05 Tools Bandcamp subscription 06-07 Campaigns Virtual reality, Black Hole Recordings, DI-RECT 08-10 Behind The Campaign Royal Blood

NOVEMBER 19 2014 sandboxMUSIC MARKETING FOR THE DIGITAL ERA ISSUE 121

The 10 worst ideas in digital marketing COVERFEATURE There are hundreds of excellent ideas in digital marketing, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of stinkers too. As marketers figure out new platforms, understand what artists’ fans are doing online and test out new concepts, there are bound to be some that don’t work. Or, to be honest, which never look like working right from the start even if this is obvious to everyone except the person who came up with the idea and controls the budget. This week, we explore some of those disasters-in-waiting, one by one.

igital music marketing does - as regular sandbox readers will know - throw up Dsome brilliant ideas: campaigns that enthral, entertain and sell music, all in one. These – as you might imagine – are the ideas that we like to concentrate on - practical ideas that will inspire you as you go about your working day. But we wouldn’t be human if everything we did was perfect: the flipside to this fascinating sector are those niggling, stupid and/or annoying ideas that raise their heads from time to time. The 10 Worst ideas So, this week we’re suspending our usually-positive outlook in order to explore 10 of the worst ideas in digital marketing, from forced signups to “interactive turd graphics”, chosen by some of the savviest in digital marketing digital marketers, label bosses and artist

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Tweets and generally make 5) Snapchat, short your life a pleasure. They should attention spans not, then, ever be neglected. But and dumbing down a marketing campaign that only appeals to this hardcore base is, “Let’s start from the frankly, a little pointless. And yet, viewpoint that people are according to one exasperated not stupid and they have marketer, this still happens a lot. attention spans beyond “A basic error is to undertake 10 seconds,” starts a marketing strategy that is only one marketer, briefly ever going to appeal to the hardcore optimistic before the red fans who are already sold on your mist descends. artist in the first place,” he says, “ Snapchat and sighing loudly. “Again, things to services like it are not in themselves a keep fans connected are absolutely fine - problem as they can provide exciting teasers but it’s surprising the number of times I see and are good for something exclusive you managers in the business. Many of whom you do on Facebook then you’re missing something that only existing fans would don’t want to hang around for long. But have chosen to remain anonymous, the point.” connect with, and which therefore does Snapchat could be symptomatic of a more unsurprisingly. nothing to go beyond that and connect worrying trend towards constantly playing 2) Forced signups MORE fans.” to the idea of instant gratification and 1) Bandwagon jumping disposability of content. and dead platforms “My number one bugbear is any idea that 4) Requesting artists post “Again it comes back to the patronising forces fans to sign up to a new service,” about other artists on idea that everyone has tiny attention “One thing brands need to stop doing is explains one marketer through gritted their social media spans these days and instead of creating creating profiles on every new platform teeth. “It is more hoops to get people something rich and meaningful (and more immediately, regardless of whether jumping through and it just doesn’t ever “I am constantly approached for an artist expensive), it becomes more prudent to catch they have an individual strategy for that work if the end objective is to go beyond with a decent social media following them with something cheap and flashy. platform and without regard for whether the core fan base and get the word to post about an artist with a not-so- Fast food as opposed to a nourishing meal. or not it fits their particular brand,” one spreading. If it’s something like an app big following, usually about a release We’ve started to believe the lie that enraged marketer says. aimed squarely at fans first and foremost completely unrelated to them,” says one music consumers are not intelligent, “There is a plethora of platforms out (e.g. the Alt-J album stream app) then marketer, right at the end of their tether. complex people that will ‘get it’ when there for a reason: they all, in theory, have I think that’s fine - but I never cease to “It is an archaic approach that is you do something more complicated and a USP. If that USP (and the platform in be amazed at the number of marketing obvious to fans a mile off – artists marketers become more afraid to take that general) has a specific use for you then by initiatives that are sold as ‘all you need to hate being asked to post and it risk. Music and the marketing surrounding all means use it, but one thing I hate do is install X on your phone and create an really seems a crude marketing it should be daring and risk taking and to see is an internet littered with account’.” practice with limited cut engaging, that’s how you push the dead profiles all saying the same through. Unless both artists boundaries of what’s possible.” thing, we didn’t think it through . 3) Initiatives which only are relevant to the release in “Being the first to try something appeal to the hardcore fans question - let’s all agree to 6) Pirate Bay promotions interesting on a platform and innovating end it now.” can be really great if you have a plan, but Your biggest fans are great: they buy The relationship between the Pirate if you’re joining Ello to post exactly what your music, go to your gigs, favourite your Bay and the music industry has

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been fractious to say the last, including 10) “Interactive turd graphics” court battles, legal action and general mudslinging. And yet, remarkably, some musicians still want to work with the site, which launched dedicated promotional platform The Promo Bay in January 2012. Some bands - such as Swedish pop act Rednex in 2010 - have gone even further, releasing music exclusively with the Pirate Bay in the aim of generating legal sales and streams.“To my surprise this has happened many, many times with various artists,” says one correspondent of what is their pet hate. “Rednex’ Cotton Eye Joe has over 15m paid streams on Spotify, the Pirate Bay song Devils On The Loose has “There is only one bad idea as far as I 45,000.” can see when marketing music digitally - and that’s thinking that if you surround 7) The “enigmatic” something that’s rubbish, in lots of fancy label briefing digital packaging, people will think it’s wonderful. They won’t,” says Jesus Jones “My pet hate is when a label comes to us 9) “That” U2 album giveaway manager Iain Baker. “‘Ah, look kids, here’s and says ‘have you got any ideas for Band something great!’ ‘No, it’s a turd.’ ‘But - it’s X’ and that’s *all* the info they give us,” Most of the pet hates we received from a digitally remastered turd, with exclusive says Syd Lawrence, co founder of We Make exasperated marketers were fairly general interactive turd graphics, and web links to Awesome Sh… “The same thing doesn’t - repeated, infuriating requests that had thousands of other, similar turds.’ Other work for all artists, give us some form of worn on their nerves over the years. But specifics - USB sticks, flashing badges, insight, what’s the album about, who are with the recent controversy over U2’s anything ‘wacky’, whatever. You might as the fans etc etc etc.” Songs of Innocence iTunes promotion well be approaching your target audience still fresh in the memory, it was perhaps wearing a shirt which says ‘I AM OLD.’” 8) Facebook tabs not a surprise it came up. One label boss explains, “As a U2 Bonus beefs “I have to flag any campaign that involves and Apple fan myself I believe Facebook tabs,” says one marketer of fans want to pay for the quality Exclusive album streamzzzzz; “building their “massive, massive pet hate”. “Several they get but they want to make an app that is just responsive website”; people we’ve been working with recently their own decisions. mobile push links that don’t work; “people have tried to set up campaigns directing “The most funny twist on talking to an audience about digital music fans to Facebook tabs to download a timeline format for pages and much more this marketing stunt was the marketing who have no idea how to track, sign up for something, get news of importantly given that they don’t even program Apple developed and engage an audience”; and “the daft thing a big announcement first etc etc. Which exist on mobile while 80% of users in the released specifically for upset @twitter are doing where people you don’t is of course crazy given that tabs lost all US and UK use Facebook on mobile…Time users, so that they were able to follow appear in your timeline”. :) relevance when Facebook introduced the to move on from tabs, people… let it go.” delete the album.”

4 | sandbox | Issue 121 | 19.11.14 TOOLS BANDCAMP SUBSCRIPTIONS

Six years after launching, Bandcamp has may seem like a niche, paid out $87m to independent artists, and although how much built a catalogue of 12m tracks and 1.6m depends on the size of the albums. Now it’s continuing to innovate artist that uses them, and with the launch of its new subscriptions how strong a bond they feature for artists. have forged with their fans. That means a subscription for fans to There is certainly show their ongoing support for individual potential for these artists, with the 10-15% service fee subscriptions to slot charges that Bandcamp clients are in to wider windowing familiar with. strategies, with artists Artists get to set the price of their making new music subscriptions, with paying fans getting available to their access to all new material as it is released Bandcamp subscribers – both in download form but also to for a week or more before stream from the Bandcamp app, which is putting it up for general growing in popularity. sale or streaming. Artists also have the option to include sandbox also sees as many back catalogue releases as more scope for these they like when a fan signs up, as well as subscriptions when they could be getting artist – when you go from liking them to subscriptions to be making some new material exclusive to the global jukebox – minus the odd being a real true fan of theirs – at some promoted from within the streaming subscribers. holdout – from a subscription streaming point you just want everything they make. services. Currently, fans can use Spotify to One of the first artists to test this service? Because Bandcamp’s community You just want to support everything that discover artists, then find related tickets out is Candy Says , who are offering a is made up of superfans who want to they do,” said CEO Ethan Diamond as the and merchandise through partnerships £20 annual subscription for new music, support their favourite artists, there’s new feature launched. with Songkick and BandPage. selected back catalogue and exclusive a similarity between Bandcamp’s users Bandcamp’s new subscriptions What’s missing is a link to other subscriber-only releases. and those artists on aren’t just an alternative to traditional D2C services like Bandcamp, as well as Bandcamp is expecting artists to test a PledgeMusic, with both communities crowdfunding on and crowdfunding. Why couldn’t Spotify range of prices. We’ll be interested to see proudly wearing their artist-support PledgeMusic, which tends to focus point fans towards an artist’s Bandcamp how this affects release cycles for bands badges on their virtual blazers. But we on one-off campaigns rather than subscription, then bring those downloads that are charging fans annually: will they also think that a handful of Bandcamp continuous funding. Closer comparisons back into Spotify via its local music feel the pressure to release something subscriptions will complement, not are with , which provides ongoing feature? new regularly, and if so, what would the replace, a subscription to a service like micro-funding for creators, and Drip. It’s early days for Bandcamp’s new consequences be of an unfruitful (in Spotify or Deezer. fm, which powers subscriptions for feature, but it will be watched closely by recording terms) year? “The whole motivation here is that independent labels and a few artists. more than the artists using it, and the Will fans buy several artist when you get to a point that you love an Artist-specific subscription services fans paying for their music. :)

5 | sandbox | Issue 121 | 19.11.14 CAMPAIGNS The latest projects from the digital marketing arena THE SURGE OF VIRTUAL REALITY

The project wants to, according be found throughout the rooms. to the video description, offer The app includes hidden viewers an opportunity to interactive features as well as the ‘wander space freely’. The video, ticketing information and dedicated website for other Amex Unstaged events. the video can be found on The American Express Unstaged www.eyesinspace.com and is event is a partnership with Vevo proof that less commercial artists and includes previous artists such like Gonzalez also can test the as Tim McGraw, Mary Lambert water with new technology. and Usher. The Experience is a So far, the site has notched up free download with purchase 157,000 visitors. links available within the Virtual reality projects seem to be on trend lately. Now, if you thought you app. It certainly seems to be From Beck’s live 3D experience to Japanese star would get a break from Taylor appreciated by Swift’s dedicated Kumi Koda’s Oculus Rift video, the music industry Swift this week – well, you fans and seems to have won has seen a renewed surge of virtual activity. would be wrong. The new app over a few new fans, inspiring American Express Unstaged: comments such as “amazingly sandbox takes a look at the latest campaigns public. The app is however an interesting move and Taylor Swift Experience was gorgeous” and “phenomenal and including The Who, José Gonzalez and Taylor Swift. a clever way to explore virtual reality further while released last week for Android, captivating” on the App Store. The Who have teamed up with developer showing that legacy acts can offer added value iPhone and iPad. The app offers Facebook’s purchase of Oculus Immersive to launch an app for their 50th for fans through innovation rather than just re- an interactive video experience Rift earlier this year seems to anniversary compilation album and upcoming tour. releasing old material. – just as with Gonzalez’s video have sparked an interest in the The app is free, available for both tablet and mobile, Swedish indie artist José Gonzalez is also flirting – shot with 360°-tech which development of virtual reality and contains a 3D world experience that includes with Oculus Rift experiences. Gonzalez partnered allows the user to explore the experiences. As technology imagery and music from The Who’s long career. The with directors Simon Morris and Chris Higham and house, objects and characters develops it becomes increasingly upcoming tour will contribute to adding experiences created a music video for his lead single ‘Every that feature in Swift’s latest difficult to keep fans interested and features to the app. Age’ from his new album Vestiges & Claws due on video ‘Blank Space’. The so before the novelty wears off The band is also working on an app developed 16th February. The video uses 360° technology Experience is an extension of the there is still a space for music for Oculus Rift to be released in 2015. The Oculus and allows the user to switch between different interactive video with a mix of to with these types Rift app will most likely be a scarce experience for perspectives of the earth (think Google Earth). The interactivity and a simple game of experiences and learn as the a lucky few, as the headset isn’t yet on sale to the video also has an option for Oculus Rift integration. with 41 collectible items that can industry develops.

6 | sandbox | Issue 121 | 19.11.14 CAMPAIGNS The latest projects from the digital marketing arena BLACK HOLE RECORDINGS CHARGES IN TWITTER FOLLOWERS DI-RECT WANTS YOUR SEX TAPES

Once uploaded to the site via WeTransfer the tapes will then be cut and directed by Frank van der Steen for the single ‘You & I’ . The band states however Dutch dance label Black Hole Recordings is Bas Kruijssen, new media manager that the video has to contain real taking digital payment one step further – for Black Hole Recordings was looking love and that the participants accepting payments in tweets. for original ways to grow the Twitter need to be older than 18. community. “I thought giving away products The project was inspired by In theory, it’s a similar format to a tweet- should be client-based and not company Cindy Gallop’s TED talk ‘Make to-unlock campaign albeit with a clever based: clients must be able to choose for Love Not Porn’ – a project setup and design for an added experience themselves what they want” says Kruijssen. dedicated to show how real for the viewer. The user can go over to When sandbox spoke to Kruijssen the people make love instead of www.blackholepopupstore.com and then store had just launched and had already had The Dutch are keeping busy this week the hardcore porn images enter a shop and browse between tracks, hundreds of customers purchasing products with innovative campaigns. Rock band constantly circulating online. ringtones, wallpapers and digital booklets leading to a surge of followers on Twitter. It DI-RECT is using to find Whether or not you’re ready to share from various different artists including Ferry can certainly prove to be an effective method some raunchy material for their new the love it’s a bold move by the band - Corsten, Tiesto and New World Punx. for improving the company’s Twitter base. video – the band is sourcing willing and certainly a creative way to produce Once the user wants to purchase an Blackhole Recordings is looking to allow people’s sex tapes. a positive result of a topic that often is item they click on the buy button and get other companies to rent the store after this controversial. redirected to a composed tweet. In order to campaign and provide better insights and Instead of using a third-party DI-RECT have a long career behind them go through with the payment the user must relationships with fans. “We provide all crowdsourcing platform the band has stretching from 1999 including a change of follow @Blackholerec on Twitter and include manpower, software, technology and we instead chosen a project website www. frontman along the way. The band released the hashtag #paywithatweet. Once the offer social media marketing 2.0: we turn love-tapes.com. The project is described their seventh album Daydreams In A tweet is done a download link will be sent to followers into customers and we provide as a “visual love experiment” and “a visual Blackout in April and are set for another tour the user’s Twitter message inbox. relevant marketing data.” Says Kruijssen. experiment with real people, real love”. in The Netherlands starting in February.

7 | sandbox | Issue 121 | 19.11.14 MAINFEATURE BEHIND THE CAMPAIGN ROYAL BLOOD

8 | SANDBOX | Issue XX | DATE XXXX BEHIND THE CAMPAIGNROYAL BLOOD

Royal Blood’s rise in the UK has been rapid. In under a year, they have gone from unsigned to scoring one of the fastest-selling debut albums of 2014. Jen Ivory, VP of marketing at Warner Bros Records UK, explains why everything spun off from their live shows, why email marketing is key for a band like this, how iTunes threw its weight behind them and why starting with really low social media numbers was not seen as a problem.

Targeting the tastemakers with a sold out in minutes. Their second self-released single headline tour in March also sold out We signed the band back in in minutes. September 2013. They hadn’t put We have had a video company anything out but during that time follow them since their tour in they were looking for labels they February and we have documented were pretty hotly contested. Once loads of stuff. There are no plans they signed to us, and in discussions for it at the moment but it’s good to with us, they put out ‘Out Of The capture things for posterity. Black’ and that was the song all the Everything about them is live. Our tastemaker media picked up on. That TV ads for them are just live footage. helped them get onto the long list for No video footage. Everything is the BBC Sound Of 2014 poll and they capturing the live energy they put out. had done that on their own. For every festival slot they had, They released ‘Out Of The Black’ we had virals going about when they on their own label – Black Mammoth were playing – so every tent was Records – which was something they utterly packed when they played. It were going to do anyway before they was about repeating the message signed. They put that out on 7-inch they were the best live band in the and on iTunes in November last year. country at the moment. Then there were three singles [on It was festivals all summer long Warner] leading into the album – – they had no headline gigs over ‘ Little Monster ’ in February, ‘Come the summer. Festivals were at the On Over’ in April and ‘Figure It Out’ in weekends, but during the week we’d August. Then it was the album. do a lot of social media pushes on Facebook and Twitter. Every festival was captured so Live as the core focus to build their name we put together little virals for each festival The major part of the campaign was the live and seeded that out to the fanbase to help plot and our release structure was around increase the following. their live plot. They consciously didn’t play It was a very conscious decision from a lot of shows because they knew festivals the beginning to not do any gimmick were the way to build their live following. marketing – to not do anything that was They did a UK tour in February that they going to just build numbers. That was not didn’t headline, then it was the NME tour the point. Every piece of content we built, where they were middle of the bill and then which we had been doing for a year, is all it was the festivals. Their first ever headline about their live scene. The first video we tour started at the end of October and had out for them was completely in a club

9 | sandbox | Issue 121 | 19.11.14 BEHIND THE CAMPAIGNROYAL BLOOD in Sheffield that was done in one day. It mailers to remind everyone that tickets were why the sales were around 50/50 [digital was very true to who they are. on sale, the album pre-order was up, videos and physical]. were coming and so on. Being a rock band, it’s really important Social media took a back seat at the start to push formats. For Rough Trade, we did a They had a few tracks on SoundCloud. Mike Defining the visual aesthetic white vinyl exclusively and a Rough Trade [Kerr, bassist/singer] from the band sent a There is a clear visual creative going through in-store. Those 1,000 vinyl records sold out track to a blog called Live Forever and Phil all the campaign. That aesthetic was there really quickly. On the D2C site, we had signed Christie [Warner Records UK A&R], who at from day one. At the beginning it was their vinyl and they all went in a few days. For the time was at Warner/Chappell, found friend Harry Robbins, who is a tattoo artist Amazon, we did a competition to win a trip Mike and signed them [to a publishing deal]. in Brighton, where they are also from. He did to see the band in New York. For HMV, we Phil helped them get in touch with lawyers the singles and it has all been very strong did postcards with the album for the first and put them in touch with managers – and imagery. For the album, it was done by an week only. Across the board, we had a pretty they eventually signed with Wild Life. Then artist called Daniel Hillier who had a similar at Glastonbury and we aggressive pre-order call out. they signed to Warner. aesthetic but just brought it more to life. had an instant grat for We had 22,000 pre-orders on the album, They had social media profiles but Mike from the band chose an existing piece ‘Out Of The Black’. That which is up there with Sam Smith and a weren’t particularly active on them at the he had done and worked with him to create was the track they few other big acts. For a debut album it was time. There weren’t massive numbers of the final album artwork. put out before they huge. We did 66,000 in week one. It’s now followers on there at all. We do it with them were on Warner so we up to over 150,000 sales. It was #1 in week now and put a lot more effort into it. There Using live to push the album pre-order took it down and that one and #2 in week two, missing #1 by 1,000 is Facebook, Instagram , SoundCloud and What I wanted was to have a very became our pre-order sales, so it wasn’t like it was fanbase-only Twitter. The numbers were not huge [at the aggressive pre-order plan because the buzz instant grat. We did and then the bottom dropped out. In its first start] and they were signed on the back of about the band was permeating through a Ones To Watch with iTunes in July and we four weeks, it was top five and since then we how good they are. A lot of bands spend a the country. We put the pre-order up the got coverage for two weeks from that. haven’t been out of the top 20. year getting the social numbers up, which is weekend before Glastonbury. In May, they Then we have a Discovering Royal Blood We streamed all the singles and the the right thing to do. But that is not how it opened for Arctic Monkeys at Finsbury Park feature where we took them into iTunes, album was streaming from the day it came worked here at all. [London]. Then they did Radio One’s Big they met everybody and did an interview on out. They did a Spotify session that was We did a Facebook fan page where we Weekend in Glasgow on the smallest stage their influences. Then, the week before the global. That was before the album came out. encouraged fans to upload their photos and ever. Just because they are popular doesn’t album, we had a global pre-release stream iTunes had the pre-stream and Spotify had videos of the band. So it was harnessing it mean you have to move them up to big on iTunes. In the UK, we basically had iTunes the live session. :) as opposed to pushing it out. You know a stages or move them up to bigger slots at coverage pretty regularly. We discussed band is getting popular when you get sent the festivals. They are where they are for a all that with them in advance. Bringing the videos of kids playing their songs. There was reason. They will get there. band into the iTunes offices really helped. a lot of that. There is still a lot of that. It also created a frenzy. Arctic Monkeys Discovering… was new this year and they We did put out a free track for email was packed and by the time Glastonbury were the flag-bearers for that. They had addresses. All the digital stuff around them came about, at 2pm on a Saturday, you done something similar with Damon Albarn, is brilliant, but a rock band needs a strong couldn’t get near the tent and it was the talk although it wasn’t the exact same thing. mailing list. That is the way you get to the of the weekend. The album was £6.99 on iTunes for pre- audience. I wanted to reinforce getting a order but we did raise the price a few weeks mailing list together. We started from zero, How iTunes proved a key marketing after. We had a really aggressive pre-order but by the time the album came out we had platform – on repeat campaign with iTunes based on price, but 12,000 addresses and now we have around We had a whole campaign with iTunes from we also had an equally aggressive pre-order 20,000. We were constantly putting out the pre-order time. We put the pre-order up campaign across other retailers and that is

10 | sandbox | Issue 121 | 19.11.14 ABOUTSANDBOX

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Universal Music, Warner Music, Campaign support services: CONTACT Sony Music, Spotify, Deezer, • Strategy Ignition, Beggars, Modest, Red Bull, • CRM and Email tools  Studio 11, Holborn Studios 49-50 Eagle Wharf Rd Shazam, Domino and more • Digital housekeeping • Social networking updates London N1 7ED • Search and online advertising If you have a digital campaign ☎ +44 (0)20 7250 3637 • Mobile applications related story for sandbox, • Blogs and online PR outreach  www.MusicAlly.com please contact Nikoo Sadr on Published by music:)ally. • Measuring campaign  [email protected] [email protected] effectiveness music:)ally is a music business If you’d like to talk to us about our Registered company number: information and strategy company. Contact Karim Fanous on 04525243 digital marketing/mentoring [email protected] or We focus on the change taking training services, consultancy or +44 (0)20 7250 3637 to discuss VAT number: 858212321 place in the industry and provide specific research services, please your digital marketing needs. © Music Ally Ltd. For the purposes of information and insight into every contact Karim Fanous on [email protected] personal, private use the subscriber may aspect of the business: consumer Training services: print this publication or move it to a research analysing the changing • In house company mentoring storage medium; however, this publication behaviour and trends in the If you’d like to subscribe, add • Workshops is intended for subscribers only and as new subscribers, or talk about • Digital briefings such may not be redistributed without industry, consultancy services to permission. companies ranging from blue chip a corporate deal please contact • Digital MOT sessions retailers and telecoms companies Anthony Churchman on Subscribers agree to terms and conditions music ally to start-ups; and training around [email protected] music:)ally has delivered digital set up on the :) website, marketing training sessions for except where a separate contract takes methods to digitally market precedence. music:)ally has taken all your artists and maximise the a wide range of clients including reasonable endeavours to ensure the effectiveness of digital campaigns Universal Music, EMI, AIM/London validity of all items reported within this document. as well as events. Connected and many individuals We do not assume, and hereby disclaim, We are now also offering digital Check out music:)ally’s training any liability for loss or damage caused marketing services to labels, artist opportunities here by errors or omissions. In particular the content is not intended to be relied upon managers, artists and other music in making (or refraining from making) related companies from campaign Contact Anthony Churchman on investments or other decisions. We cannot advice and strategy through to [email protected] or be held responsible for the contents of any implementation and execution. +44 (0)20 7250 3637 to discuss linked sites. your training needs

11 | sandbox | Issue 121 | 19.11.14