citizensound at the Venice Festival of Media 2008
citizensound has just got back from the Venice Festival of Media. Great three days, which started with the Welcome drinks. We caught up with Maarten Steinkamp and Soeren Hinsch from SonyBMG along with some friends from Havas Media Madrid Meanwhile, Nick Watt (citizen 02) shared a joke with Marcel Engh of SonyBMG
Not too Leftfield for a sync deal…
Neil Barnes, co-founder of the rather excellent but sadly missed Leftfield, has produced the music for the new Audi TV ad, which debuted on UK TV last week. For the track, Barnes has teamed up with former Leftfield producer Nick Rapaccioli. The advert sonically interpreted the movements of gymnasts, using undulating beats and rhythms, mixed...
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Venice Festival Of Media : Brands Do… Or Die!
The rise of DIY culture is not restricted to the music industry. Brands know that they have to earn their place in the consumer’s life. Improved insight on how to gain and build trust is ever more important. A full page advert that states how wonderful the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility policy is, will not...
Venice Festival Of Media : DIY and the music industry
The Music Industry is going through a time of repositioning, where record labels, concert promotors, music distributors, digital retailers and artist managers are vying for the position as the one-stop shop for their clients – the artists. CD sales are falling fast while people are paying inflated prices to see their favourite band live. Artists...
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Sonic Retail Rant 4: The Sound of Silence
In the citizensound sonicRetail survey, we found a few stores decided on a policy of a music-free zone in–store. Shops such as Church’s shoes had the sound of people talking and shoes being squeezed on to feet, nothing more. And this worked for the environment and the clientele. A sense of calm away from...
Brave Brands: / Sonic Branding: / Sonic Retail: / Sound & Vision: / The kind of stuff citizensound does:
Sonic Retail Rant 3: Is Mango the Westlife of Fashion Stores?
Mango stores are the sonic version of vanilla ice cream. After a while you are yearning for mint choc chip, raspberry, peach or mango even…anything but vanilla…I have to ask the question – what is the point of having music in store if the music is so bland? It got me thinking… If Mango...
Sonic Retail Rant 2 – GAP vs HSBC
In our first post on the sound of the brand at retail, citizensound mentioned the lack of investment that seems to go into sound within the retail space. This comes in part from a marketing focus on the visual when it comes to financial commitment. The sense of sight dominates marketing decisions – the logo;...
Sonic Retail Rant 1: What is the sound of your brand?
The magazine Media & Marketing ran a few features on Brands and Music in their February issue that are worth a read, including some thoughts from citizensound. Also published within the magazine was an article I wrote on the sound of retail environments. citizensound carried out an extensive survey at the end of 2007 early...
Venice Festival Of Media 2008
Citizensound were invited by the Venice Festival Of Media organisers C Squared, to deliver a session at last year’s inaugural event, entitled ‘Brand, Bands and Fans’. We ran a panel session with esteemed band managers Pete Jenner of Sincere Management and Gary McClarnan of Sparklestreet. The aim of the session was to discuss how Brands...
Battle of the B®ands?
In almost twenty years as an A&R person in the record industry I've seen plenty of Battle Of The Bands competitions come and go. Did I ever think to show any interest in any of the artists that came through these competitions, not really. Was I unusual, certainly not. So why is the music industry...
Where do brands add value?
Once you know where the artists and their fans ‘draw the line’, you then need to know where you can add value. Because in this day and age unless you add value to the music experience that you are creating (or buying into) you are unlikely to gain any real value from participating. One of...
Where does the artist draw the line?
When it comes to musicians, never ever make assumptions. Just because they are in a pop band, don’t assume that they won’t have ethics. And just because they are highly ethical, that they won’t get involved with brands. As the old saying goes, assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups! Music is sensitive territory… “There...