Sandbox MUSIC MARKETING FOR THE DIGITAL ERA Issue 101 | 29th January 2014
Breaking good: the tricks to new artist success INSIDE… Campaigns Breaking an act used to PAGES 5 & 6: involve luck, gut instinct and The Official UK Top 40 Singles Chart The latest projects from the throwing money at every digital marketing arena >> Exciting New Act That Has Only Been Around Six Months channel. We now live in an 1 Tools A&R age shaped by real time 2 Old Act That Has Been Around Years PAGE 7: data, but that comes with new Selling your merchandise on challenges – namely knowing 3 Act That, After Years Of Chipping Away, Finally Has A Hit Spotify >> what data to trust and how Behind the Campaign to respond to it. We speak to 4 Act Suffering From Diminishing Returns PAGEs 8 - 10: those charged with breaking Act That Will Probably Be Dropped As This Chart Placing Is Disappointing Cliff Richard >> acts to ask what works best, 5 Charts why artists have to do much of 6 Solo Artist Who Is Still Riding On Support For Their Previous Band the early groundwork, why ‘old PAGE 11: media’ needs to be convinced 7 Act That Has One Hit And Seems Unlikely To Repeat It Digital charts >> with ‘new media’ numbers and, with budget cuts, how 8 Act That Got A Good Sync On A Department Store Ad the biggest opportunities can Only Here Because Of A Social Media Campaign be created with the lowest 9 possible spend. 10 A Hit Tied To A Tenuous Anniversary Issue 101 | 29th January 2014 | Page 2 continued…
“Breaking an act” is a term as widely used While this marketing mix can provide it still requires a high-quality product and a flow of new material that people can connect as it is vague. There are no strict criteria as opportunities, it can also be rather confusing. solid on- and offline marking plan,” explains to the artist, for example busking videos with to what “breaking” a new act may mean – a So how exactly do you break an act in 2014? Cooking Vinyl head of digital marketing Passenger,” he says. top 10 album? Radio 1 support? – and the And what areas should you focus your Sammy Andrews. But, Meikle adds, all this material is worthless definition of success varies from band to efforts on? “The major difference now, in comparison to if fans don’t know it is there. “They key thing band and label to label. 10 years ago, are the tools used to achieve is for the artist to be talking via social media, Nevertheless, most music industry Laying the digital foundations this,” he says. “It’s vital for any new act in to tell people where they can access their executives will know in their heart of hearts “Breaking acts is what a label is best judged 2014 that they have their digital foundation music and see their videos then they go up,” whether or not a band has achieved that on,” explains Virgin Records senior digital blocks in place. I’m consistently surprised to he says. “The artist needs to work hard to elusive breakthrough, essentially reaching a marketing manager Luke Ferrar, who worked see acts, labels and managers of all statures communicate with a potential fanbase and level of sales and fame that corresponds to, on the campaign for Bastille. “It’s possibly missing the simplest of opportunities in the make the most of the opportunities that are or even exceeds, their expectations. becoming easier to find acts to break thanks digital world.” open to them.” to our beloved internet, but signing deals is In 2014 there are more ways than These foundation blocks are fairly obvious: Jack Melhuish, director of marketing at as competitive as ever. Digital plays a crucial ever of assessing whether a band has the big social networks for keeping in touch Atlantic UK, says that YouTube – alongside part in the whole process.” broken through, from YouTube views to with fans; YouTube and SoundCloud so SoundCloud and Spotify – played a crucial role merchandise sales. At the same time, there In many ways the process of breaking an act people can listen to your music; and a band in the rise of dance act Rudimental, whose is an ever-expanding number of tools that in 2014 is the same as it always has been: hit website to bring it all together. album, Home, debuted at number 1 in the UK labels and managers can use to help break a music, it is supposed, will generally rise to the last year. But he cautions that it is important to These might seem evident – boring, even new act. top and there is only so much you can do to present this online material in the right way. – but you ignore them at your peril. “Social work a dud. media is important in showing who the act is “We grouped all their [Rudimental’s] remixes The essential working with or hanging out with,” explains in one playlist, rather than it being very bitty,” difference in 2014 Ferrar. “Boast, name-drop and tag your way he explains. “Grouped playlists can attract a lies in the new digital to the top shamelessly, but support your lot of attention on Spotify and YouTube.” tools available, which efforts with exceedingly good content along Ben Cook, MD of Asylum Records UK, says enable labels and the way.” that the video for ‘Feel The Love’ was “pivotal” bands to go straight The far-reaching impact of video for Rudimental. “It sent a message that this to consumers. “The wasn’t a one off, but something richer and process of breaking Stuart Meikle, senior product manager with a specific point of view,” he explains. “The a band in 2014 is at Essential Music & Marketing, says that sense of empowerment that the videos have fundamentally no YouTube played an important part in the rise given and their emotive quality really has different from how of Passenger, who had a worldwide hit with marked them out.” it has ever been as ‘Let Her Go’ in 2012. “You need a constant Issue 101 | 29th January 2014 | Page 3 continued…
Mailing lists are another useful way of and build data – free downloads and like they have some traction. And this, naturally, a massive YouTube number, being able to keeping your new fans informed. “We gates still work, crazily,” he explains. has impacted on the whole process of break that down and show a very healthy pay particular attention to the artist’s breaking an act, with many bands effectively UK connection and being able to benchmark So far, so standard: digital tools can be used mailing database, whatever stage of their breaking themselves – to a certain level and that against other tracks that have been to keep fans abreast of what an artist is up career they’re at,” says Adam Cardew, often with the help of management – before uploaded.” to, much as letters and fan clubs did 50 years digital manager for Absolute Marketing & a label comes on board. ago. But the seismic shift in breaking a band Record companies and artists can also Distribution. “This might involve getting in 2014 lies in the data generated by these “In many ways the artists are the marketers benefit from this data, using geographic their first 500 fans onto the list or updating new tools and what labels and artists can do of themselves the same way ‘we’ as people statistics to plot tours, or demographic data or refreshing a list of fans that haven’t been with them. put a version of ourselves online,” says to plan media campaigns. contacted in a while. When it comes to Nikke Osterback, founder of Saari Ltd, an getting fans to pay for your music or support Acts have to start the ball rolling “Data is king,” says Cooking Vinyl’s Andrews. independent digital strategy company you monetarily, the mailing list is key.” themselves “I think it’s fair to say that most people can which works with artists including The Boxer post a social network update these days but Old faithful tactics such as offering free For a start, with A&R budgets under pressure, Rebellion, Frightened Rabbit, Fink and Nick not everyone understands how to analyse downloads in exchange for email addresses labels are understandably wary of taking a Cave. the data that comes from those interactions.” and Facebook Likes are also still effective, punt on a band that is totally unproven. This “Often artists develop their online presence according to Ferrar. “Get the music out there means unsigned acts need statistics to prove He continues, “From there we can plan, using personally, then the manager has come on proven insights and analytics, the best ways board and steered that development,” he forward for campaigns and bespoke digital adds. “Afterwards a label might sign an act initiatives to appeal to both existing and with an extended team of online specialists future fans. In years gone by there was much to help. An artist doesn’t need a fanbase to be more of a ‘throw things at the wall to see signed, but having a fanbase can show that what sticks’ approach but now we’re able to one already has an audience. This can also make informed decisions which not only save help from a business point of view.” time but also save money, ensuring budgets ‘New media’ data steers ‘old media’ are being used to the greatest effect.” behaviour And fans don’t just passively make up When the artist does sign, the label can the numbers. They can also serve as then use these same statistics to woo more ambassadors for the band, driving online traditional media (radio, TV, press). conversations about their new favourite act. “Media partners need to feel there is a “We had the biggest breakthrough act genuine audience connection with the of 2013 with Bastille which came from a artist,” says Melhuish. “Being able to show strategy to rile up the fanbase online, getting Issue 101 | 29th January 2014 | Page 4 continued…
them to share content and convert friends web properties and communications work into fans until the stats were big enough to on mobile. Secondly you can use online to Tom Peacock, digital marketing We’ve been focused on the growth of their get the media interested,” says Ferrar. amplify that experience of a live event. This manager at Virgin Records, on online social fanbase for some time and it’s can be via live streaming, apps, co-creating a turned into another excellent example of Clearly, this tactic can be highly effective. But breaking The Vamps product in a live situation, anything.” the web’s strength for new acts. There’s an it may not be appropriate for every act and This year Virgin EMI has a strong focus on important focus on visual content to showcase labels should exercise caution, according The Vamps – a guitar driven UK pop band new material and document the growth of the to Chris Goss, MD of drum and bass label A genre-specific approach reaps the whose beginnings on YouTube led to a major most rewards band for wider media. Interviews, cover songs, Hospital Records. label signing in 2013. As an act with a large filmed sessions and behind the scenes pieces In the end, whatever the opportunities digital existing fanbase, it’s been important to get to “It is a very delicate area,” he says. “I believe have been key to the continued growth and offers, clearly there is no “one size fits all” know its characteristics and use it as a base that a real fan does that [champions a band] success of the band before they’ve released approach to breaking a band. to build upon. because that is what being a fan is. Trying to their debut album. direct them and to explain to them how to do Osterback explains, for example, that in it can be self-defeating, though.” different musical genres the approach to communicating with fans can be different. In our focus on digital, we should not forget “For ‘pop’ bands one usually needs to create that the essentially analogue experience a wide variety of content and communicate of playing live remains one of the most more frequently. For more ‘serious’ artists, important ways to break a new act and – communicating can take a more serious and for a certain type of band – probably always factual tone,” he says. “But the solution is not will be. to forget the importance of communicating.” Even so, Osterback says digital can play a But this does not mean there are no role in the live arena by “connecting the fundamental lessons that we can learn about dots”. “Playing live is the original social breaking a band in 2014, ones that can apply network for music,” he explains. “What’s to everyone from acoustic troubadours to most important is to capture that audience’s noisy drum and bass acts. interest online at and around a live show. Here I’m thinking about two angles: being “There is no cookie-cutter approach to available on both mobile and online and how marketing,” Melhuish concludes. “But the to amplify that situation.” brand marketing approach is quite similar. You have to ascertain what is the core He adds, “Fans will want to connect with message and who your audience is. Then the artist. Make sure you communicate you have to go and find them.” around the event but also make sure your Issue 101 | 29th January 2014 | Page 5 CAMPAIGNS: The latest projects from the digital marketing arena
reported on the new Hans Zimmer SoundCloud this, but as the platform continues to grow the messaging system on talk is turning to it being both a promotional competition the platform that can platform and a revenue source. There are now now offer much easier Hans Zimmer wants you! That’s 12 hours of audio uploaded on SoundCloud direct communication the sell for film composer Hans every minute and the use of the platform as between artists and Zimmer’s latest SoundCloud a promotional tool for artists just seems to fan. In the past week, have begun as Twitter and Facebook are still campaign. He has partnered SoundCloud also considered the main sources for direct fan/ with custom music company revealed a $60m artist communication. There is still room for The Bleeding Fingers to launch funding round from this to be explored on SoundCloud. a competition asking composers several investors, some to create their own music by of whom are involved in It certainly appears we are stepping into drawing on stems made by funding companies such the next evolution of SoundCloud where Zimmer himself. as Netflix, Dropbox and the platform will be more widely used in Snapchat. non-conventional ways (i.e. not just sharing The stems are released on SoundCloud content). The Hans Zimmer competition The platform has also as parts of an original recording called shows how SoundCloud is reaching film BitTorrent. Ólafur Arnalds also did this last launched a new visual player, which makes ‘Destiny’s Door’ exclusively for the composers and bigger artists for the use of its year, releasing the song ‘Only The Winds’ its timeline more integrated with photos. competition. Zimmer is part of the jury platform in more creative ways. The question that let fans turn separate stems on and off The new player is being pushed by The 1975, picking the winner who will receive full-time of whether or not rightholders will get paid in order to explore the individual elements of Steve Aoki and Schoolboy Q. The player also employment at the company in LA with remains uncertain (but rumours suggest its the song. But it’s the scale of this particular includes other features such as continuous full benefits – so it’s far more than a run of latest funding could go towards addressing competition and its prize that marks it out as playing and related tracks being shown the mill prize. The contest runs from 22nd that). However, the use of SoundCloud as very different here. during pause (making it look much like the January until 19th February and submissions a promotional tool is unquestioned and YouTube player). must include at least one of the stems and Hans Zimmer and The Bleeding Fingers, continues to grow in significance for artists last between 90 and 120 seconds. Users can through the use of SoundCloud, have SoundCloud provides one of the main and bands as well as users. upload their compositions to SoundCloud managed to come up with a creative way sources for discovering new music and the three finalists will be announced by to recruit employees. The competition has online. Much like YouTube, it is the 20th March. already attracted many participants, with 340 go-to channel for a lot of people entries already made on SoundCloud. when finding out about grassroots A stem remix competition is, in itself, not acts. However, the platform does new. Björk did something similar back in Speaking of SoundCloud, there is a lot not currently pay out royalties to 2010, releasing stems in order for fans to happening around the platform at the rightsholders. Artists and labels create a remix. Last year Moby released moment as it prepares for its next big leap have – up to now – largely accepted stems from his latest album through forward. In the last issue of Sandbox, we Issue 101 | 29th January 2014 | Page 6 CAMPAIGNS: The latest projects from the digital marketing arena
YouTube Nation that seems to be US National Music Publishers Association here to stay – with (NMPA) and Fullscreen reached a settlement YouTube has forged a channels such as recently it provided a first step towards partnership with DreamWorks Vevo with its Lift partnerships that would also benefit to launch a daily news show series, Spotify with rightsholders. As MCN channels continue to highlighting new and breaking Spotlight and Deezer grow, the models and process for licensing content on the video-sharing with Deezer Live need to be easier. sessions just to name Although not having an exact date, the platform. It’s the first use of a few. Even old- forthcoming YouTube subscription service is a YouTube-branded daily school MTV recently rumoured to be released at some point in Q1. programme and the first one to launched its Artists Perhaps the next step besides the YouTube launch in higher quality (Ultra- To Watch campaign subscription service is self-produced shows for 2014. HD to be exact). The show is similar to Netflix. They would certainly make sponsored by broadband and The amount of YouTube a serious contender when it comes telecommunications company MCNs (multi- to providing the best subscription service Verizon while DreamWorks channel networks) available. A subscription service with both Animation is overseeing all Perhaps this move marks YouTube’s attempt also continues to grow. Last year, BPI and music and video alongside self-produced production. YouTube will to expand far beyond the music sphere and LoveLive teamed up to create the YouTube content for a reasonable price would perhaps manage sales and marketing. with a partner such as DreamWorks it’s likely Transmitter channel, promoting British music attract a vast amount of people trying out that the focus is set to expand to short films and showing that the recording industry is streaming as well as appeal to those that The YouTube Nation channel, featured and vlogs. adapting and providing sources for people are currently subscribing to other services. on the spotlight section on YouTube, to discover new music. Russell Simmons’ All As online content is growing rapidly, there And, of course, there are huge marketing currently has around 222,000 subscribers Def Digital is also using YouTube to showcase is a pressing need for expert curators – benefits to be had here as all these YouTube after launching on 21st January. The and source new performers while Syco’s The someone to point out what is good content properties link together. programmes run for about five minutes You Generation is and what the audience is most likely to and highlight different content available using the platform respond to, giving a huge marketing leg up on YouTube (a mixture of music- and non- to discover new to new creators. YouTube often works as music-related content). The channel also talent. a discovery channel for new music but, by includes playlists that goes along with launching YouTube Nation, it is taking control MCNs are not, the theme of the different programmes. over the content on its own site in a more however, far YouTube is comfortably the biggest online direct way. from controversy platform for music globally and the top 10 when it comes to most watched videos on the platform are Companies creating channels which offer royalties. When The almost exclusively from the music category. various ways to discover content is a trend Issue 101 | 29th January 2014 | Page 7 Tools Selling your merchandise on Spotify
After getting an initial Up to three items can be listed at once per Spotify profile, all of which need to be 200 artists to sell physical submitted for approval by the company products through their before they’re posted. Spotify claims that this Spotify profile, last week will be done “typically within 24 to 28 hours”. For the time being, the feature will only be the streaming music service available on Spotify in the US, UK, Ireland, opened up its partnership Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Sweden, with D2C firm Topspin to Norway and Iceland. all artists. Mark Williamson, Spotify’s director of artist services, recently told Music Ally, “It’s quite The integration is done via Topspin’s an elegant solution. Artists don’t need to ArtistLink tool, so this means that artists change how they sell merch at all in terms of don’t necessarily have to use Topspin’s own their online store, fulfilment or any deals they stores to sell their physical goods but can link might have. We wanted to make it as easy as it instead to whichever D2C store they are possible.” already using. Spotify highlights that it is not taking a cut of the revenues and that neither He added, “What’s important to us is that, is Topspin. with this integration, we don’t just want to chuck a merchandise listing up and say Artists or managers wishing to take part ‘that’s it’. We want to optimise it, so we’ll be then make your money from merchandise feature is integrated into the service’s web will first have to create a Topspin ArtistLink examining what’s working across all the and ticketing,” Williamson explains. “Our and mobile applications. “We are exploring account. They will then be asked which artists – what kind of items are selling, from primary goal is still to return value for other spaces within our different apps where artists they wish to manage and this $10 T-shirts through to bundles [such as] a recorded music by paying royalties. But this it might be appropriate and valuable to show requires verification by connecting one digital download, a bit of vinyl and a T-shirt.” and our Songkick integration for tickets can merchandise,” said Williamson. This is clearly of the artist’s social media accounts or by The theory is that Spotify will be able to pass be very valuable for artists on top of that.” a growing space and it is expected that Beats emailing Topspin. Upon verification, account on these lessons to artists, helping them to Music will be doing something similar soon. managers use the ArtistLink dashboard to At the moment the merchandising will understand what kind of merchandising is manage their merchandising listings in order only be shown on artist profiles within most likely to sell to fans streaming their to edit, remove or add a product. They create Spotify’s desktop app. However, possibly music. listings by adding an image, a title and a in the future new items could be shown description alongside a URL to the item of “One of the things that we like to stress is that within the Browse and Discover pages or merchandise. we’re not one of those companies that thinks alongside artwork when a track is playing. it’s enough to give away your music for free It will also be interesting to see how the Issue 101 | 29th January 2014 | Page 8 BEHIND THE CAMPAIGN Cliff Richard
The Fabulous Rock ‘n’ The fact it was his 100th album utterly Roll Songbook is Cliff shaped the marketing and media reaction Richard’s 100th album and Julie: Vic Rust wrote The Cliff Recording his first for Warner Music. Catalogue [book] and it was him who The centenary landmark highlighted to us and management that ensured that he got lots of The Fabulous Rock ‘n’ Roll Songbook was traditional media coverage, going to be Cliff’s 100th album. We soon realised that it was a huge milestone that we but digital is now a growing wanted to celebrate and highlight in all of part of his marketing our marketing. When we actually announced strategy – from deals with the album, that was the main crux of our announcement – it was Cliff’s 100th album. It Tesco’s Blinkbox to a rising snowballed after that. Facebook and YouTube As soon as we sent out the release, the media presence. While his audience went a bit wild for it. We had three news is primarily made up of crews who came down to a shoot that we females aged 50+, Hannah were at on the day and that included BBC News and Five News. The press the next day Dudley (head of digital at was incredible. We even had the front page of adverts, TV ads and it was highlighted on the and we saw some great stats around this Rhino) and Julie Eldridge The Express. After that, a lot of the interviews album cover itself. We incorporated it into campaign in particular. Tying in with the (senior marketing manager were based on it being his 100th album. It everything. 100th album was also the fact that the music took on a life of its own. I would say we got a was going back to the classic rock ‘n’ roll that Hannah: I come from EMI so I have worked at Rhino) explain how this lot of press off the back of that alone. Cliff started out with. From a fan perspective, on Cliff for around six years. I actually started demographic is becoming it all came full circle. the Facebook page for him. That was three Facebook is proving itself to be a key increasingly digitally savvy or four years ago. It was an important thing We have been building Cliff’s mailing list for and how traditional media is marketing channel for his core audience that we wanted Cliff and the management several years now and a lot of that performs being used to open up online Julie: We made sure the fans knew first to support and it’s something that he’s well around the tour. His YouTube channel is so [the album announcement] got posted really embraced as the fans love having that very active. We digitised all his videos several opportunities. out on all the social channels. Cliff has direct connection with him. Now Cliff just years ago, they get great views and it meant a very active Facebook page and it was posts videos directly himself and answers we had another tool to use for this campaign. incorporated into all our marketing – press questions from the fans. It is growing steadily Issue 101 | 29th January 2014 | Page 9 continued…
Any message from Cliff gets the best aged 50+, but his fanbase continues to grow reaction. That’s unsurprising, really, and skew younger – so that’s really positive. especially because people don’t know it’s When it comes to digital it’s great to be able coming. He likes to surprise everybody, to use these channels to keep growing that. which is brilliant. Otherwise we do quite a lot We try and make things as social as around anniversaries – marking the release possible. Even if we are posting what is a of a single from 30 years ago or reposting buy message, we will do it in a way that older content. The older fans love to engage hopefully doesn’t come across as too pushy. with that and it’s also nice to be able to For example, if we can post it with a video, introduce more recent fans to the catalogue a photo or with some piece of information that they weren’t around for originally. that the fans haven’t had before, that softens the effect a little bit. For Cliff, we post a few Traditional media is offering routes into times a week. We try not to over-post, but at digital marketing the same time it’s important to try and keep Hannah: Something that we are really things regular so you keep the reach up on focused on is making the most of every Facebook. That is when those anniversary opportunity we have to communicate posts come in handy. with the fans. Even when he is doing very traditional marketing like TV, we always tie Email marketing is broken into two about not pushing to buy too hard. There it into a lyric video was quite an interesting it in with digital and put posts on Facebook main channels and video is a powerful always has to be something interesting like thing for us to do and the fans really and put spend behind them to maximise the hook a competition or a new video. We did a lyric responded to it. reach. When he is touring we will be doing video for him last year, which was his first Hannah: There are a couple of different He is generally very busy touring and so the same. We will just keep engaging the fans lyric video. It came out of nowhere from mailing lists. There is one that will receive the video content we get tends to be tour- as much as possible so that, if and when the the fan perspective but it got a really good anything about Cliff – so particularly the tour related. It veers more in that direction 101st album comes out, we have an engaged response. or updates in his online store. Then there is compared to a more traditional promo video. fanbase who are ready and waiting. It [had more engagement than a normal one that is more about the music and that We set up a shoot to get some content for video] because in the last six years I have will include when he has live DVD releases. the TV ad and whenever we do that we Online is steadily expanding his worked with him, he hasn’t done that many We try not to over-hit the fans. We want to make sure we have cameras filming behind audience new music videos. The catalogue has always make sure we are going for quality over the scenes and do little interviews so you performed very well and then there are Hannah: We are seeing a growth in the quantity. We will make sure they get the can make something social out of what is shorter clips from the studio and behind the under-35s and even males as well. It’s safe news as soon as there is an announcement essentially a TV ad. It makes it much more scenes. Taking a classic song and turning to say his audience is dominated by females and then follow up on that. Again, it is engaging for fans. We did two pieces for The Issue 101 | 29th January 2014 | Page 10 continued…
Fabulous Rock ‘n’ Roll Songbook. They were Retail partnerships are starting to tilt huge for his audience as well. On Spotify, we other similar campaigns he has done shared on Facebook and the fans loved it as it from traditional outlets to digital ones will often post links to albums and playlists. recently. It shows that that supermarket felt like a message from Cliff direct to them. He had a very successful December on audience is growing digitally and they are Julie: We did two in-store signings at HMV Spotify with his Christmas catalogue. That is interested in engaging with someone like It was very nice to be able to have a YouTube in Manchester and Birmingham. We also did where we have seen growth in the under-35s Cliff online. channel that was set up a few years ago. For a Blinkbox station with Tesco. He is always and males as well. It was mostly organic. this campaign, we remarketed to fans who really well supported by all the supermarkets Mobile is slowly emerging as an effective had already watched his videos and we have because that is really where his fanbase is. For this campaign, Cliff created a playlist got really impressive click-through rates and for Blinkbox. They were the playlist marketing channel Hannah: We did an instant grat with iTunes, shares. We were able to tap into known Cliff partner for this campaign so he didn’t do Julie: Blinkbox promoted the station on which gave us another nice piece of fans on a digital channel like YouTube that anything specifically for Spotify. It’s part their social channels and in a mail out. It messaging to give out to fans so that if they perhaps you wouldn’t necessarily associate of a conversation that is ongoing and we was also on their home page. In addition to did want to buy the album digitally they with Cliff fans, but it shows that they are definitely want to do more of that with Cliff. that, they ran a chart posted in-store that could get one track straight away. We also there. The Blinkbox radio show he did performed contained a QR code. It pushed people who did lighting deals with Amazon. Amazon is really well, especially compared to some were physically in the supermarket to go to the Blinkbox station. We could then retweet the messaging and post it on Cliff’s Facebook page. It was very much a shared effort. Hannah: We did a really interesting campaign with AdMaxim which was very targeted – specifically at females over 50, who are growing in their mobile use, especially accessing the internet on mobile. We got really great results. You could watch the TV ad on your mobile. There were very competitive view rates. It converted really well. Issue 101 | 29th January 2014 | Page 11 MUSIC CHARTS Daft Punk Grammys special All data is taken from Musicmetric: www.musicmetric.com
The big winners at the Chart 1 Grammys on Sunday, Daft Punk Green = Total Purple = Facebook got five awards and had one Blue = YouTube of the best performances of the night, helped in no short measure by the presence of Pharrell, Nile Rodgers and Stevie Wonder on stage with them. How that translated into social and online activity was, however, somewhat curious and Chart 2 fractured. Dark blue = Vevo Chart 1 looks at social media fans and it’s Light blue = YouTube = SoundCloud obvious that the Grammys on the 26th Pink of January triggered a massive spike the – but SoundCloud and YouTube appeared, following day, with new fans jumping 259% certainly when looked at over the previous (adding 46,216 fans overnight), bringing their month, to stay reasonably flat. total social fanbase to 15,090,295. Most of This all suggests that video is not exactly that came from Facebook (up 278%, adding a powerful driver for the group overall and 43,787 new fans to a total Facebook fanbase that Facebook is where fans are gravitating. of 11,529,140). Despite historically having striking promo There was, however, barely a flicker in their videos, they have taken something of a back YouTube fans, rising only by 196 on the day seat for the Random Access Memories album after the Grammys. campaign, a factor which may help explain this. When looking at Chart 2, there is a similar underwhelming uptick in video (and audio) streams. Vevo saw a slight bounce of 64% Sandbox is published by Music Ally. Music Ally is a music business DIGITAL MARKETING SERVICES Contact Music Ally: information and strategy company. We focus on the change taking place 22 Peters Lane in the industry and provide information and insight into every aspect Campaign support services: London of the business: consumer research analysing the changing behaviour • Strategy EC1M 6DS and trends in the industry, consultancy services to companies ranging • CRM and Email tools Tel: +44 (0)20 7253 7600 from blue chip retailers and telecoms companies to start-ups; and • Digital housekeeping www.MusicAlly.com training around methods to digitally market your artists and maximise • Social networking updates [email protected] the effectiveness of digital campaigns as well as events. We are now • Search and online advertising Registered company number: 04525243 also offering digital marketing services to labels, artist managers, artists • Mobile applications VAT number: 858212321 and other music related companies from campaign advice and strategy through to implementation and execution. • Blogs and online PR outreach • Measuring campaign effectiveness Clients include: Contact Karim - [email protected] or +44 (0)20 72537600 Apple, BBC, EMI, MTV, O2, Orange, Sony BMG, Tesco, to discuss your digital marketing needs. Universal Music, Vodafone, Warner Music, Roadrunner Records, © Music Ally Ltd. For the purposes of personal, private Just Music and Connected Artists use the subscriber may print this publication or move Training services: it to a storage medium; however, this publication is If you have a digital campaign related story for SandBox, intended for subscribers only and as such may not • In house company mentoring be redistributed without permission. Subscribers please contact [email protected] • Workshops agree to terms and conditions set up on the Music Ally website, except where a separate contract takes • Digital briefings precedence. Music Ally has taken all reasonable If you’d like to talk to us about our digital marketing/mentoring • Digital MOT sessions endeavours to ensure the validity of all items reported training services, consultancy or specific research services, within this document. We do not assume, and hereby please contact Karim Fanous [email protected] Music Ally has delivered digital marketing training sessions for a disclaim, any liability for loss or damage caused by wide range of clients including Universal Music, EMI, AIM/London errors or omissions. In particular the content is not intended to be relied upon in making (or refraining Connected and many individuals If you’d like to subscribe, add new subscribers, or talk about from making) investments or other decisions. We cannot be held responsible for the contents of any a corporate deal please contact [email protected] Check out Music Ally’s digital marketing courses here linked sites.
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