 and the ones from 25 to 34, lead in smartphone penetration (Red C 2012).

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Figure 4: Smartphone Demographics (Red C 2012) In Ireland, 65% of the 18 to 24 year olds are owner of a smartphone, followed by the age group of 25 to 44. Smartphone ownership in this country is significantly higher among people living in the capital, Dublin.

Figure 5: Smartphone Demographics – Ireland (Red C 2012) Last but not least, it is important to know for what these smartphones are used. Relevant for Meteor is that, as shown in Figure 6, 69% access social media, 89% look for local info and 50% read news (Amas 2012). These findings are important to know how and where to advertise the Meteor event.

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Figure 6: Smartphone Trends (Amas 2012) Another important insight is that 89% of users use their mobile device while doing other things, such as watching TV, listening to music and so on and so forth. That information can be very useful to plan the company´s activities during the event. What can be done with a combination of using the smartphone while surfing the internet or listening to music will be explained in one of the following parts.

Figure 7: Smartphone usage (Amas 2012)

Recommendation: Meteor should exploit this situation and be present online. They should capitalize on dual screening phenomenon.

Where they should advertise and connect with the consumers is discussed in the next part that deals with the social media consumption in Ireland.

1.2.4 SOCIAL MEDIA CONSUMPTION IRELAND In December 2010, 84.2% of all Irish Internet users had an account on at least one platform. Compared to 2009, this number increased by 8.1% (comScore 2011). However, the growth of

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social networking platforms has levelled off in Ireland due to the fact that there is already a very high penetration. Nevertheless, the numbers are still growing slightly. There are still 900 new accounts set up every day. In May this year there was only 42% of the Irish population who did not have any social networking account. This number has decreased by 5% since February 2012 (Ipsos MRBI 2012).The following paragraphs will give a deeper insight into the following platforms: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogs, Google+, Pinterest, Bebo, LinkedIn, MySpace and Foursquare.

Facebook Facebook, with 800 million users worldwide, remains the giant among all the social media platforms (Amas 2012). 2.28 million people in Ireland have a Facebook account. 13% of the overall Irish users are between 13 and 17 years old and 24% fall into the age group of 18 to 24 (Facebook 2012).

The proportion of daily users has increased by 4% (to 53% of all the users). Regarding the age category of 15 to 24 year olds, 90% of them use Facebook (Ipsos MRBI 2012). That shows that there are not a lot of people left in the target market who do not have an account. Furthermore, the average Irish person spends 4hours 10 minutes on Facebook per month (comScore 2011). As a consequence, Facebook is definitely a vital social media platform on which Meteor should focus.

Twitter Twitter is a real-time information network. It connects its users to the latest stories, ideas, opinions and news. A Tweet can be 140 characters long and it can include photos, videos and whole conversations. Nowadays lots of companies use Twitter to share news and information with people interested in their offerings, gather real-time market intelligence and feedback. Firms can build relationships with their customers, partners and influencers (Twitter, 2012).

In Ireland the number of Twitter accounts has increased significantly. In 2011 this social media platform was used by 11% of the population, which is an increase of 7% (Ipsos MRBI). Another interesting number is the one of daily check-ins which surprisingly has declined by percentage, but increased slightly in terms of actual numbers. What has to be pointed out is that users can also log in from third parties like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck. That means that they don´t have to actually go to twitter.com. Thus, the most who go on the

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original websites are mostly new or light users, who are not that familiar with Twitter accounting. Generally the true number of users is difficult to define because there are also those who have multiple accounts (Neworld Blog 2011).

MORE ABOUT TWITTER

TWITTER USAGEi. YouT ube Retweets account for 8-10% of traffic (Knexsy 2011). In Ireland 71% of the journalists use a Twitter account as a news source and the amount of mentions of Twitter in Ireland´s media has increased from 16 mentions monthly in January 2008 to 2,058 in March 2011. This is a rise of 12,762.5% (Knexsy 2011).

IRISH TWITTER ACTIVITY 1-31 MARCH 2011 In this period of time there were approximately 177,000 unique users active. On average there were 159,000 daily tweets. 22% of these users accounted for 85% of all tweets. That means that those people sent at least 10 tweets, whereas the majority of users only tweeted once (Knexsy 2011).

YouTube This platform was founded in February 2005 and allows its users to watch and share originally created videos. Users can get information and inspiration from people all over the world. YouTube acts as a distributor for original-content creators and advertisers (YouTube 2012).

1.3 million Irish used YouTube on a regular basis in the year 2010, viewing 400 million videos per month (Doyle 2010). According to Google´s Ad Planner the estimated daily unique traffic is under 500,000 users and 2.1 million unique users per month. This shows that YouTube is very popular in Ireland. On the one hand, compared to Facebook, that has the double daily unique traffic (Google´s Ad Planner) and slightly more unique users, it is less popular. But on the other hand it is a lot more important in contrast to Twitter and LinkedIn (Neworld Blog 2011).

Blogs Over the last few years Blogs have become more and more popular for Internet users. They can be used as a source of information and users see where the content is coming from and

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who wrote it. Sysomos analysed more than 100 million blog posts and these are the results of the demographics:

It is not a surprise that the majority of active bloggers are quite young and have been growing up during the blogging “revolution” (which started seven years ago). Figure 8 shows the age distribution of bloggers. 53.3% of the bloggers are between 21 and 35 years old. 20.2 % are 20 years old or even younger.

Figure 8: Age distribution of Bloggers (Sysomos 2010) Figure 9 points out that the difference between genders is balanced with 50.9% women and 49.1% of male bloggers.

Figure 9: Gender distribution (Sysomos 2010) Another interesting fact is that 29.2% are located in the U.S. while there are only 6.75% of bloggers in the , followed by Japan, Brazil, Canada and Germany.

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Although in 2010 bloggers were more likely to talk about news and Politics rather than music and entertainment videos, blogs can be very important to increase the awareness of an event (Sysomos 2010).

LinkedIn With over 175 million members LinkedIn is the world´s largest professional network. On this platform people cannot connect to just anybody, but the users can keep in touch with trusted contacts, exchange knowledge, ideas and opportunities with a broad network of professionals (LinkedIn 2012).

In 2011, there were 472,687 Irish LinkedIn profiles which leave Ireland with the second highest penetration of all LinkedIn users in the world (Neworld Blog 2011). This number grew by 11%. Regarding the growth rate, LinkedIn´s is three times higher than the rate of Facebook. 9% of these users log into their account every day (up by 1%) (Neworld Blog 2011). The majority of the Irish users of this social media platform are between 35 and 44 years old, living in Dublin and AB social class. There are only 2% who are unemployed (Ispos MRBI).

Pinterest Pinterest is an image-led social media site, where users can collect pictures and put them on their virtual pinboards. Users pin all kind of pictures and there is no limit how many boards one person can have. It is very popular in the U.S. and with 12 million members ranked after Facebook and Twitter. In Britain there are 200,000 Pinterest users. 56% of the British users are female. In the United States the average users is between 35 and 44 years old, whereas the British ones are 10 years younger (Pinterest 2012/Experian 2012/Independent 2012). Because of the fact that Pinterest enables users to share pictures online and everyone else can browse these pinboards, this social media website is suitable for this campaign. Meteor should open an account an upload all the pictures taken during the event.

1.3 Conclusion and general recommendations All in all it can be said that there is a large number of social media platforms available, but not each of them is suitable for our digital marketing campaign. Our goal is to reach as many members of our target group as possible. With Facebook being the social media giant (it adds about 900 Irish profiles per day) a vast audience can be approached. The average Irish

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user spends 4 hours 10 minutes on Facebook every month, which is much more than they do on the competing platforms. It is only 2 hours 51 minutes on Google sites, followed by 1 hour 36 minutes on Microsoft sites and 22 minutes on RTE.ie (ComScore 2011). Figure 10 shows an overview of a couple of the social media networks. Not surprisingly, Facebook is the leader with 53% of the Irish population. And this number is still growing by 6%. These numbers are the reason why we choose Facebook as our main hub. Everything that is going to be implemented during this digital marketing campaign will be linked to the Facebook Fanpage that will be created for this event. The second most popular platform is Twitter with 15% and a growth rate of 3% which makes it an important tool as well. Although LinkedIn is quite popular in Ireland as well, it is not suitable for our strategy since it is a platform for working professionals and Meteors target group is young people between 15 and 25. Consequently, LinkedIn will not be used. Another 13% of the Irish population have an account on Google+. Although the number is not bad, it has to be mentioned, that the growth rate is not very high. Additionally, this platform has lost its popularity quite fast after it has been launched. Similar to that, Bebo will not be used because of the smaller number of users. Last but not least, there is Foursquare. This is a location based social network that could be compared to Facebook Places, only with a gaming element. It can be accessed via mobile phone. Worldwide they have over 11 million users. Compared to other platforms the number of users is tiny. Within Ireland there are only 10,000 estimated users which equal a reach of 0.3% (Neworld Blog 2011). Because of the fact that no one really uses this social media platform, we do not see the necessity to use it as one of our channels.

Figure 10: Overview of Social Networks (Ipsos MRBI 2011)

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II. IDENTIFICATION OF THE STRATEGIC AXES

2.1 Vision Making music the hub of engagement to attract a particular segment and increase their loyalty to Meteor.

2.2 Mission Statement Sponsor an annual music award showcasing the talent of emerging Irish singers or bands in order to connect with youth in a powerful way and create a polarized community around the event.

2.3 Key Success Factors  Digital alignment with the values we want to convey: dynamic, youth, excitement  Engagement with the audience with an adjusted style of communication. Adoption of the right way of talking to connect with them and create proximity.  Use of channels that are appealing to our target.  Actions that will appeal to their needs for interactivity, entertainment, socializing, social recognition and exposure of the self.  Make them part of the campaign by giving them the right incentives with a sense of urgency.  Give meanings that can create relationships with the target by making them identify with these meanings and making them want to share it with others  Creation of an original and fresh content that will trigger comments. Use of strong and emotional content that can resonate with the target.  Be transparent and authentic. Our target is used to the social media and can be easily skeptical.  Offer a positive user experience through the digital campaign

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2.4 SWOT Analysis of the Digital Marketing Campaign

This SWOT analysis allows us to set the direction of our digital campaign and extend our social media presence in a more effective way.

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2.5 Our Digital Plan For Bought, Owned & Earned Media

Bought Owned Earned

 Web Banners  Meteor Website- Music page  Word of mouth: As Part of PPC strategy, YouTube video, we will be making web  Facebook Page Facebook voting and banners to display on A separate Facebook page for Twitter’s Treasure hunt websites using Google Meteor choice music prize will be will create word of AdSense and Facebook created to facilitate online voting. mouth publicity. Ad exchange. We can Facebook Page will contain video measure this by click per links of all the shortlisted bands,  Tweets by Campaign thousand or per hundred for fans to like and vote. Ambassador and impressions. Judges will create  YouTube awareness among their  Paid search Videos of last concert as well as followers and so on. Google accounts for more videos of current shortlisted bands than 90% of searches and flash mob video will be  YouTube videos of online and Facebook is uploaded on YouTube to create shortlisted bands will the most popular social awareness. contain a personal platform. We will buy top message in the end space on the search page  Pinterest Page asking for votes. of Google and a space in Last year´s concert pictures will be sponsored page of uploaded on Pinterest Music page.  We will include Facebook. For Facebook We will use a variety of pictures weightage of likes in we will position including bands playing, receiving judging the contestants. sponsored ads as per award, bands with their fans and This will encourage target demographics and some pictures of back stage bands and fans to geography. preparations to create hype about promote the event the concert. among their social circle.  Twitter We will be encouraging our  Comments about campaign ambassador and judges videos, Treasure hunt to tweet the latest happenings and Flashmob on related to the concert. Facebook will create a We will be hosting a treasure hunt chain of comments and on twitter to create awareness. awareness.

 Mobile App To enable users to participate in the treasure hunt and vote for their favourite band.

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Image 2: Owned – Bought – Earned Media

2.6 Guidelines for a positive engagement

Image 3: Guidlines – Positive Engagement 26

PART 2

PROMOTION OF THE

CONCERT

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-BEFORE THE EVENT-

I. GOAL: FURTHER IMPLICATION OF THE METEOR STAFF

As Meteor wants to go beyond their role of sponsors, the Meteor digital marketers and those of the Choice Music Prize should collaborate more closely. Synergy has to be achieved in all the platforms and Meteor has to monitor the work of the Choice Music Prize staff. In order to do so, they have to meet on a regularly basis and join their effort in a structured way. Each team must have a defined role to play and agree upon every step along the way.

The purpose here is to have a coherent and efficient digital campaign. For example, the communication on all digital platforms should be the same. They should adopt a hip language to build energy, excitement and a youthful image.

II. GOAL: CREATING STRONG DIGITAL PLATFORMS

2.1 Optimizing the initial pages In order to generate traffic, Meteor has to manage its main pages in a more efficient way and adopt a real SEO strategy. This will improve the position of these pages in the search engines and increase the click per impression rate. Being present on the first page of Google is crucial for Meteor to make its pages and ultimately its connection to music visible. First, Meteor has to set goals for its SEO strategy:

 Generating traffic to its website  Bringing awareness to its sponsorship and its link with the music world

Furthermore, it is important for the websites to be optimized for mobile navigation. The mobile optimized version should be easier to read: one column only with few images. A “m- dot” URL should be used so that Google can index our mobile website. Finally, this particular website has to make the most of mobile functionalities such as showing the concert location when it happens.

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2.1.1 THE METEOR SPONSORSHIP LANDING PAGE

The first problem is that two pages redirect visitors to the same x page. The “music” and the “sponsorship” landing page. A single page has to be created, we can call it “Meteor Music Sponsorship”.

x In addition to that, the page has to be exclusively dedicated to the Choice Music Prize to be relevant. The “Meteor Camden Crawl” should be promoted on another landing page.

There are several URLs referring to the Meteor Choice Music Prize. These are either leading to the same website or are not working. This has to be optimized in order to create a clear website structure. There should be only one website address leading the target audience to the relevant homepage. Additional or inoperative sites should be cancelled to avoid confusion.

 Choicemusicprize.com lead to the same website  Meteorchoicemusicprize.com

 Meteorchoiceprize.com  inoperative

Additionally, the Meteor website links to a sub-website “choicemusic.meteor.ie” which shows the videos of the Meteor choice Music Prize nominees. This link should be integrated with “Meteor Music-Sponsorship.com” to create a united website.

Choice of keywords: Let us choose some relevant keywords that should be used in the important meta tags. They must be coherent with our target audience. For example, the key word “Irish music” is highly searched but is mostly linked to traditional Irish music which we are not associated with. See Exhibit 4 for the Google Analytics result. We grouped similar keywords into the themes we want to display:  Promoting the Awards o “Choice Music Prize” low competition – low volume of searches: this keyword will be part of our long tail strategy. This is a more specific keyword to drive traffic from those who are already aware of this event and want more information  Promoting new Irish music o “Irish band” low competition – high volume of searches

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 Promoting the concert o “What to do in Dublin”; “Things to do in Dublin”, “Events in Dublin” medium competition – high volume of searches: our target audience often seeks something cool to do and a place to hang out with friends. o “Concert in Dublin” low competition – high volume of searches Improving the code source:

The current page has a poor html structure which doesn’t make the best of SEO.

What Meteor does wrong?

Meteor - Music The title is too short and doesn’t reflect what our target group might search

For years we’ve supported national and international big name acts and promoted Ireland’s exciting new talent.

The headline is too long and doesn’t use any strong keywords.

The title is very important and is a crucial tag that Google scans to determine our position in the results page. Proposition of a title tag that uses our keywords: What to do in Dublin? Meteor Choice Music Prize presents the best Irish band

Google doesn’t rely on the Meta Tag “Keywords” anymore as it has been overused, but other engines use it to relate content to groups of key terms with this. It is also interesting to use the Meta Tag “Description” as it has not been done yet by Meteor. Generally not an influence in ranking on most engines, it still gets shown as text to support a listing in natural search and does influence click through rate and relevance. It has to raise the interest of the target audience:

The headlines are part of the influential Google ranking factors and should include our list of keywords. The content has also to be more keyword-centric. We have to take into account the keyword density factor (it is advised to be from 2 to 7%), keyword prominence and the keyword proximity. See Exhibit 5 for our suggestion post for the sponsorship page.

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Using this tool http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword-density/, we did a simulation and submitted the post to make sure that our keywords reach a density of 2%.

Incorporating impressive plugins: To support our page, we decide to implement some plugins that will add functionalities and increase the numbers of shares.  Audio player: It will help us to create a musical atmosphere reflecting the message we want to convey. It will communicate an additional content to our target audience. Through dynamic music, Meteor can connect more easily with the visitors of the page and this music can be a reflection of the new values Meteor wants to showcase: young, exciting, fresh, dynamic…It will add legitimacy for the event we want to promote and allow the visitors to discover our artists.  Social buttons: An easy sharing of all our social platforms: Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, twitter and a way to display our different social platforms in one place.  Twitter tool: To integrate our account with the sponsorship page. It will not be the official Meteor account but the one we will create for the Choice Music Prize. It will also display tweets with certain Hashtags that are going to be important in our promoting strategy.

Freshness of the page: Fresh content also influences our ranking. We should update our page regularly and write about hot topics concerning the progress and the different steps of our digital campaign for the event.

Backlinks: It is important to get inbound links and we will use bloggers and some “ambassadors” to help us with gaining visibility. We can also post relevant comments on forums or other blogs related to music and write our link as a signature. We can check later the quality of our backlinks and do a surveillance so that we can comment on the posts that give a direction to our website and engage with people who read the articles http://www.ranksignals.com/

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Meteor Music Choice Prize promotes Ireland’s exciting new talent

Last year, we introduced the 'Irish Song of the Year' category into the critically acclaimed Meteor Choice Music Prize and were thrilled with the massive response from the music lovers who got behind their favourite Irish band. It became one of the events in Dublin you don’t want to miss: great Irish songs, electrifying atmosphere, impressive performance, fantastic audience…

You’re looking for memorable things to do in Dublin for next year? Stay tuned with Meteor Music Choice Prize

Connect with us on Facebook and know how to win free tickets for a thrilling concert in Dublin

We became sponsors of this gig in Ireland, showcasing a wide selection of the best homegrown music with an additional focus on promoting up and coming Irish bands. Get behind some great music and discover this concert in Dublin for yourself; we’ll have fantastic prizes up for grabs such as free tickets for this Meteor music event, one year of free mobile subscription, loads of songs to download for free ! We hope to continue in our quest to uncover the next big thing, not because we can, but because we want to.

We are looking to satisfy your needs as music fans: you will get to decide who is the Irish band of the year and make it one of the best music events in Dublin. You still wonder what to do in Dublin next year? Stay tuned and go to our Facebook page.

Image 4: Meteor Sponsorship Landing Page

2.1.2 THE CHOICE MUSIC PRIZE HOMEPAGE Reviewing the website revealed the following weaknesses:

Weakness 1: The Web site doesn’t have a tag title.

The tag title is one of the most valuable aspects of SEO on a page, it must be unique to that page and contain some keywords related to the page's content. Title tags should not exceed 80 characters.

For this website the title tag can include the event’s name and the slogan.

Meteor Choice Music Awards – Stay Tuned

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The keywords of the slogan have relatively high hits on Google search engine locally and globally.

Table 1: Live Streaming Screen – Instruction Displays Page

Weakness 2: The header tags are weak and change upon the recent announcements.

The current headings are as the following:

Choice Music Awards - CELEBRATING HIGHLIGHTING SHOWCASING & PROMOTING THE BEST OF IRISH MUSIC

Dates announced for Meteor Choice Music Prize 2013

08.11.12 - posted by admin

On the current website, heading 1 is a sentence that is viewed on the website´s main page as a logo, and it has the key term IRISH MUSIC, which refers usually to traditional Irish music. A possible header1 can look like this:

Meteor choice music prize - event that aims to promote new Irish bands and support them in becoming superstars in Ireland and globally Header 2 and 3 determination is due to the announcement (Picture 1) that has been posted recently, the headline is good but in case of a future announcement that is about a band or a matter that doesn’t have good keywords, the headlines will change and will result in poor linkage to the website. Indeed, the website is structured like a blog and the homepage corresponds to the last articles: it would be better to have a permanent text defined by our SEO strategy that stays in the homepage.

It is noticed that there is no headline 3 and this doesn’t serve the website, the search engine spider needs to see a natural progression down the page.

To avoid this, the linkage between announcements and headlines should be broken by reallocating the announcements page in the website, announcements can be placed as content of the website: www.choicemusicawards.com/announcements.

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Image 5: Announcement

Weakness 3: There are no meta tags in the header.

Meta tags are short notes within the header of the HTML of your web page which describes some aspect of that page. These meta tags are read by the search engines and used to help assess the relevance of a site to a particular search.

Meta Descriptions – Meta Keywords - The same keywords that were suggested to the sponsorship pages can be used here.

Weakness 4: The domain of the website is .com

To boost the traffic from Ireland the domain should be “.ie” instead of “.com”

Suggestions:

 One of the important factors to the SEO of a page is the web structure and URL. To check if they are right, Meteor can use the free Google webmaster tools.

 Importing impressive plugins (as discussed earlier in sponsorship website optimization).

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Here is a visual example of a new homepage. The upper part of the website should be permanent and contain text that uses an SEO strategy. The lower part of the website offers more interactivity with the visitors of the page and has impactful pictures. It allows a good navigation and contains an audio player, a twitter box, the latest news, the profiles…This lower part should be constantly updated.

Image 6: Suggested new Meteor Choice Music Prize Homepage

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2.1.3 SEO TIMELINE Week 48: Changing the code source Week 49: Building the Web mobile backlinks optimization

NOVEMBER DECEMBER

2.2 Creating a Dedicated Facebook Page The analysis of usage statistics of digital channels and platforms clearly points out that Facebook is the most frequently used and most popular social platform among the target audience of under 25´s. Meteor specifically wants to strengthen its relationship with this core audience. At the same time Meteor wants to make its target audience aware of its alignment with the new Irish music industry and increase awareness of the meteor brand using the Choice Music Prize. To combine these two goals in the most efficient way, Meteor needs to use the influence of Facebook’s popularity. For this reason we suggest that Facebook will be the main digital media hub.

Meteor itself has a Facebook page that is mainly frequented in relation to customer service, e.g. Mobile contracts, customer services or even as platform for complaints. Meteor´s music engagement is not clearly discernible on its FB-page. The alignment with music and constant promotion of the Choice Music Prize would be lost and more likely to get lost within other information. To create a direct connection between Meteor, music and the Choice Music Prize, a specific event page needs to be established, completely independent from the official Meteor Facebook page.

The meteor.ie website links to the official website of the Meteor Choice Music Prize “http://www.choicemusicprize.com”(Choice Music Prize, 2012). This is linked to a FB-page:

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This Facebook page is run by the staff of the Meteor Choice Music Prize and not by Meteor. Since the establishment of this page in 2005 very low engagement and participation can be noticed. Solely in 2012 the engagement increased, with the specific promotion of the event in March 2012. One reason could be that 2012 was the first year Meteor sponsored the event and the page was named “Meteor Choice Music Prize”. But even since March, no further activity can be seen and only 144 people like this page. During the promotion of the 2012 event, direct posts and links to the Meteor FB-page were put up on this FB-page, which linked to further activities in regards to the event, for example to vote for “the song of the year”. This is a clear sign that Meteor as the events’ sponsor was responsible and aligned to the ongoing engagement and promotion of music and the event. This highlights again the importance of establishing a separate Facebook page for the event.

The Meteor Facebook page should be linked to the Meteor (Music/sponsorship) website (Meteor Music, 2012) and to the Meteor Choice Music Prize website (Choice Music Prize, 2012). The above shown existing Facebook page should either be cancelled or taken over by the new “Meteor Choice Music Prize”- FB-page because of the low engagement on that page.

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2.2.1 THE DESIGN OF THE METEOR MUSIC CHOICE PRIZE FACEBOOK PAGE

Image 7: Example design of the dedicated Meteor Choice Music Prize Facebook Page 39

2.2.2 FACEBOOK PAGE ACTIVITIES

The FB-page is the main social media hub. For this reason, all activities and engagements will be displayed on the FB-page. Importantly, the FB-page will display all links to other social media platforms. In this way an overall connection can be achieved.

11. Event

We suggest creating an event on the Meteor Choice Music Prize FB-page. On this sub-page all details and information in regards to the event on the 7th of March 2013 will be displayed. This includes:  Location  Time  Ticket sale  Bands shortlist

2.2 Pictures

In the picture-album on the FB-page, pictures taken at previous events will be displayed. The pictures from the 2013 event will be added afterwards.

33. Posts and latest news

In this section, everyone has the chance to write a post on the FB-page and share their comments with other fans. Meteor will also post the latest news.

44. Event calendar

In the event calendar we suggest posting all relevant dates, including:  treasure hunt  Band concert dates…

55. Band profiles

On the FB-page there will be a link to the respective band profile of each finalist band. We suggest creating a separate playlist for each band on which pictures, videos and interviews

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will be displayed. Again, concert dates of the bands will also be announced. There will also be a link to Meteor’s Choice Music Prize – YouTube channel where videos of each respective band will be available.

66. Voting

The target audience will be able to vote directly on the Facebook-page for the “Irish Song of the Year” and the “Irish Album of the Year” by clicking the “Like” Button on the shortlisted songs and the respective band profiles. See 5.4 for the voting system.

77. Flashmob

On the FB-page there will be a link to the flashmob-video on Meteor’s Choice Music Prize – YouTube channel.

8 Tag your pictures

To create engagement during and after the event, the fans will have the opportunity to tag their pictures on the FB-page. To promote other social media platforms, there will be a link to Pinterest, where more pictures will be displayed.

98. Twitter

Additionally, there will be a link to Meteor’s twitter account to raise awareness of the treasure hunt. The latest news and further hints for the treasure hunt will be posted on the FB-page. Additionally the current status of the treasure hunt tweet can be displayed on the Facebook- page.

109. Blog

0Furthermore, there will be a link to the most influential music blogs where people can engage and become fans of the respective bands.

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1110. Live stream

1 For those, who didn’t have a chance to go to the event, there will be a link to a live stream. There will be also a link to the radio station “todayfm” where parts of the concert will be broadcasted live on Paul’s show. The radio station is involved because the event was hosted by Today FM’s Paul Mcloone.

11.12 Tickets On2 the FB-page there will be a link to ticketmaster.com, which is in charge of the ticket sale for the event.

12.13 Further links:

Further3 links are suggested for all organising parts of the event: Meteor.ie  Choicemusicprize.com  Meteor.ie/music  Location website  Event organiser website

2.2.3 TIMELINE

2.3 Moving in Pinterest

2.3.1 ENRICHING THE CONTENT Given the growing popularity of Pinterest, we decided to get on board in order to gain visibility for the Music Choice Prize on this new social media platform. Therefore, several

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boards need to be created and every picture can be pinned under the category “Film, music and books”:

1. “Jape, Irish album of the year 2011”

This board is dedicated to the winner band of the previous season. It includes their musical journey since the award and we can pin video clips, official pictures of the bands etc.

2. “Meteor choice music prize selection 2012”

This board will present the nominees through pictures, interviews etc.

3. “Meteor choice music prize 2012”

This board will consist of pictures of the concert, the jury etc.

Pinterest can also be used for additional exposure of sub events that will be part of our promotion strategy. Meteor can also pin pictures related to new Irish music in general.

Some efficient actions:

 Use the right keywords when describing the pictures to get found  Invite our Pinterest followers to pin their own pictures of the event and repin it (gain visibility to our followers’ friends)  Pin photos with links to our website  Tie in to our existing social medias

Image 8: Suggested boards for Pinterest

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2.3.2 CREATING A NEW TAB We can also promote our Pinterest boards on our website as another way to build a music community around the promotion of the event. It will complement Meteor’s relationship with music and increase their legitimacy in this area.

When the visitors click on the Pinterest tab, it will appear as shown in the example below. The “bubbles” represent hyperlinks that lead to our Pinterest account.

2.3.3 PINTEREST TIMELINE

Image 9: Suggested Pinterest Tab for the Choice Music Prize Homepage 44

2.4 Improving the YouTube channel YouTube represents a key platform on which Meteor can reach and engage with their target market using compelling content which can increase involvement and hype surrounding the Meteor Choice Music Prize. We suggest a separate YouTube account is created for the Meteor Choice Music Prize Event in order to separate customer service interaction from that related to the event. Also, by creating a separate account and playing with some of the tags and titles and things on YouTube from a search perspective, the content on the page will be suggested as a related video when YouTube users view similar content from Irish bands etc. YouTube is now the #2 search engine and YouTube content will be included on the first page of organic Google search results so the advantage of a separate YouTube account is the integration that can be achieved with related content and searches.

We also recommend that auto-play of an advertisement for the event (Flashmob) is used on the channel so that it plays automatically when someone visits the channel and starts engaging them.

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III. GOAL: TRIGERRING THE STRATEGY

3.1 Creating Our Pool of Ambassadors Ambassadors are the influencers that we will contact to write or tweet about the event in order to generate traffic to the main website and the social media platforms. We can also consider one of them as a member in the judging panel in order to take advantage of their influence.

The following table lists potential Irish artists we can contact and invite to support the event as influencers. This list was mainly composed from the statistics of Social Baker (2012)

Ireland celebrity Name Interesting facts Followers/Fans Ranking 1st (Twitter) Niall Horan Member of an Irish-English band who 7 034 788 participated in the X factor 2010 3rd (Twitter) Irish twins who participated in the X 707 673 factor 2009 4th (Twitter) Janet Devlin Irish 17 year old singer who participated 365 005 in the X factor 2011

5th (Twitter) Ronan Irish recording artist, also judge in the 318 539 Keiting Australian X factor st 1 (Facebook) Irish Band 13 072 741 2nd Irish pop rock band whose member Danny 3 836 974 O'Donoghue was one of the coaches for (Facebook) The Voice UK 2011

5th (Facebook) Damien Irish folk-rock singer and song-writer 945 311 Rice

Table 2 : Ireland ´s top Influencers (FB/Twitter)

Tim O’Reilly (@timoreilly) is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media. He is an important influencer on twitter and has over 1,630,000 followers (ranked 2). Currently his picture “I voted” supports the Irish children’s rights referendum. We believe that such an

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influential personality is a wonderful candidate to join the judging panel and additional promotion would likely ensue.

It is also important to find established artists in the music industry in order to gain their support in promoting our artists and event. Emerging talents are also an asset as they deliver something more authentic, new and refreshing. And Meteor may want to connect with those values in order to build a trusty relationship with their young customers. http://artist.musicmetric.com/ and http://socialmention.com are useful websites that we can use as tools to determine the e-reputation of the artists and to discover whether they raise positive comments.

3.2 Influential Bloggers

3.2.1 A KEY SUCCESS FACTOR Meteor believes that bloggers will be the key to their success in raising awareness of the Choice Music Prize and their connection with it. Indeed, the usage of the blogging scene is a great tool for promotion via social media, in our case the promotion of Music.

Music blogs are so called “MP3 blogs”. These are either amateur blogs or run specifically by music journalists. MP3 blogs are regularly updated websites that talk about music. Importantly, they share and link songs that readers can download and listen to for free. Usually bloggers receive specifically music streams to be published on their blogs. Typically, the MP3 blog is confined to a particular sub-genre of music, mainly independent music rather than mainstream sounds. MP3 bloggers are passionate about the music they share with other music enthusiasts. They are particular about which music content they share and are highly unlikely to write about something they don’t absolutely love. This makes them opinion leaders. For this reason, getting reviews and mentions by music bloggers could be significant. On the other hand, MP3 blog readers could be described as active music fans seeking new and interesting sounds in a particular music scene.

The music presented by the Meteor Choice Music Prize could be defined as independent music. The bands combine sounds from all kinds of different music genres and would fit into the scene of music blogs. Plus, the participating bands are mainly new and still unknown to the wide public. They are more likely willing to submit their music to blogs for free. Once the songs are on the music blogs, the respective bands have the opportunity to connect with an established community of relevant music enthusiasts. We believe music blog readers also

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have great potential to become a target audience of the Meteor Choice Music Prize, as they are specifically seeking for non-mainstream new sounds.

We suggest featuring only the final shortlisted bands on these music blogs. In this way a specific awareness prior to the upcoming event can be raised, as the main interest will be focused on the final bands.

The Meteor Choice Music Prize specifically supports Irish bands playing new Irish music. Focusing on the Irish market and audience, we suggest addressing influential Irish music blogs. To establish which music blogs can be categorized as influential, we should refer to the Blog Awards Ireland (Blog Awards Ireland, 2007 – 2012). We recommend that the following music blogs are used as part of our digital strategy.

3.2.2 INFLUENTIAL BLOGS Nialler9

The winner of the Best Music Blog from 2007 – 2011 is “Nialler9” (Nialler9, 2012). Nialler9 is the most-read Irish music blog with around 35,000 unique visitors per month and has been running since 2005. The site has also been awarded as the Best Music Site at the Irish Web Awards in 2009. Most recently, Nialler9 was voted the 5th Best Music Blog in the World in a poll of music blogging peers. It was chosen as one of Ireland’s Key Cultural Influencers (The Sunday Times, March 2011) and its blogger, Niall Byrne, as one of the 20 most powerful people on the music scene (The Dubliner, February 2011). In 2009 he was voted the 3rd best Irish Influencer to follow on twitter (out of 50) (simplyzesty, 2009).

The music genres provided on the blog are: Electronic/Dance, Folk/Acoustic, Rap/Hip-Hop, Indie/Rock, R&B/Soul/Funk, Remixes, Pop, and Ambient. More importantly and applicable, there is a specific category just for “Irish music”.

Niall Byrne is a digital columnist for The ’s Day and Night magazine, and a freelance web designer, based in Dublin, Ireland.

The decisive factor in our decision to choose this specific music blog was that Niall Byrne was on the judging panel for the 2008 Choice Music Prize – the annual Irish album of the year. This is a huge advantage, as the blogger is already familiar with the event and the genre of music involved. There is a great chance that he will support the event on his music blog.

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This offers the opportunity to be connected with an established community, potential music fans, and more importantly potential event visitors.

Image 10: Screenshot of the Meteor Choice Music Prize website – Judge Panel 2008

The music blog offers the opportunity to establish advertisements on the music blog site. In this way a direct ad linked to the Music Choice Prize website or the Meteor website can be put up on the music blog.

The Ultimate Playlist

“The Ultimate Playlist” is the winner of the 2012 Blog Awards Ireland best music blog. The provided music genres are: Electronic, indie, alternative, funk, house, dance, hip hop, mashups and mixtapes. (The Ultimate Playlist, 2012)

More Irish Music Blogs: (Blog Awards Ireland, 2012)

 2 U 1 Bestow  Vector Charley  The G Man  David Collier  Barry Gruff  Music Justice  7 Billion People All Alive At Once  ClaireSKane  PollyBeans  The Grind That Annoys  Hendicott Writing  Rant With Occasional Music  Amalgamated Wonders of the World  Drop D  Sidesixx  Skirmish Blog  The Metaphorical Boat  Swear I’m Not Paul  Eirecana  The Clink  Global Metal Apocalypse  Golden Plec 49  iMusician

 Stop the Lights  Eclectic Sound Bytes  Cathy’s Reviews

For more music blogs, please click the following link: http://hypem.com/blogs/tags/ireland.

We recommend contacting a minimum of 10 music blogs to create a basic awareness of the bands and the event throughout the music blogosphere.

In order to create high awareness of the Meteor Choice Prize we suggest directing the blogger to include the following information and links:

 Even date and relevant details to it  Links to each respective band profile including downloads for songs and videos  Link to the Meteor Music Choice Prize website and the Meteor website

To create further engagement and connect with additional social platforms, the bloggers should also tweet about the bands and the event on their twitter accounts. We believe the bloggers will have a great influence on twitter as well.

An additional trigger to get the music bloggers on board is to give them two tickets for the event, one Meteor t-shirt and one free album to download from the Meteor music store https://music.meteor.ie/home.aspx .

Based on the above, we believe that bloggers are a crucial element for promotion. By promoting the performing bands on the relevant music blogs, we can highlight the relationship Meteor is building with music.

3.2.3 TIMELINE

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3.3.1 FACEBOOK ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN FOR THE VOTING PHASE

We decided to run separate advertising campaigns during the three different stages of our

digital strategy.

Image 11: Facebook Ad Campaign – Voting Phase

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3.3.2 FACEBOOK ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN FOR THE TREASURE HUNT

This campaign aims to create awareness about the treasure hunt and create excitement just before the event. This will also help to increase social media conversation about the brand and event.

Image 12: Facebook Ad Campaign – Treasure Hunt

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3.3.3 METEOR AMATEUR MUSICIAN

This Campaign will be launched in January to give media coverage throughout. This campaign will support Amateur Musician prize, sponsored by Meteor. As part of strategy, Meteor will ask people to send their singing videos and top 5 shortlisted video’s will be posted on meteor music page. Amateur video with maximum likes will be the winner and get chance to perform at the final concert. This will help in increasing Meteor Brand awareness and social media conversation.

Image 13: Facebook Ad Campaign – Youth Initiative

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3.3.4 TIMELINE

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3.4 Google Adwords campaign

3.4.1 PPC Campaign

Meteor Choice Music Prize

3 Ad Texts Best Irish Music concert. Follow us on Facebook, per Ad Ad YouTube, and Twitter to vote for your favourite Irish band. Grou group to Act now improve p www.meteor.ie Quality Score Campaign 1 Campaign 2 Campaign 3

Meteor Choice Music Meteor- Free Concert Meteor Youth Initiative

Prize Tickets

Exciting Irish Music Unlock the Secret and Get the chance to

Event. Follow us on win free tickets to perform in front of the Facebook, YouTube, and Meteor Choice Music whole nation. Click to Twitter to vote for your Prize Concert. Act now find out more.

favourite band. Act now

www.meteor.ie www.meteor.ie Great Irish Music. Live Find the treasure and Bewww.meteor.ie the next super star.

broadcast. Students 20% win free tickets to Your chance to perform

Discount. Act Now Meteor Choice. Music at Meteor Choice Music

Prize. Act now Prize. Act now

www.meteor.ie www.meteor.ie www.meteor.ie Vote for your Great Irish Music Event. Be the Next Irish Star.

favourite band. Win Follow us on Facebook, Your chance to perform free tickets to Concert. YouTube, Twitter to in front of whole Nation.

Act Now vote for your favourite Act now

band. Act now

www.meteor.ie www.meteor.ie Settings: Adwords policy doesn’t allow us to use superlative phraswww.meteor.iees (“best”,…), repeating

words and “click here” 55

3.4.2 KEYWORDS

Table 3: Keywords – PPC Campaign

3.4.3 CAMPAIGN SETTINGS

Campaign 1 Setting:- Meteor Choice Music Prize

Image 14: Campaign 1 Settings 56

Campaign 2 Settings:- Meteor- Free Concert Tickets

Image 15: Campaign 2 Settings

Campaign 3 Settings:- Meteor Youth Initiative

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Image 16: Campaign 3 Settings

3.4.4 GOOGLE NETWORKS

3.4.5 NEGATIVE KEYWORDS

Table 4: Negative Keywords

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The campaign’s Ad group and Ad text has been selected after analysing the most popular and relevant keywords, using Google Adwords. For each ad group 3 ad texts have been selected to improve the Google quality score which will lead to high Ad rank. We have also selected a few negative words to make sure the ad appears when the positive keywords are searched. This will not only improve the quality score, but will help maintain the daily marketing budget. The campaign location has been confined to the target market. The Ad will appear on Google as well as its related network sites to maximise the coverage.

3.4.6 TIMELINE

3.5 Banner advertising campaign via Google Display Network

GOALS  To increase awareness about the event  To increase engagement for our voting phase: make people vote for their favourite band.

3.5.1 TARGETING TOOLS

We decided to use contextual targeting and audience targeting tools in the same proportion. Adjustments should be made after the initial results to choose one over the other solution.

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Contextual targeting:

Google will match our keywords to the webpage content. In order to appear on relevant sites, we can use keywords such as “best Irish bands”, “emerging Irish talent”, “singing contest”, “music competition” etc. We will add a topic to target specific pages: Entertainment>Music

Audience targeting:

Music fans under 25 living in Ireland. To reach the music fans, we will select an interest category: music. We will also use demographic and geo targeting.

Exclusion:

We will block all the sites from our competitors that are related to music and where we could appear because of the contextual targeting.

Ad scheduling:

We should display our banners when students are most active on social media: from 5pm to 10pm

Frequency capping:

We want to reach a wide audience and so we limit the number of time one person will see the ad to twice per week.

3.5.2 SETTING THE PRICE As we want our target audience to be redirected to our platforms, we will select a cost-per- click option. We will choose an automatic CPC bidding to make the most of our daily budget.

3.5.3 VISUAL EXAMPLE Approach:

Creating rich display ads with relevant landing pages.

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Banner example:

Once you click on Gif banner ad:

“learn more” a full these three screen will appear. images will go It will be like a mini one after the website offering other interactivity and 468x60 pixels redirecting to our other platforms Image 17: Banner Examples

Mini site displaying

CHECK HIS PROFILE

Image 18: Mini Site Displaying 61

3.6 YouTube advertising campaign

3.6.1 Why YouTube? YouTube is often seen as the 'last frontier' of online advertising but for the event, we believe that it may be a powerful way to reach Music enthusiasts. It is the number two search engine out there, number one video sharing website (YouTube, 2012).

“Targeting YouTube with an AdWords for Video campaign will ensure you reach users while they are highly engaged with the content they’re looking at. “Google estimates that 52% of people take an action as a result of watching an online video” (Verma, 2012).

3.6.2 Advertising Settings Fortunately, not all YouTube advertising options require deep pockets. To suit the budget for this campaign, we propose the use of a relatively new form of advertising on YouTube, TrueView In-Stream. In-Stream advertising is a pre-roll video spot that appears before a video that the viewer has chosen and is becoming increasingly popular (Tompros, 2012).

Such ads that are normally between 30 and 60 seconds in length offer the viewer an option to skip after 5 seconds of viewing. As longer videos are known to work best for In-Stream ads, we propose the Meteor Choice Music Prize ads lean toward the 60 second length rather than the 30 second spot (Tompros 2012). Meteor will be charged after the viewer has watched the first 30 seconds of the promotional video. Leaning towards the 60 second video we can optimize exposure at the same price.

Averaging about $0.04 each (€0.03), in-Stream ads are cheaper than CPCs/CPVs (cost per click, view) and have view/click traffic data that is up to the hour. In-Stream ads work on the basis of contextual targeting, interest targeting, or demographic targeting. Our campaign must be specific; a demographically targeting campaign combined with topic targeting – even in a niche market – usually yields the best results (Tompros, 2012). Advertisements should be placed before videos that match our content i.e. Irish band videos etc. and target users that are logged into YouTube and have an interest in new Irish music and bands and match the target market demographic of under 25’s.

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-Remarketing

With YouTube remarketing Meteor can also retarget people that liked, make your video a favourite or subscribed to our channel. They can also exclude people from retargeting if they disliked a video. With these kinds of options Meteor should be able to better reach the audience that interacts most with the brand and event community.

The TrueView concept also helps to keep costs down as you only pay if users are engaging with your content (Tompros 2012).

3.7 General information regarding the advertising campaigns Each advertising campaign will be tested and we will adjust the message or the visual depending on how the ad is performing so far.

3.8 Additional triggers Here is an additional tool we can use: http://www.paywithatweet.com/. This website allows us to create a button to exchange one file against one tweet or one comment on Facebook. We can offer the last song of Jape to people who tweet about our event or our website. It is a great tool to make our event and our content go viral. In addition, “Google decided to change the weight of their emphasis from “backlinks” more towards social media likes, shares, tweets, reddits, and 1+”(K.Krogue, 2012).

Download the latest song of Jape for free, if you pay with a Tweet

Image 19: Pay-with-a-tweet Button Implementation

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IV. GOAL: CREATING AWARENESS

4.1 Flashmob

4.1.1 The concept The creation of a viral video to be used as an advertisement and to generate hype surrounding the event will be a priority in our digital marketing strategy. The power of such a video would be remarkable in terms of interest and awareness created versus revenue invested. This video must resonate with the target market in a memorable and powerful way in order for them to respond to it and engage with it by “liking”, “sharing”, “favouriting” and posting the video in relevant relams…thus this video must act as a catalyst for the target market to take on the role of marketers themselves.

“This year has been a fantastic year for online video advertising. Advertisers are increasingly taking advantage of the social nature of online video by creating ads that are likely to be shared, liked and commented on,” said David Graham, sales manager at YouTube Ireland. “The power of choice and the greater opportunity for viewer engagement is driving more creative, interesting video advertising than ever before, which can be seen in the variety of adverts which Irish people are watching,” he said (Silicon Republic, 2011).

4.1.2 Successful flashmobs For example Club Orange’s ‘Do you like my bits’ video is the most-viewed YouTube ad in Ireland in 2011, drawing the largest number of views over other Irish ads. The ad drew controversy across the country, as reported by The Journal, over its depiction of women and its innuendo.

The second most-viewed ad on YouTube was for Captain Morgan rum as part of its recent Facebook competition with a three-day trip to Young Island in the Caribbean and €15,000 in cash as the prize.

Vodafone’s Rising Stars bloopers came in third, which features Dublin Gaelic footballers Bernard Brogan and Conal Keaney fluffing their lines for the ad (Silicon Republic, 2011).

Taking into account the elements of fun, humour and competitive incentive present in the aforementioned videos we propose that the event advertisement video features a “Flashmob”

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in a familiar location in Dublin and also showcases some of the musical talent involved in the competition and allows Meteor to create a positive impression on viewers.

4.1.3 Making the video: user generated content To engage our target, we decide to launch a contest between highschools. We will distribute flyers at the school’s entrance which will present all the important information the students will need to proceed. We will ask them to be in group of 5 to 10 people and give them a link so they can fill a form with personal information and send a certificate attendance from their school.

We will select the first 30 highschools that will register and we will send them a package with orange suits that they will imperatively have to use for the flashmob. We will also ask them to use a winning Choice Music Prize song as background music. Our marketing staff will select the best video and use it for a promoting video. This video will also include information on upcoming events such as the treasure hunt and voting on Facebook. This will serve to create awareness and hype surrounding the digital marketing strategy in general.

Tickets for the concert and smartphones will be offered to the winners.

Image 20: Flashmob

4.1.4 Timeline Week 1: End of the contests Week 2: Creation of theWeek 3: Release Week 48: Distribution Selection promotional video the video on of flyers of the YouTube best video

DECEMBER JANUARY FEBRUARY

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V. GOAL: ENGAGING THE AUDIENCE

5.1 THE TREASURE HUNT In the modern era of digital marketing and social networking, contests move up a gear by offering more interactivity than ever. We chose to orchestrate a treasure hunt: it is an opportunity for Meteor to reward the engagement of its fans and link offline and online marketing in an original way. The profit motive and the playful aspect of this game is a call for a closer relationship with Meteor brand by building some complicity and improving its sympathetic capital.

Goal  Surprise the fans and generate word-of-mouth

This treasure hunt will be an additional way to create buzz around the Choice Music Prize as the players win tickets for the concert.

5.1.1 TEASING

The flashmob is the first element of our teasing but its main purpose is to create suspense around the treasure hunt without revealing anything more.

The second phase of our teasing consists of using our influential bloggers to gain publicity. We will send them a parcel containing two tickets for the Choice Music Prize, one Meteor t- shirt and one free album from download in the Meteor music store https://music.meteor.ie/home.aspx. We will provide the bloggers with the rules of our treasure hunt, practical information (our website, our facebook page to like…) and one hashtag to relay their discovery on Twitter. This hashtag is important as it will be the one used for the game.

#meteormusichunt

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5.1.2 THE GAMEPLAY

Step 1 – Release of the rules

As Facebook is our main hub, we will post the rules of the Treasure Hunt on our wall.

THE TREASURE HUNT IS ON IN DUBLIN!

1. Tweet using #meteormusichunt  The more you tweet, the more the barometer is rising 2. Free the next clue  Once the barometer is full, we will give you an indication of where to go and a password 3. Rush to the appointed spot and flash the QR code hidden in the area 4. Enter the requested password and be the first to win: 2 tickets for the Music Choice Prize 1 year of subscription in Meteor 100 music downloads

Image 21: Treasure Hunt Rules – Facebook Post

About the rules:

 We decided to organize it in Dublin as it is where the concert will take place, it is the artistic and cultural centre of Ireland and it is the best student city.  We secure the QR code with a password so random people will not access to the prize if they don’t participate in the game  We don’t place physical prize for the same reason

Step 2 – Monitoring the tweets

People will start tweeting using our hashtag affecting the barometer. Our staff will develop a plug-in so the barometer will be present on our Facebook page and will rise depending on the

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number of hashtags. The barometer will act as our cover picture on Facebook as it is most visible.

Image 22: Barometer on Facebook Page A defined threshold will release indications. The first threshold should be relatively low: 400 tweets for the first clue. It will give us an indication on how people respond to the Twitter game. If the participants have a consequent engagement and explode the barometer rapidly, the second threshold will be higher. There will be a countdown of the tweets to trigger anticipation, build excitement and establish a legitimate reason to tweet more (people will see immediately their effect on the barometer).

Step 3 – Giving the clues

The clues will be also posted on our Facebook wall. They will point out a specific location so people can start to rush on the streets of Dublin to win. The clues can be delivered through different means: Youtube videos, Instagram pictures…It has to be related to music or/and Meteor (Meteor stores…).

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Here is an example:

Image 23: Facebook Posts to release the clues for the Treasure Hunt

Step 4 – Winning the prizes

The first to flash the QR code will be asked to enter the password inserted within the clues. The participant will have to enter his/her email address to receive an invitation.

15 prize packages are to be won. We expect the game to last approximately 5 days.

One week after the hunt, an award event will take place so the winners will be offered their prizes. We will host them in our headquarters in Dublin and we will invite journalists as well to cover the ceremony so we will be later able to post their articles and interviews on our website. Pictures will also be uploaded on our Facebook page.

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5.1.3 A MULTICHANNEL GAME The treasure hunt encompasses diverse social media such as Facebook and Twitter. The ultimate goal of this game is to significantly increase the level of conversation and the mention of the Meteor brand in particular through our specific hashtag.

The treasure hunt will also be promoted on our official website for the Choice Music Prize. Our homepage will be dedicated to the treasure hunt, inviting people to like our page to participate. The same message will be conveyed through our official Twitter account @Meteor_Mobile, official Facebook page, and sponsorship page of our official website.

5.1.4 TIMELINE

Week 5: Ceremony Week 1: Teasing awards fuelled by bloggers Week 2: Launch of the Upload the pictures on Treasure Hunt facebook

JANUARY FEBRUARY

5.2 Deeper connection between the fans and the bands

5.2.1 BAND PROFILES The 10 final shortlisted bands in the category “Irish Album of the Year” will be announced at the beginning of January. These bands will create their own promotional playlists featuring performance videos which people can view on the event´s YouTube channel. This will allow the target market to familiarise themselves with the various bands and their music prior to the event and in light of the event and its core message. The bands may upload personal music videos as well as “vlogs” or “behind the scenes” type videos and importantly each band will submit a video entitled: “Do you like Us? Vote for Us!”

5.2.2 DO YOU “LIKE” US?...VOTE FOR US! We propose that activity on social media is related directly to the event such that band recognition or “likes” on Facebook will have some bearance on the final competition result. This would not only drive competitors´ incentive to post content and engage on YouTube but also would help to extend the hype surrounding the event and the potential market reach.

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Personalised “get to know us” style YouTube videos will also be featured on Facebook and will give the target market a brief glimpse into the life and image of each shortlisted competitor band. The videos on YouTube will encourage viewers to vote for the band by “liking” them on Facebook.

In the previous years the judge panel selected the final winner in the category “Irish Album of the Year” on the event´s date. This year we suggest that the judges will give some consideration to the social media following that each band has built up in deciding on the final winner. The number of “Likes” on Facebook each band has will be compared to that of his competitors and this will form the basis on which each band is awarded a “social media score”. The final results will be awarded taking both Judges decision and Social Media score into consideration in a ratio of 80/20.

The fans therefore have the opportunity to vote from the date of the announcement of the shortlisted bands until the actual event. Voting during the event is not further possible. Throughout the voting phase, the fans can follow the current voting status of each band on the Meteor Choice Music Prize Facebook page.

5.2.3 The “Irish Album of the Year” At the end of January the shortlist for the category “Irish Song of the Year” will be announced. Respective links and streams will be available on the Meteor Event website, Facebook and the YouTube Channel for fans getting familiar with the songs. Last year, a public voting for the “Irish Song of the Year” through the Meteor Facebook page has already been introduced. We suggest maintaining this public voting for this year´s event. The fans will have the opportunity to vote during the event by “liking” the song on Facebook.

5.2.4 TIMELINE

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5.4 Meteor Choice Music Prize App “As the number of smartphone owners rise, so does the popularity of mobile apps. Smartphone owners are also spending more time on their apps versus mobile web.” (Business Insider 2012). Thus we feel that it is important for the Meteor to create a mobile application on which it can engage with the community it is building through its sponsorship of the event.

Facebook and Twitter can be used to inform the demographic of the app and its features and encourage them to download the app for free. The app will provide an effective and personal way to update users with information and news surrounding the event and the complementary promotional activities. This will be a powerful means of communication and enable Meteor to reach their target audience in an ongoing fashion, with updates appearing directly on their phone screens. Users can be updated on treasure hunt and voting progression and will receive additional messages from the contestant bands and judges. Users will also be able to view contestant music videos and extra competition video entries on the app. The social media score progression of each competitor band will also be displayed on the app in real time.

5.4.1 THE 12 DAYS OF METEOR CHOICE MUSIC PRIZE

In December/January, the app will be the hub for an exclusive competition…The 12 Days of Meteor Choice Music PRIZE.

Over the 12 days of Christmas, users will be updated daily with a video of one of the competitor bands performing a Christmas song. Of those users who share this video on Facebook, a winner will be chosen to receive a prize of meteor credit, event tickets and additional Christmas themed gifts. Prizes will become greater in value as the days progress. Winners will be “tagged” by the event Facebook page so as to generate maximum hype and expand the event network. This will also promote the app and incentivize downloading amongst the target market as the days go on.

5.4.2 ON THE DAY… During the event, the app will allow for a real time discussion between those in attendance including the audience, judges and the contestants. This conversation will be streamed live to app users who are not in attendance along with pictures of the event.

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5.5 Meteor Youth Band Initiative:

5.5.1 THE CONCEPT: An initiative that seeks to reward talented young Irish musicians. The bands should upload a short clip covering a song of any Irish singer or band. The top 10 videos will be uploaded on Meteor´s event website with a link to the Facebook page. The band that gets the most likes will have the chance to perform live at the event.

This initiative will deepen the Meteor-Music message, and will receive a high engagement from our target audience (below 25). The amateur prize offers an opportunity for Irish youth to gain exposure and gives Meteor the image they are seeking…positive, supportive and engaged.

5.5.2 THE BAND FORMATION: An essential requirement for entering this competition was that the bands contain a minimum of three members. This will provoke single talents to interact with their network in order to form a band i.e. more people talking about the event and wider exposure for the initiative.

5.5.3 WHAT IS THE PRIZE The winner band will be allowed to perform at the actual event resulting in media attention. Additionally, they will be awarded a symbolic trophy and a Meteor mobile subscription for one year.

5.5.4 PROMOTIONAL AD: The promotional ad that will be uploaded online will show young people engaging on their computer, and start to pick up their phones and call their friends. Following this, they gather with a camera and start to shoot a musical performance. It will be a simple ad but will convey a standard of the enthusiasm that will inspire the target audience.

The ad should be displayed on YouTube, and on Facebook as a sponsored ad. Further, it can be uploaded on Meteor´s Facebook page.

Note: The judging panel should talk about the initiative and highlight some of the statistics (for example: 100 videos have been uploaded, over 2000 likes on FB ... etc.), this will be a positive message for viewers in relation to Meteor´s support of young Irish musical talent.

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-DURING THE EVENT-

I. Live Broadcast

The prior digital activities aimed to boost the online viewings for the event, but the digital engagement will not stop during the event.

The event will be broadcasted including:

- Live interviews with bands, judges and attendees - Live performance of the bands - Previously prepared footage about the bands - Previously prepared promotional videos and ads - Judges feedback and results

These elements will integrate smoothly to create an unforgettable experience for the viewers.

The event can potentially be broadcasted live to two categories of people:

1.1 Web Users:

There will be a link imbedded on Meteor´s website as well as on all the social media platforms used. By clicking it visitors can view the event live (Pictures X). Furthermore, YouTube offers a tool called YouTube live, which can be an additional paid host for the live broadcast. During the event a clear link will be shown on the YouTube channel to lead clickers to the live broadcast.…

Image 24: Live Broadcast 74

1.2 Mobile & Tablet Users:

Since the smartphone penetration in Ireland is 43%, as already mentioned above, the mobile application (IOS & Android) is an easy way to allow our target audience to watch the event. Adding various options, such as choosing the quality of the live broadcast, will broaden the pool of viewers.

Figure 11: Online TV and Video

II. Live Digital Interaction with viewers & attendees

During the event, the digital engagement with our target audience will continue through …

2.1 Practical information for the attendees Our mobile app is also a useful tool to engage participants at the event in real time. Therefore the app should include additional value features for event attendees. For example, a simple scan of a barcode should be enough to let people in (dematerialization of the concert tickets). In addition, it could give them practical information such as: which queue is the shortest, where are the toilets…They also should be able to order some snacks and beverages to be delivered directly at their seat. Dedicated staff should be hired to deliver this kind of service. It will improve the overall target audience’s experience and highlight the digital prowess of Meteor as a reliable service provider.

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MY TICKET

PRACTICAL INFO

ORDER SNACKS

Image 25: Mobile App – Concert Information Page

2.2 Live Voting: The voting system of last year´s awards depended on the judging panel’s opinion. This year online live voting will play a part and will continue during the actual performances to add excitement and involve viewers in the proceedings. Our target market is used to having their voices heard and we plan to prioritise their participation and relationship with the brand.

The results will be shown by a barometer live on a screen at the event.

2.3 Live Photo Streaming: Live photo streaming will enable us to display real time photos taken at the event (without losing the main broadcast of the event). Viewers can like, comment, tag or share these through social network accounts that are linked to the website. This will create a sense of proximity and interaction for online viewers of the event and spark their interest as they recognise friends in photos.

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Live photo streaming contains two categories:

Live Photos posted by the event organizers:

These pictures will be taken at the venue by professional photographers and should be edited instantly by adding the event logo and posted directly to the website live photo stream section and social media pages. These pictures will include:

o Pictures of celebrities attending the event on the red carpet. o Pictures of the judging panel. o Pictures of the bands playing live. o Different Pictures of the venue and crowd at different stages (Entering the venue, in the hall, inside the venue).

Live Photos uploaded by attendees:

Attendees of the event will see a big ad at the entrance and “Meteor Choice Music Prize” logo should be everywhere. When an attendee takes a photo with the logo and uploads it on the Facebook page, he/she will be eligible for prize draws that can take place at the end of the event before announcing the names of the winners.

2.4 Using dual screening to amplify the engagement

The mobile app will play a central role to add interactivity for those who are seeing the concert online. It will offer another dimension whose goal would be to empower the viewers so that they will feel more included to the show.

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Win a new smartphone!

Through the app, around 30 questions will be asked. Those instant questions

will require a careful viewing to find the right answers. Examples could include:

 Which band is playing right now?  Which password the back large screen just displayed?  How many judges are present? Other questions will be designed to be more users-focused in order to let them know that their opinion matters:

 Who do you think should win?  Do you wish you could be at the concert?  What is your favorite type of music?

Each answer will give them 3 points and each right answer will give them 6 points. The first 3 persons who will get the highest score will be offered a

Image 26: Mobile App – Live Game Page

Twitter will be also used as we can now connect with the pool of followers we constituted thanks to the treasure hunt.

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Support your favorite singer!

A specific hashtag will be given so that people can use it to control what can

possibly happen during the event to a certain extent. Indeed, if people like the singer

who is playing, they can tweet the hashtag and after 200 tweets, confettis will be released on stage. After each performance, the countdown will reset and the next

singer will have the opportunity to be supported by confettis.

#meteorconcert

Instructions will be displayed at the bottom of the streaming screen:

 TWEET #meteorconcert to support your favorite band with confetti  Download our application MeteorChoiceMusicPrize available on Android Market and Apple App Store

TWEET #meteorconcert to support your favorite band with confetti - TWEET #blabhalbhal Image 27: Live Streaming Screen – Instruction Displays Page

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2.5 Instant feedback and Comments: Online viewers can engage with the event and submit their feedback and comments which will be streamed on the website. In addition, the judging panel will have a device that allows them to see these comments and mention some of the interesting feedback or comments during the event and while commenting on the performances.

2.6 Notes on during the event:

 Live Broadcasting isn’t actually 100% live! There should be a 5 min difference range in order to deal with unpredictable mistakes, technical errors and inconvenient incidents during the event.  All activities of Live Digital Interaction should be highly monitored, an employee or more should be assigned to check each post or picture in case of containing irrelevant, and then they can be accepted to public appearance on the website. The procedure should take a few seconds for each post and picture in order to keep the privilege of instant interaction.

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-AFTER THE EVENT-

I. Meteor Choice Music Prize Photos & Clips Albums

After the event ends, a set of photo & short clip albums from the event will be posted on both the website of the event, and the social media network sites with the Meteor logo and event slogan pasted onto each picture.

Image 28: Picture Example During the event a message should be communicated on printed material encouraging the audience to find and tag themselves in these albums.

This will create post exposure for the event when the tagged picture or video is posted on the attendee´s profile. People who haven’t heard of the event will become curious about it and maybe attend it the next year.

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II. Meteor Winning Band broadcasts online

Meteor can sign a contract with the winning band to perform live or record sessions that will be broadcasted online. Announcements for these sessions will be made through the website and the social media platforms.

III. Online feedback and suggestions

Feedback about the online coverage of the event and suggestions for next year´s event should be collected to improve the next edition. This will take place on multiple channels:

- Prior to the event live broadcast on the website and the application, a window should appear where viewers can submit their feedback and suggestions. - Questions should be posted on the social media pages asking for feedback and suggestion.

IV. Paid/unpaid online media, news and blogs

Meteor should ensure that a number of local well-known online magazines and entertainment channels cover the event. Online Influencers also should write about the event and this will emphasise link Meteor´s role in supporting young Irish bands and music.

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PART 3

FORECAST AND

MONITORING

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-FORECAST-

In light of the above strategic initiatives it is important to set goals to which we can work towards. The following chapter will convey those aims in respect of each social media platform and the means by which we can measure success. We estimate our achievements as laid out below.

I. ENGAGEMENT ON TWITTER

Triggers Generated tweets Paywithatweet 1,000 -Use of the hashtag to release clues -Estimation: around 1000 tweets for The Treasure Hunt 15,000 one clue

-40% of people who are voting (50,000 (estimated)*0,4=20,000) Twitter Mentions 20,300 -20% of people attending the event (1,500*0,2=300) During the concert -200 tweets to release confetti 670 10% of total tweets Retweets (1,000+15,000+20,300+670=36,970) 3,697 * 0,1 = 3,697 40,667

II. ENGAGEMENT ON FACEBOOK

Calculation/Estimation* Generated likes 15% of Meteor Facebook Facebook Likes 15,236 Fans (101,574*0,15=15,236) 40,000* Facebook Votes 40,000

55,236

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III. ENGAGEMENT ON YOUTUBE

Calculation/Estimation* Generated likes Views: 10,890 (Explanation Flashmob Video Views 10,890 below) Facebook Votes * 2 Band Profile Videos 80,000 (40,000*2) Youth Initiative 7,000* 7,000 Promotional Video Paid YouTube 18,700 (explanation below) 18,700 Advertisement

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Flashmob : The average number of views for You Tube videos is 99,000 (Sysomos, 2010). Based on the 44 % under 25, the average views are 43.560. This number can be assumed to be built up in a 1 year period. The TrueView In-Stream is to advertise the event in 2013 with the flashmob video. The promotion time for the event is from December until March (3 month) The relevant number is to break down to 3 months. 43,560 : 12 x 3 = 10,890 views.

Paid YouTube Advertisement: The targeted music videos are Irish music bands. The searching results on YouTube for “irish music bands” and “new irish music bands” with the filter “just videos” shows an average of 22,000 videos. To exclude further “traditional irish music” this number is minuses 15 %, which results in 18,700 videos.

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-MONITORING-

I. LANDING PAGES

Google Analytics will be the main tool to measure the traffic on the defined page.

1.1 The Meteor sponsorship page Only the number of visitors and unique visitors should be monitored.

1.2 The Choice Music Prize Homepage In addition to the number of visitors, we should pay attention to:

 The bounce rate  The average visit duration  Which second page the users visit the most?  How many pages do they visit?  Traffic sources: the Meteor sponsorship page? The social media platforms?

It will be a way to track the performance of the pages and keep improving them depending on the results. In addition to that, we should compare different possible versions of the landing pages with Google Analytics Experiment in order to choose the best.

II. SOCIAL NETWORKS, FORUMS & BLOGS

Radian 6 is one of the leaders in the social media tracking. This tool will allow us to estimate important metrics such as:

 Basic metrics: number of followers, likes, direct mentions…  The share of voice that should be calculated comparing to our main competitors 02, Vodaphone and 3  The share of conversation: as Meteor wants to be associated with music, it can be interesting to know how prominent our brand is in conversation related to this topic.  Inbound links: to know which websites are driving attentions to our event.

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PART 4

BUDGET AND TIMELINE

OVERVIEW-BUDGET -

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-BUDGET-

REQUIREMENTS& DETAILS TOTAL CONDITIONS

Building a new -A customized template By a freelancer 4,000 € website for the Meteor -Allows for Choice Music Prize interactivity -Keyword optimization -Hyperlinks integration Facebook Advertising Ad: Meteor Choice Number of days-69 8,625 € Campaign Music Prize Budget per day-125 €

Ad: Meteor Singing Number of days-55 5,500 € Star Budget per day-100 €

Ad: Treasure Hunt Number of days- 20 2,000 € Budget per day-100 € YouTube Advertising - TrueView In-Stream -0.03 € per view 15,000 € Campaign flashmob - fix budget for 3 months Google Adwords -Ad group: Meteor Number of days- 69 12,075 € campaign Choice Music Prize Budget per day-175 € Number of days- 63 8,250 € -Ad group: Meteor Budget per day-150 € Singing Star

-Ad group: : Treasure Number of days- 20 3,000 € Hunt Budget per day-150 € Banners campaign Number of day 60 12,000 € Budget per day 200 Additional triggers: -Button available for -1,000 songs x 1.5 € x 1,050 € Paywithatweet 1000 tweets 0.7 (They approximately set a margin of 30% for their digital music store) Flashmob -Distribution of 1000 -Creation of a flyer by a 1,345 € flyers freelance = 100 € -Printing = 0,30 €/flyer -Dedicated staff from a temporary agency for one week -3 persons x 35 hours x 9 € -Wearing orange suits - 30 participants groups 7,350 €

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- around 7 persons per group -orange suits = 35€

-development, -edition of the 1,000 € preparation promotional video and integration of the flashmob by a freelancer

-Prize for the winner - around 7 persons 3,657.50 € group -smartphones=500€ -Tickets=22,5€ Treasure Hunt -Parcel for 10 -Teeshirt = 7 € 656,5 € influential bloggers - 2 tickets = 22.5 € x 2 - One download album = 13 songs x 1.5€ x 0.7 -QR code -Free to create 2.25 € -15 stickers displaying the QR code = 15 x 0.15€ -Prizes for 15 winners -Tickets = 22.5€ x 2 7,740 € -1 year subscription for the “Great Value phone plans” = 30.50 € x 12 months -100 music downloads = 1.50 € x 100 songs x 0.7 -Ceremony awards for -Food and beverages = 1,381.25 € around 50 persons 950€ - Service = 5 waiters for 3 hours = 3 x 5 x 8,75€ -Photographer for 3 hours = 300 €

Facebook-page -The FB-page itself is 0 € for free! -HR cost included in general HR (costs see below)

Music bloggers -contact bloggers -contact per E-Mail 0 € - for free -submitted data (songs -for free 0 € + videos) -parcel for 10 -Tickets = 22,5€ x 2 x 757.50 € influencial bloggers 10 = 450 €

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-1 music album downloads = 1,50 € x 15 x 10 x 0,7 = 157,5 €. T-shirts 15 €x10 =150 €

HR costs included in overall HR costs (see below) Mobile app -development of the 12,124 € app = 12,000€ -app store account for Apple=99€ -app store account for Android=25€ Christmas 12 Prizes (from 50€ to 50€ + 75€ + 100€ + 2,675 € Competition 500€) 125€ + 150€ + 175€ + 200€ + 250€ + 300€ + 350€ + 400€ + 500€ = 2,675€ Game mobile option -3 winners 1,500 € app – during the event -smartphones=500€ Order snacks option Dedicated team to -staff from a temporary 135 € app – during the event receive the online agency orders and deliver them -5 persons x 3hours x 9 € (before tax) Meteor Youth Band -development, -Camera equipment 3,000 € Initiative Ad preparation and filming -Camera crew -Filming the ad -editing the video Meteor Youth Band -Evaluation of the -3 Trophies 3,000 € Initiative prizes contestants. - 1st band free Meteor -measuring the Mobile 40 euro popularity of audience subscription/1 years. on social networks. (depends on how many people form the winning band, estimate 3) Broadcasting the -preparing the website 1,000 € event interface. -on location live broadcast technician. Live voting -setting the website -devices for judging 2,300 € interface. panel. Live photo streaming -Prize draw for a photo. Instant feedback Printed materials -clear location in Vicar -Banner for live photo 1,000 € during the event street. streaming. -Banner for after event page “Photos & Videos

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Albums” Meteor winning band -prior contract with the - studio & recording. 5,000 € broadcast online winning band. - Editing. -creating online interface. Monitoring Using Radian 6 -During 5 months 2,500 € -500 €/month Human resources cost -Setting the facebook -1digital marketer full- 19,000 € page time for 5 months, -twitter account 3,000 € per month = -contacting bloggers 15,000€ (before tax) -1 intern 800 € per month = 4000 € (before tax) TOTAL 148,624 €

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-TIMELINE-

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PART 5

APPENDIX

BIBLIOGRAPHY

WEBOGRAPHY

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-APPENDIX-

Exhibit 1: Audio Streaming Services in the UK (Nielsen 2011)

Exhibit 2: Entertainment sites in the UK (comScore 2010)

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Exhibit 3: YouTube Partner Channels (YouTube 2012)

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Initial setting up: targeted country: Ireland

LIST A – Promoting the Awards

Exhibit 4: Sponsorship Page Keywords

Exhibit 5: List B Promoting Irish Music

Exhibit 7: Promoting the Event 96

EXHIBIT 5 – SPONSORSHIP PAGE - IMPROVED CODE SOURCE

What to do in Dublin? Meteor Choice Music Prize presents the best Irish band

Meteor Music Choice Prize promotes Ireland’s exciting new talent

Last year, we introduced the 'Irish Song of the Year' category into the critically acclaimed Meteor Choice Music Prize and were thrilled with the massive response from the music lovers who got behind their favourite Irish band. It became one of the events in Dublin you don’t want to miss: great Irish songs, electrifying atmosphere, impressive performance, fantastic audience…

You’re looking for memorable things to do in Dublin for next year? Stay tuned with Meteor Music Choice Prize

Connect with us on Facebook and know how to win free tickets for a thrilling concert in Dublin

We became sponsors of this gig in Ireland, showcasing a wide selection of the best homegrown music with an additional focus on promoting up and coming Irish bands. Get behind some great music and discover this concert in Dublin for yourself; we’ll have fantastic prizes up for grabs such as free tickets for this Meteor music event, one year of free mobile subscription, loads of songs to download for free ! We hope to continue in our quest to uncover the next big thing, not because we can, but because we want to.

We are looking to satisfy your needs as music fans: you will get to decide who is the Irish band of the year and make it one of the best music events in Dublin. You still wonder what to do in Dublin next year? Stay tuned and go to our Facebook page.

Irish Album of the Year 2012

Check out videos from the nominees' albums.

The Nominees

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-BIBLIOGRAPHY AND WEBOGRAPHY-

Amas 2012: “Internet use”, online: http://amas.ie/online-research/state-of-the-net/state-of-the- net-issue-24-spring-2012/3-internet-use/

Amas 2012: “Outside the box: TV´s net effect” in Online Magazine, issue 24 Spring 2012.

Arts Attendance in Ireland 2010: June 2010, online: http://artsaudiences.ie

Business Insider, 2012. “BII Mobile Insights”, Business Insider. http://e.businessinsider.com/public/1068229

ComReg 2012: Quarterly Key Data Report, 13 March 2012; online: http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg1220.pdf

ComScore 2012: “Nearly Half of European Online Audience Visit Sports Sites”, February 2012; online: http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2012/4/Nearly_Half_of_European_ Online_Audience_Visit_Sports_Sites^

ComScore Data Mine 2012: http://www.comscoredatamine.com

ComScore 2011: “The 2010 Europe Digital Year in Review – Report Showcases 2010 Digital Landscape in Europe and Highlights Trends for 2011”, 24 February 2011; online: http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2011/2/comScore_Releases_The_20 10_Europe_Digital_Year_in_Review

ComScore Data Mine 2010: “Time spent on entertainment sites in the UK”, September 2010, online: http://www.comscoredatamine.com

ComScore Data Mine 2008: “Mobile music adopted”, June 2008, online: http://www.comscoredatamine.com

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Daragh Doyle, Content is King Conference 2010. From Edelman video ‘Social Media in Ireland‘

Experian Marketing Services 2012: The 2012 Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report. Online: http://go.experian.com/forms/experian-digital-marketer- 2012?WT.srch=PR_EMS_DigitalMarketer2012_040412_Download?send=yes

Independent 2012: Pinterest: The new hit social network explained, February 29, 2012. Online: http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/pinterest-the-new-hit-social- network-explained-3034979.html

Ipsos MRBI 2012: “Social Networking Quarterly Survey”, May 2012; online: http://www.ipsosmrbi.com/social-networking-quarterly-survey-may-12.html

K.Krogue 2012: “The Death Of SEO: The Rise of Social, PR, And Real Content”, June 2012, online: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenkrogue/2012/07/20/the-death-of-seo-the-rise-of- social-pr-and-real-content/

LinkedIn 2012: “What is LinkedIn?”; online: http://learn.linkedin.com/what-is-linkedin/ (November 1, 2012, [IST 17:28])

Neworld Blog 2011: “Irish Social Media Statistics”, May 2011, online: http://blog.neworld.com/2011/irish-social-media-statistics-may-2011/

Nielsen 2011: “Is streaming ahead”, July 2011

Pinterest 2012: “What is Pinterest”. November 2012. Online: http://pinterest.com/about/

Red C 2012: “Connecting the World – Mobile and Social Media Trends”, Winter 2012, online: http://redcresearch.ie/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Connecting-the-World- MEDIA-REPORT-IT-Tel-Syndicated-Study-Winter-2012-RED-C-WIN.pdf

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Silicon Republic, 2011. “Club Orange is 2011’s most viewed Youtube ad in Ireland”, Silicon Republic. (Accessed 07/11/12)

Social Baker 2012: General statistics, online: http://www.socialbakers.com

Sysomos 2010: “Inside YouTube Videos”, February 2010, online: http://www.sysomos.com/reports/youtube/ (November 1, 2012, [IST 18:32])

Sysomos 2010: “Inside Blog Demographics”, June 2010, online: http://www.sysomos.com/reports/bloggers/ (November 1, 2012, [IST 19:19])

Tompros, K., 2012.“Youtube Advertising for Budgets of all sizes”, Search Engine Watch. (Accessed 07/11/12)

Twitter 2012: “About Twitter”, online: https://twitter.com/about (November 1, 2012, [IST 16:52])

UK Music 2009: “Music consumption in 14 to 24 year olds”, April 2009, online: http://www.ukmusic.org/

Verma, R., 2012. “5 Reasons why you should have an adwords for video campaign”, Periscopix. (Accessed 07/11/12)

YouTube 2012: “About YouTube”; online: http://www.youtube.com/t/about_youtube?hl=en- GB (November 1, 2012, [IST 18:14])

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