Dealing with Turntable.fm, A Smart Move for Record Companies

The folks at Turntable.fm got a lot of cooperation and help from the record companies. In an interview with Billboard, co-founder Seth Goldstein had this to say:

“We felt that from the get-go the labels were absolutely different from what I’d been led to believe. They gave us a lot of time and attention. Compared to their user base, we’re a tiny service in the broad scheme of things.”

The notoriously tough-to-deal-with industry seems to have made a one-eighty. I doubt it’s because they felt like being nice. They see something in Turntable.fm.

They see one of the most valuable music marketing tools since Mtv.

Turntable.fm can be used much like Pandora Radio, but instead of The Human Genome Project selecting your next song, it’s another user. It’s the social Pandora. I dare say it’s more social than Spotify combined with Facebook.

It’s pretty simple, a user can be a DJ or a listener. If he’s a DJ, his songs are played alongside the songs of the other DJs. If he’s a listener, he has the option to say a song is “Awesome,” “Lame,” or to just listen. While a song is playing, links to Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, and other services are displayed.

This interactive music listening platform causes music to be the main stimulus rather than a background stimulus.

Turntable.fm won’t be much use to passive listeners who already have Spotify, radio, or Pandora. Therefore, it becomes a community of people who listen to music for an emotional or intellectual experience; active listeners. These are the people who purchase the most music, and they’re often the early adopters.

Turntable.fm also makes music listening more social than ever. It’s the virtual-reality equivalent of being in a club or hanging out with friends, with the main purpose being to share and listen to music. And the whole process is democratic, you can vote whether a song should be played or not. It’s like radio, minus the radio personalities, but your requests get played more often.

The recording industry has been needing something like this. It is the best music discovery tool on the web. It basically uses word-of-mouth to promote music. If it can become as popular as something like Last.fm, the record labels will have made a wise decision. If the listening service flops, they won’t have lost anything.

Related articles

• As expected, Turntable.fm licenses songs from major labels (news.cnet.com)
• Turntable.fm Goes ‘Legit’ With Licenses From All 4 Major Labels (wired.com)

Mad Men Create Awesome Campaign

 

Leave it to the advertising world’s most entertaining historians to twist the latest internet fad into an ingenious advertisement. I’m going to step out on a limb and say this is one of the best social media marketing plans yet. It’s simple to be a part of (to interact), it’s fun to check, the content is constantly fresh, and it is specific to the show itself. It is #Draping (a spin off of Planking). Check out Mad Men’s Draping Tumblr.

Another brilliant idea the Mad Men guys have had recently is offering downloadable Facebook Timeline Covers that look awesome.

I can’t wait for the Mad Men Season 5 premiere on March 25th!

Related articles

• Product Crushes: Mad Men Edition (woodstockwardrobe.com)
• As ‘Mad Men’ Returns, AMC’s Ads Take an Enigmatic Tack (nytimes.com)
• Mad Men: Back (Finally) – And Back to the Future (blogcritics.org)

Dollar Shave Club Does What Every Business Should Do

…They solve a problem or two, and create a brand with huge personality.

I realized I’d better talk about Dollar Shave Club when I found myself clicking the “Back” button on my browser so I could read more about the Humble Twin razor. I already knew that it was the razor I wanted – it’s the cheapest, and it only has two blades (for me, more blades = more irritation) – but I still went back.

I clicked “Back” because the blade was presented with a personality, and I wanted to learn more about that. It’s much like when I meet someone I have something in common with, I want to learn more about them. We all do it.

Beyond the beaming personality presented by Dollar Shave Club is a great business model. They solve a major problem: expensive razors. They also provide convenience in that the razors are automatically mailed each month.

If you want to see some fine marketing in action, check out DollarShaveClub.com. The website talks to you with fantastic energy, and it answers all of your questions (if you mail ordered CDs in the 90s, you’ll understand the second screenshot). You may have already been to the website; Dollar Shave Club’s video went viral last week. Watch it below, and you’ll probably end up watching it twice.

Dollar Shave Club has really started with a bang. It’ll be interesting to see how they keep things going. The company has built a solid brand, but in these times (with social media) it’s also important to listen and interact with customers. If they maintain their brand identity while Retweeting, commenting, and replying to fans, they may put Gillette out of business.

If you’re interested in learning more about the importance of fun in a brand, check this out.

Click right here to see what marketing guru Seth Godin has to say about Dollar Shave Club.

The Future of Online Video

A couple weeks ago, I posted an article about a new category of user-generated content (UGC) called professional user-generated content (PUGC). The concept is pretty simple. Professional user-generated content is that which is produced by an individual or group who wouldn’t normally have the means to broadcast across traditional media for purposes such as professional advancement, profit, commercial, etc. That’s the gist of it. Still, before reading the rest of this post, I recommend you read that post.

With the separate (from UGC) economy of PUGC in mind, I am going to make the claim that video hosting website, Viddler, holds a prominent position in the future of online video.

Online video being produced for professional purposes is beginning to migrate away from UGC sites like Facebook and YouTube. Producers are moving to paid hosts like Viddler for several reasons.

The shift to paid hosting services will really start to happen when professional content creators realize they can either give money to free video hosts like YouTube by directing much of their video-watching traffic to those sites, or they can use something like Viddler (which doesn’t aim to direct traffic back to its own website), keep most of the traffic they’ve generated, and ultimately increase their own profits.

When users watch the videos of individuals who produce content for professional purposes on YouTube, potential and value are lost. It’s a lot like when a million dollar house is built in an area full of 70-thousand dollar houses, the 70-thousand dollar houses go up in value while the million dollar house loses value just by being in the same market area. The same thing happens with web real estate. If Viddler client Gary Vaynerchuk (Wine Library TV, now retired) were to publish alongside skateboarding dog and cute kitty videos on YouTube, his content would lose value, and much would be lost in all the noise.

Another cause for the shift to paid hosting is the large percentage of boring content that fills free hosts like YouTube. Users want what they want when they want it. Only if the content is interesting will users give up control of which specific videos they’re watching. It’s the same reason TV channels that focus on one major attraction, like TBS focuses on comedy, are growing in popularity. Viewers don’t have to jump any hurdles to get close to what they want.

Marketing guru Seth Godin swears by the human tendency to form tribes; groups of people who express much enthusiasm on a topic. The YouTube tribe is made up of people who love YouTube. The NFL tribe is made up of people who love football; the ones who watch the NFL Network (TV channel) all year long. Publishing video through Viddler allows the producer to create its own tribe rather than borrowing people from YouTube’s. People have an innate desire to belong to tribes, Viddler puts the video on the producer’s website or application. This makes it easy for consumers to find and be part of the producer’s tribe.

Any PUGC video host will offer the benefits I mentioned above. I chose Viddler as my example because I believe it has the most potential. They’re known for outstanding customer service. It’s wise to market customer service right now because there is a lot of competition offering very similar features.

Viddler is also my favorite candidate for its ability to innovate. It’s a constantly changing, constantly growing company as far as features go. According to Ian Borg, Viddler’s Product Marketing Manager, they’re the ones who pioneered timed comments and timed video comments. They were also the first to support high quality video and playback on a large video player. These are only some of the many innovations. The folks at Viddler also reached out to another PUGC (predominately) platform by giving users the ability to comment on a video through WordPress. And another PUGC-oriented innovation by Viddler was the branded video player.

Plus, they’ve already got a handful of well known companies as clients. Sony, AOL, Fail Blog, and Engadget are just a few of them.

As you can see, Viddler’s doing a lot of things right. They’re strong contenders in a new market. My prediction about the future of online video, then, is this: Free video hosting sites like YouTube will remain leaders, but only in the UGC market (people posting videos for friends and family). The new market of PUGC video (people posting videos for professional purposes) will expand, and paid hosting services like Viddler will grow substantially. The shift in location of quality video will cause internet users to break up into tribes.

After that, technology will have advanced enough that users will host their own content. No need to worry about that now. We’ll get to it in a few years.

Note: I have worked with social media and online video for the past eight years, but I am aware that nobody can predict the future with 100% accuracy. That said, I hope you’ll share your disagreements and agreements with me in the comments!

Related articles

• A New Way to Look at UGC and Social Media (Important Information) (mediumjoe.wordpress.com)
• Web Video Hosting Strategy for Small Business: Easy vs. Control (noobpreneur.com)
• The Ultimate Glossary: 120 Social Media Marketing Terms Explained (hubspot.com)

NBA All Star Weekend a Marketing Gold Rush, Social Media Innovation

After watching the festivities this weekend, I decided I better write about the magnificence that was NBA All Star Weekend. I kind of wanted to blog about it when I found out viewers would be judging the slam dunk contest through Twitter (and other web outlets). But at that point, I couldn’t come up with much to say other than the NBA will be the next NFL if it keeps up its presence in social media. Now, after watching everything, I’ve got plenty of great things to say about how the NBA handled All Star Weekend.

First of all, it was loaded with entertainment: Kevin Hart (comedian) and Arne Duncan (US Secretary of Defense) kicking butt in the celebrity game, Shaq smack talking Blake Griffin in the rising stars challenge, flashy musical performances by Flo Rida, Nicki Minaj, Pitbull and a handful of others, Jeremy Evans’ two-ball dunk in the #SpriteSlam contest, and top notch hustling by both teams in the all star game.

Built into all the entertainment was fantastic marketing. Super Bowl commercials are good, but NBA All Star Weekend is scores ahead of the SuperBowl as far as advertising goes.

I’m not sure if it was planned this way (it may have been), but the celebrity game turned out to be a great advertisement for the new basketball movie Kevin Hart is in, Think Like a Man. Hart stole the spotlight several times during the game; mostly with his crazy antics that seemed an awful lot like those of his character in the film. The movie trailer was shown during the game, and Hart won the award for MVP. The whole thing worked out as a big advertisement for the movie.

After receiving the award, Hart shared it with his teammate, Arne Duncan. That’s funny because he’s the Secretary of Education, and one of the charitable causes of All Star Weekend was keeping high schoolers from dropping out. The All Star game shot clock rule was changed, from the usual 24 seconds, to 26 seconds because every 26 seconds a student drops out of high school.

The NBA even integrated their advertising into Twitter. As I mentioned earlier, they did away with judges for the slam dunk contest, and allowed viewers to vote via Twitter. On top of that, they made the voting hashtag “#SpriteSlam.” This not only advertised the NBA by making it a trending topic on Twitter, it advertised Sprite at the same time.

As you can see, the NBA was really on the ball for All Star Weekend 2012. And, of course, they had several awesome advertisements in the form of traditional TV commercials too. I’ll leave you with my favorite one which is a Sprint commercial featuring Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant. It’s the best celebrity endorsement commercial I’ve seen in a while.

Related articles

• NBA All-Star Game 2012: Ways the NBA Can Improve Underwhelming All-Star Weekend (bleacherreport.com)
• Kevin Hart – NBA Celebrity All Star Game 2012 MVP Winner (kalongkong.wordpress.com)
• J. Cole Will Be All Over NBA All-Star Weekend (ksfm.radio.com)

Robitussin Succeeds in Marketing New Look without Platitude

I want to give a shout out to Robitussin for advertising new product packaging without using the “new look, same great product” cliche.

In their recent Overwhelmed commercial (click here to check it out), Robitussin lets consumers know they’ve got a new look, but they don’t just say so. They show consumers that they’ve made it easier to navigate the confusing cold medicine isle by switching to simpler packaging.

Good job, Robitussin!

I expressed my dissatisfaction with the huge number of businesses using the generic “new look, same great product” slogan in a blog post last year.

Robitussin has had other great commercials in their past like the one below that uses the line, “Recommended by Dr. Mom.”

The 1980s-style acting in this one is hilarious!

PS: Budweiser also did a good job at marketing its new look with its slogan, “The king never looked so good.”

Microsoft’s New Social App, msnNOW, Isn’t What it Could Be

I’m usually good at predicting the success or failure of a new social media website, but with Microsoft‘s new msnNOW, I’m not so sure. MsnNOW is a cool way to get news and information based on what is being talked about on the web. It analyses Bing searches and social media updates to find what news is most popular. Then, it puts all of the trends on the front page.

Unfortunately – and, this may be NOW‘s downfall – it seems like nobody on the interent wants to talk about actual news. The website is currently a heap of celebrity gossip and other fluff stories: “Kobe caught smooching his ex,” “Twitter tells Chris Brown to RIP,” and “Model unsure who she’s dating.”

The genius behind msnNOW is pretty much the same ingenuity that’s behind Pinterest. It digs through all of the boring content, and presents the user with the content everyone else seems to enjoy. If you read my article about Pinterest, you know I predict that it could grow to be as popular as Facebook. Unlike msnNOW, Pinterest isn’t overloaded with useless celebrity news.

The other problem I have with the site is that it’s a part of MSN instead of Bing. That was a weird and not-so-smart move. Why not make it now.bing.com? Then, it could be clumped in with all the expensive marketing Bing is doing, and Bing would be even more about what’s hot. NOW could have been the fresh addition Bing needs.

Despite its potential, I don’t think NOW will be a huge success. If the content was stronger and the site was part of Bing, the chances of success would be much higher.

Related articles

• Revolving door: Club Bing out, msnNOW in (sorta) (liveside.net)
• MSN Launches msnNOW to Keep You in the Know (socialmediaportal.com)
• msnNOW (socialmediaportal.com)

Creativity Doesn’t Always Win: A Comparison of Two Battery Life Commercials

Recently, I’ve noticed two different commercials on TV selling products that run on batteries (check them out below); more specifically, using extended battery life as a selling point. One commercial is for a hybrid car, and the other is for a smart phone. What’s interesting about the commercials is that each uses a different technique to sell the same solution.

First of all, we’ll look at the commercial for Motorola‘s DROID RAZR MAXX. It’s basically a montage of yuppies talking about the importance of their phone and phone battery: “if my phone’s dead, my business is dead.”

Everybody has had their cell phone battery die at an inconvenient moment. This is a common problem; especially for smart phones. Battery life is very important. The DROID RAZR MAXX has the longest lasting battery of any smart phone. It’s an easy sell.

The creatives who made this commercial were wise not to make a commercial like Hyundai’s because everybody already understands the importance of cell phone battery life. Instead of drawing negativity to batteries, they used good looking, professional looking people to send the positive message that the problem has been solved, and to make it look like successful yuppies are using the DROID RAZR MAXX.

Most Americans have not experienced an inconvenience caused by a dead hybrid car battery. That’s why Hyundai needed to do what they did; draw negativity to batteries. They used the negative experiences consumers have most likely had with other batteries. Then, they sold on the slogan, “you’ll have one less battery to worry about.”

I’m not sure I would have used battery life in a hybrid commercial this early in the game. Especially since it requires bringing up negative occurrences. This creates the risk that consumers become turned off from hybrid cars all together. Hyundai brings attention to all the negativity of batteries, and then sells a car that runs on a battery.

I’ll, just as well, have one less battery to worry about if I don’t buy a hybrid car at all.

Then, maybe battery life is the only thing that makes Hyundai Sonata Hybrids stand out from the rest of the hybrids. If that is the case – if they’re not trying to sell to new car buyers, but to hybrid car buyers – they’ve got a solid commercial. In a humorous way, it shows the consumer that hybrid battery life could be a problem, and that it won’t be a problem with the Sonata.

I think the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX commercial will sell more products even though the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid commercial is more creative in approach. Watch them both down below. Then, let me know what you think.

Related articles

• Are Expensive Batteries Worth the Extra Cost? (wired.com)
• Consumer Reports dubs Droid Razr Maxx No.1 VW smartphone due to ‘exceptionally capacious battery’ (9to5google.com)
• 2012 Sonata Hybrid Gets ‘Lifetime Battery Replacement Guarantee’ from Hyundai (treehugger.com)

Why Pinterest Could Be as Big as Facebook

When my sister (a college student) mentioned her love of the social media site, Pinterest, I realized how popular it has become. I keep reading about it on tech news websites and even blogs of individuals. People are just smitten with it.

I’m sure many of you have heard of Pinterest. It’s a social, virtual bulletin board where users post favorite pictures, recipes, quotes, etc.

These days, one might wonder how another social network could possibly gain momentum in the crowded web of social networks. It’s pretty simply. Pinterest has content users like to see.

All social networks have similar user-generated content. All social networks allow that content to be interacted with; commented on, rated, “liked,” etc. Pinterest stands out from the rest in that it consolidates all of the most popular user-generated content onto its front page.

It creates an endless stream of top quality (based on user preference) content.

I recently read a study saying that two out of every three Tweets are “boring.” I believe it. And the same probably goes for every other social networking site.

Pinterest makes it easy for the consumer to consumer what she wants to consume. They weed out the two-thirds of boring content so the consumer doesn’t even have to see most of it. They provide more entertainment, less garbage. On top of that, much of the content is usable in real-life: recipes for valentine’s cards, art projects, food, etc.

Related articles

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Bing’s New Slogan and Commercial, A Waste of Resources

Bing needs to stop trying to be a search giant in their commercials. They should try to be a search giant in reality, but in their commercials, they need to be specific. “Bing is for Doing” doesn’t really tell the audience anything. It doesn’t explain anything. It doesn’t make me want to use Bing instead of my default search engine, Google. It doesn’t make me want to use Bing at all.

“Bing is for Doing” is a fine slogan, but the commercials that accompany it need, then, to explain HOW. They need to show the consumer how Bing is for doing. Consumers aren’t going to trust the slogan and start using Bing for no reason.

The people at Bing need to be more specific with their advertising. They should focus on how they’re different from Google. They should bring attention to the specific things that are better about Bing. They do have a different image on their homepage each day. If they built hype up around that, they might gain some users. It’s also easier to just stumble or surf on Bing if you don’t really know what you want to look up. If they drew attention to that, they’d have a good chance at getting all of the bored teenagers online.

As a side note, I think it would be a bad idea for Bing to attack Google’s current incorporation of Google+ into its search results (a.k.a. Google, Plus Your World). First of all, Bing did something like this with Facebook long before Google did it. That aside, directly attacking the competition is distasteful and puts the brand in line with all the other losing companies that attack their competition.

The commercial below does have one solid element. That is, the “BING” sound when the Bing logo fills the screen toward the end of the spot. That sound probably won’t become well-loved like a jingle, but it really fits the search engine. It’s just a quick, soft “BING” that could become an integral part of the brand.

The Bing commercial (above) is cool because it tells the story of a snowboarder, but that’s all it really does. And what does a professional snowboarder have to do with searching the internet? According to this commercial, you can search his name, and he enjoys watching videos of himself online.

The company could turn this guy into a spokesperson, and produce a series of commercials in which he demonstrates how he uses Bing to enhance his snowboarding. In that case, the commercial would make sense as a way of introducing the man.

Right now, it’s a commercial that isn’t doing Bing much good. The good it is doing is spreading and maintaining awareness of the search engine. It is important for consumers to be aware, but that awareness happened a couple years ago. I am of the opinion that this commercial was a waste of resources.

I’m a young guy. I understand that my opinions may be incorrect. That’s why I want this to be a discussion. Let me know what you think of the commercial!

Related articles

• Microsoft Bing – From Decision Engine to Bing is for Doing (bubblecube.wordpress.com)
• Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users (searchengineland.com)
• Now Bing Is For Doing (marketingpilgrim.com)
• Try DuckDuckGo: the friendly search engine (zaddymanlib.wordpress.com)