Case Study: the sound of Scion
Unless you live in the US Scion might be a new name to you, but this car brand developed by Toyota, like their other sub-brand Lexus, is aimed at a very distinct target audience, but in this case the young car buyer. Scion’s mission is to “provide distinctive products, the opportunity to personalize, and an...
VV Brown : Banner Ad
Now I am not a big fan of banner ads from music companies. The belief that a banner will lead to immediate sales ( behold the one-click sales strategy) is thankfully being seen for what it is. Merely the pitch of a Direct Marketing company selling their wares. As click-through rates disappear out of sight,...
Breaking News: Iggy Pop is an Actor not a Musician
So it seems that those lovely people at Swift Cover Insurance don’t like musicians. Too much of an insurance risk they say. So it leads you to wonder why they chose Iggy Pop to front their ads… According to Channel 4 News, their spokesperson said it is because Iggy is an actor who loves life...
The sound of…the humble spud?
The Potato Council of Great Britain have decided to promote the National Chip Week with a new website lovechips.co.uk and to further their cause they have persuaded former children’s TV presenter Keith Chegwin to write a little song to celebrate the humble chip called “Cheggars Chip Tune”. Said song is so bad this may be...
Duffy to put the fizz back into Diet Coke?
The Coca Cola company, who you might expect to be a bit of a pariah for many ‘credible’ musicians, managed to tempt the White Stripes Jack Black into creating a unique soundtrack for their advertising in 2006, have now persuaded the biggest selling UK artist of 2008 to become the new face of the brand....
No record labels on iTunes
Is is just me or has anyone else noticed that out of the 37 categories that you can sort the music in your iTunes library by, not one of them is by the record label. While at the iTunes store things aren’t much better. At least it does tell you which label any specific track...
Brand opportunities are the ones that never knock?
Over the last 12 months the wind has changed and managers, like record labels, are looking to develop new revenue streams around their artists to replace the declining revenues from CD sales. Some of new mantras that you hear being bandied about in the music industry include 360 degree deals, a new DIY ethic, Venture...
Strange Bedfellows?
Music and politics aren’t always the easiest of bedfellows. When artists get it right (be it Woody Guthrie or the Last Poets) it can be truly inspirational, but when done badly (do I really need to give examples?) it can do a lot more than just make you cringe. However, it doesn’t seem to stop...
Unsigned resigned – the on-going saga…
It seems that brands are literally all at it. It’s now Intel’s turn to go down the unsigned route with their ‘Intel studio‘ initiative. But unlike the myriad of other ‘battle of the bands’ competitions around at the minute does it offer anything new or different? Our intrepid citizen reports… Intel is the latest brand...
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The Feelings Mutual
Tennents have been a big supporter of live music for some time. Their T In The Park festival has been around since 1994, and has been a massive success for bands, fans and the brand alike. But with so many big branded festivals around (V, O2 Wireless, Carling…) how do you stand out in a...
AC/DC in Walmart: For Those About To Shop…
So AC/DC, the scourge of the religious right in the U.S. and conservative parents everywhere, with albums such as Highway to Hell and Back to Black, have struck an exclusive deal with WalMart in the U.S. to distribute their music…and some of their hardcore fans are either furious or in shock. The issue of WalMart’s...
Do they mean us?
“They’re almost all terrible-hideous, out of date and boring – and the last place you’d go to find anything of use.” What could ‘Music Magazine of the Year’, The Word, be talking about in their Worst Things About The Internet feature, this month? A crime so hideous that it’s up there with spam, pointless registration...