joss stone - new marketing guru

Content wants to be free, piracy can be a business model. And pop-soul karaoke star Joss Stone agrees.

'Music should be shared. I believe that this is how music turned into like, some crazy business. The only part about music that I dislike is the business that is attached to it. Now, if music is free, then there is no business, there is just music...
...As long as you come to my show, and have a great time listening to the live show it’s totally cool, I don’t mind'

She understands that the tour-to-promote-album music biz model is now flipped on its head and a digital, easily distributed (ie shared) product is now the marketing for the live experience.

And who knows, make a special cd in a nice box with a free tshirt or something and fans may even buy the physical product too.

joss quote via mashable

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how to do merchandising

from rob mosley's blog

This is how you do merchandising:
- catch people's eyes
- demonstrate the product's key feature (its big)
- don't put 'orrible big signs up that scream prices/benefits at people

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Design coding by The Poetic Prophet (AKA The SEO Rapper)

Just discovered this guy.

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thought for the day

This excerpt from 'How to Become a Social Media Expert' by CS Penn struck a chord.

'..the measurements that count most to you will likely have nothing to do with friends, followers, betas, or invitations, but with differences and positive changes made, accomplishments logged'

full article here

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You talk the talk. Do you walk the walk?

As some of you may already know, I'm off to pastures new having resigned form my current job a few weeks ago. I've got another 5 weeks or so to go before I embark on a new phase of my career. More details on that a bit nearer the time, but suffice to say I'm very excited about the challenge that awaits.

One of the questions I was asked during the interview process was around this idea of 'how [am I] going to implement [my ideas] in [the new role]?'
The simple answer is 'walk the talk'.

In this business, how can we expect our clients to embrace the changes in how media is produced, distributed, consumed etc if we (in agencies) don't demonstrate this ourselves?
It's kind of what Jaffe calls 'use new marketing to prove new marketing'.

And what better way to walk the talk, than in a pair of shiny gold hand-made brogues from Church's in Piccadilly?

I'm a size 11, by the way, in case they are reading.

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carling 'barslide'

I liked this point of purchase iphone app for Carling lager from BMB.

Its a skill based game where players attempt to 'slide' a pint to their mate along the bar by tilting their mobile use the handset’s inbuilt 3 dimentional motion detection. A successful slide wins an iPint, which fills up the screen just like a real pint. You can then ‘drink’ the virtual pint.

hat-tip to @jamiec.

UPDATE:
Sorry it looks like BMB have taken their link down.

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variations on a meme

There's a mini-meme a-brewing round the Droga5/Net 10 - what is the role of the agency? - ad-google-purchase - conundrum stirred up by Alan Wolk, elaborated on by Cam Beck, amongst others and mentioned here a couple of posts back.

To recap: Droga5 make cool viral and :30 for US mobile operator Net10. Net10 claim in ads that other providers are evil. Cursory googling of Net10 customer reviews reveals Net10 customer service etc to be pretty average at best in the eyes of users.
Many of the comments on Scamp (where the debate started) reckon agency make ads, duff products are nowt to do with us.

Alan says: 'too many agencies can’t even be bothered to use Google to see if the product actually lives up to the brief. Can’t be bothered to realize that for most non packaged-goods items, the consumer pattern is now ad -Google-purchase.'

Semi anonymous commenter bg adds:
'I think one group escapes blame here: brands. [Brands] are just as responsible for the fragmentation of advertising and marketing responsibilities as anyone...'

Mulling this around on the train home while listening to Elvis Costello's classic '89 album 'Spike' a lyrical couplet resonated somewhat.

'One day you're going to have to face
A deep dark truthful mirror
And it's going to tell you things that I still love
you too much to say'
Elvis Costello 'Deep dark truthful mirror'

We recently worked with [Brand X] on a project involving user generated content.
The project ended up being compromised a bit by the reluctance of the client to incorporate some of the (most basic) social elements to the project. The reason for this was; that some students had conducted experiments with [Brand X] product - the results cast a shadow on the integrity of some the the claims about the product.
[Brand X] then had to take a serious look at their product (and into the deep dark truthful mirror)and get it fixed.

Seems to me the same connundrum here.

Brands need to be aware that not only is the adage 'you're brand is not what you say it is, it's what google says it is' ringing true - its also what google potentially says it is once the eager pro-sumers have finished conducting their experiments.

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Wii tennis at Waterloo station

Spotted these Wii tennis stations set up on the concourse at Waterloo this morning - at the start of Wimbledon week.

Part experiential, part 'tryvertising' (i guess it's semi contextual as Wimbledon bound punters will be going via Waterloo).

I hope South West Trains will be providing the Wii demonstrators with free strawberries and cream as a thankyou for keeping irate travellers occupied during the inevitable cancellations and delays.

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social media in plain english

by commoncraft

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Is there any point to great 'advertising' if the product is flawed/suspect/crap?

In this post on Scamp about Net10's 'evil' campaign - featuring firstly that clip of the mobile phone in the microwave and then the full on cartoon tv spots - there was much debate about the whys and wherefores of the ad idea and execution but, for me, it only gets going when commenter Alan Wolk aka tangerinetoad wades in with this nugget.

'I'd like to suggest, as an experiment, that all of you who like this commercial and/or campaign do what the average consumer will do upon seeing it, which is to go over to Google and enter this phrase:

net10 phone service reviews

Then click on the first couple of results. Including the one from Amazon.com

You'll quickly see why the serious problem with these ads, and why, given the online comments about Net10s customer service (or lack thereof) they probably have a net negative effect.'

The response from other comments was along the lines of 'what can the agency do if the product is broken? we just do the advertising?'

This approach to advertising has had it. Finished.

It's basic insight stuff. Anyone can now search for real reviews and get a picture of the reality of the product. The agency should do this first then review the strategy to address real perceptions from real customers (or ex-customers).

This is not brain surgery.

But that might interfere with the making of smartypants ads to win industry back-slapping awards. Which is sadly often the case.

Don't get me wrong, the 'ads' are great - just for the wrong product it would seem.
And thats where it all falls over.

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thought for the day

'If you dont like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less'
General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff, US Army

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hey! bo diddley - RIP

Goodbye to a rock'n'roll legend - originator of the Bo Diddley beat, probably more famous due to the likes of The Who's Magic Bus than his own tunes.
According to punky lore, while on tour with the Clash in 79, Bo let his guitar sleep on the bunk in the bus while he kipped in the chair, re-inforcing the legend with Strummer and co.

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book club - mark e smith 'renegade'

'I hope this book turns out like Mein Kampf for the Hollyoaks generation'

Ive just read this.
Less an autobiography and more a loosely collated stream of ramblings stitched together and interspersed with prose ‘chapters’
It’s a a whisky, beer and sulphate soaked journey through 30-odd albums, umpteen band members, fighting, prison, ballet, dead popes, voting Tory, and reading the scores on Grandstand.
It’s not the definitive biography – it’s what Smith wants you to know.

Threre’s a lot in common with Dylan’s ‘Chronicles’ though Smith would baulk at that as Dylan is one of the sacred cows who get’s a mauling.

None shall escape the judgement as MES lets rip at everyone from Elton John, John Lennon to Jo Whiley and anyone at all from Brighton – but with a fluency and brutal honesty that persuades you to go along with even the most scathing and unreasonable theories.

To be fair though I drew the line at the idea that the Glitter Band were more influential than the Sex Pistols.

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add value through content

Waterstone's the booksellers have just about got it spot on with this 'What's Your Story' campaign.

To celebrate the National UK Reading Year they are challenging budding writers to compose a short story and submit it to the Wys site.

The best entries are being published in an online gallery and in stores - alongside a collection of specially commisioned stories written by some top authors.

3 winning stories will be published in a postcard book alonside the 'real' authors including Doris Lessing, Michael Rosen, Nick Hornby, Sebastian Faulks, Lauren Child, Tom Stoppard and Irvine Welsh and of course...
JK Rowling, who has supplied an exclusive 800-word, hand-written prequel to the Harry Potter series.

Value, content, participation, community, partnership, branding.

I've been debating with a few twitter buddies whether the likes of Amazon have the same ability to generate that fuzzy feeling around their brand as the likes of Waterstones.

In the book market I will always prefer to shop with Waterstones if I can rather than Amazon. Why? Because of stuff like this. The cold aggregation of the likes of Amazon doesn't tickle me.
OK there's the long tail and the user reviews, the super fast service etc- but I find something more re-assuring about a brand that actually 'cares' about it's product.
Half of the staff are authors.
And actively working for good in the community - Neil Perkin talks about this here - kind of inspired this post.

Plus they are British...

The campaign and microsite was developed by Manchester digital agency Code Computerlove

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quality check

Just spotted this in E1. The street art/graffiti fraternity self-organising to bring a bit of quality control to the streets? Or maybe it's part of Boris' new broom?

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the product is the marketing - malmaison

On a recent jaunt to Edinburgh I stayed at the Malmaison by Leith docks.

First off, it's about 15 years since I've been round Leith, what a change.
Back in the day it was a bit of a no-go area but it's now been 'regenerated'- lots of nice bars and restaurants and half a million quid apartments etc.

A couple of things made my stay worth remarking upon.

All Malmaison hotels offer free, gratis broadband in the rooms. So what? I hear you say. Well try getting free web access in any other hotel chain. Unlikely.

In the bathroom theres a wee sign beside all the toiletries - posh body wash, moisturising pads, breath freshner, the lot - saying 'please take these away with you'.
Everyone nabs the bits from the bathroom in hotels anyway, but a nice touch to say 'go ahead'. Power showers too. Theres nothing worse than the dribbly weak showers you often encounter in hotels.

I ordered dinner in my room - posh burger and chips - the chips come in a tall cup thing wrapped in Malmaison greaseproof paper. A little design touch that tickled me.

I also loved the milk jugs at breakfast, it's a tall vase shaped white jug with 'cow' spots printed on it.

I could have stayed at the Holiday Inn accross the road and it would have been perfectly acceptable, but i would not have mentioned it to anyone after.
It's the micro-touches that make an experience worth talking about.

Good enough is no longer good enough, it needs to be better than that.

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i am a muppet

Here's a tip for you.

Don't let your domain expire, as I have just done.
I received several reminder emails from my hosting service, the latest one last week warned me that it would expire within 25 days.
So today I find that its gone already! Thats well within the 25 days. They don't mess about.

I've paid up and the site will be back within 24 hours, however anyone who attemps to go there during these 24 hours is going to mark me down. Lesson learned.

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baby badger...

Belated congratulations to Dan from the way of the web aka @badgergravling on the arrival of baby Oscar the other week. A new recruit for the twitter junior section?
Also I'm due him a link as his technorati rank has crashed since shifting his blog about.

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ghp - spliced crispies

I rave about gohomeproductions all the time here. Maybe there's some sort of affinity as I'm a former Watford resident myself.

Despite recently announcing his retirement from the bootleg business to concentrate on 'proper' tracks he's done a new collection of 11 mash-ups 'Spliced Crispies'.
This time theres videos to go along with them.

My personal favourite is the Ce Ce Penniston/Sex Pistols fusion 'Finally Did you no wrong'. see below.

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on positivity...a thought for the day

When I'm having those HEAD>BRICK WALL moments I'm always glad of this nugget from author and historian David Landes...

'In this world the optimists have it, not because they are always right but because they are always positive. Even when wrong, they are positive...and that is the way to achievement'

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