Beyonce Releases Surprise Album and Breaks Record

Music star Beyoncé released her self-titled album this past Friday at Midnight. The 14 song, 18 video album (17 if the credit video doesn’t count) was released without any promotion, warning, ad, release single, social media tease… nothing. She just posted an Instagram video with the caption “surprise”. Then the news spread throughout social media. By Friday afternoon, the online world was ablaze with amateur reviews, wonderful hilarious GIFs, and tweeted lyrics. By today, Keith Caulfield of Billboard.com wrote “Beyoncé’ Fastest-Selling Album Ever In iTunes Store: 828,773 In Three Days”. The article also reports the album “also set a record for the largest week ever for an album” in the iTunes store. The album is exclusive to iTunes for now and will be released elsewhere by Dec 20.

This is not a review of the album (it’s great) but a reflection of the way an un-promoted album is able to sell extremely well. It would be easy to say that Beyoncé is just that good of an artist to pull such numbers but I see that other factors contributed to her album's success. The three factors I found in its success are social media presence, the art of suspense, and packaging.

Social media

Slowly, Beyoncé built up her social media accounts - she created an immersive site tied to her Tumblr account, a twitter account (she barely uses) and an Instagram account. Instagram is her most active social media account; she posts mostly pictures from tours, vacations, and fashion moment. Her fanbase, coined affectionately as the Beyhive, is also very active online. Also take into account that, at times, news can travel faster via social media than through traditional online news media. Put this all together… when Beyoncé drops her album on iTunes and announces via her Instagram, the news travels via her Beyhive, then gets retweeted/blogged to other non-Beyhive accounts just like any other news, and thus social media does a better job of promoting an album then traditional album promoting. But this is because Beyoncé is very active and has a very interactive broad fanbase. I’m sure someone on her team did research to find the depth of her social media reach, which is what all marketing research teams should be doing for their clients/companies.

The art of suspense

Beyoncé’s been touring since April 2013. Her tour was heavily promoted and still is as she continues to tour worldwide. It’s typical for artists to release new albums before or during a tour. I consider this tour her 8-month promotion and 8 months of crazy suspense for her fans. It was obvious that at some point she would release an album – many were waiting. A surprise album was all they needed but an album plus music videos is pure sugary icing. The elation many felt at the release of her album was expressed throughout social media.

Packaging

Beyoncé released 14 never-before-heard songs with the videos to match and a bonus video (2 songs were each broken down into 2 videos). For some, the music video (if done right) is just as important to the music experience as the music itself. For her fans and curious listeners, the package was enticing. It was priced perfectly – high enough that it wasn’t cheap for the label but low enough to make sense for all that one got from the album. I can’t recall a recent artist that has released an album with music videos to match every song (if I’m wrong, let me know) or even did videos after the album release for every song on their album. Makes me wonder if Beyoncé is further helping to kill the music channel. With video streaming sites allowing signed and unsigned artist to release music videos and now an artist releasing all their music videos with their album, what is the purpose of a music channel? Digressing…

The right combination of factors is helping ‘Beyoncé’ become a monumental success and break records. I don’t think she will be the only artist that can achieve this but she will be one of the few. For other artists, they will also have to come up with the right factors to attempt a surprise album.

Producers of Maker's Mark Experience Social Media Fail

Last week, Beam Inc. made a decision to lower the potency of their adored bourbon, Maker’s Mark.  The company sent an email stating that due to supply shortages they would solve it by diluting the bourbon. The alcohol by volume (ABV) was supposed to be reduced by 3%. According to the article I read last week and used as a source for my post, the shortage was due to international expansion. It came down between maintaining quality to satisfy American customers or reducing it to sell in international markets. Beam Inc. made the decision to reduce quality to expand. While the decision was definitely a slap in the face to customers, it was understandable considering Beam Inc. “reached out to ambassadors”. It seemed these “ambassadors” were prepared and thought out their decision well.

That was a week ago.

Today, Beam Inc. changed their mind. They’ve been “humbled” and the ABV will not change. According to LAtimes.com’s article “Maker’s Mark producer reverses decision to dilute its bourbon”:

"Maker’s Mark Chairman Emeritus Bill Samuels, the founder’s son, said the company focused almost exclusively on not altering the taste of the bourbon while stretching the available product and didn’t consider the emotional attachment that customers have to the brand and its composition"

Gabby Douglas Gets Endorsement

16-year-old Gabby Douglas had a great week. She made history as the first woman of color to win individual all around in gymnastics and first American gymnast to win gold in individual all around and team competition. She also signed her first endorsement deal. According to “Gabby Douglas set for endorsement $ gold” by Chris Isidore of cnnmoney.com, Kellogg’s has already put Douglas on a box of Corn flakes. Being “a sponsor of both the U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Gymnastics” was probably the advantage Kellogg’s had over General Mills in grabbing Douglas.

Bob Dorfman of Baker Street Advertising gave many reasons on top of her victory that Douglas is a great endorsement: “She’s the new darling of America, she has the look, the great smile, and seems like someone who could be a compelling pitch woman of products to teens and pre-teen”. Dorfman also estimated that “Douglas could pull in between $1 million to $3 million a year in endorsements leading up to the [2016 games]”. She could also continue to reap benefits from endorsement deals for many years after the 2016 games.

RIM, maker of BlackBerry, Believes Nothing is Wrong with the Company

Research In Motion wants you to know there is nothing wrong with the company. According to “RIM marketing boss sees silver lining in BlackBerry delay” by Alastair Sharp of Reuters.com, the newly appointed Chief Marketing Officer Frank Boulben and CEO Thorsten Heins are on a media blitz to prove the company will survive their latest bad news. Last month, the company stated their next update, Blackberry 10, is delayed until 2013 and there would be have job cuts and financial losses.

The article reports Heins had a radio appearance in which “he said there was ‘nothing wrong’ with the company”. He “also published an opinion piece in The Globe and Mail newspaper [stating] the new BlackBerrys, which the company insists will be better than anything now on the market…” He also wrote “RIM is a company at the beginning of a transition that we expect will once again change the way people communicate”.

Reuters interviewed Frank Boulben. He is says in the interview: “The short delay is not detrimental if the quality is there when we launch early next year… We will have much more attention and focus and ability to leverage our carriers”. Boulben was just hired last month as CMO after the company went one year without one. The only mention of a marketing strategy by Boulben is that social media will be incorporated “to show the capabilities of BlackBerry 10 and let its millions of still-loyal users spread the word”.

AMC's The Pitch and its Lessons

The Pitch is a reality show on AMC about advertising. The premise of the show is two ad agencies meet with a prospective client and are briefed on the terms of marketing expectations for a product/service. The two agencies go back to their companies, within 7 days prepare their marketing pitch, present the pitch to the client and the client hires the agency with the best pitch. We, the audiences, are presented with a candid look at the creative process for agencies as they come up with marketing ideas, strategies, packages, and presentation.

Compared to other reality shows, the show is not dramatic. How many everyday jobs are very dramatic? In 2012, how can advertising replicate Mad Men which takes place in the 1960s? The truth is if The Pitch were a crazy, thrilling, dramatic show, I would think it scripted. The show is a raw look into advertising and unfortunately, for those not interested in the actual content of the show or business media that raw look will be boring. However, if you’re like me, this show is amazing. I love shows and documentaries that explore business and I have an interest in marketing. This show is great at teaching lessons that many across business fields can learn from.

While watching The Pitch, these are the known-but-very-often-forgotten lessons the show presents:

Take and expect criticism

Usually, when the agencies are brainstorming on ideas, the entire agency meets in a room to present ideas in front of everyone. Or, there is one team chosen to work on the project or a few teams that go on their own to brainstorm and expand on a few ideas and then present them as a team. Execs and colleagues will openly criticize these ideas. Presenters can be told the ideas are stupid, illogical, corny, disgusting and/or the insults that fall in between. The only thing to do is to take the criticism and move on to the next possible idea or change the idea criticized. When presenting ideas, expect criticism. Learn to take it and move on.

Expect questions and also ask them

Maybe your idea gets picked. It’s time to work on the ad campaign. Expect that as campaign ideas are presented, people will ask questions.  This isn’t just criticism – an answer is expected. Whether you feel a question is warranted or not, answer it.  If your competitor is trying to sabotage your idea by asking a harsh question, respond to the question in a way that shuts them up. Not answering or being caught off guard seems unprepared. Why wouldn’t you defend a project by answering the obvious, unknown, or insulting questions? Leaving a question unanswered means someone else other than you will answer. That takes control away from you.

If you are the questioner, ask the needed questions. Sometimes that gut feeling or curiosity can lead to an important question that no one else was thinking, but by asking, you let your higher-ups know that you were thinking just as seriously as if it was your project. It keeps you in the game.

Presenting is selling

Whether presenting an idea to fellow colleagues and your boss or presenting a marketing campaign to a prospective client, presenting is selling that which is presented. We all understand selling as attempting to persuade others to buy what you have. Presentations are suppose to sell you to the audience, convincing/persuading them to buy the idea or campaign.

Marketing Firm Wants Your Home for Advertisement

What happens with a mix of a marketing firm, homeowners looking for ways to pay mortgage and a house? According to Brainiacs From Mars, this is a formula for great marketing.  The marketing firm decided that homes could be marketing space and by offering to pay mortgages, homeowners would be willing to offer up theirs. “Exclusive: Mortgage problems? Turn your house into a billboard” by Tim Reid of Reuters.com reports the case of the Hostetlers of Buena Park, CA. They gave their home to Brainiacs From Mars in exchange for “getting their nearly $2,000 monthly mortgage paid.” The result was the company’s name plastered on the home against a green background and the 2^nd part of the home painted orange with a GR code and the Facebook and Twitter symbol.

According to the article, the mortgage payments go “up to a year” but doesn’t clarify the length of time homeowners must keep the advertising on their homes.  The Hostetler’s neighbors were told it would be one month; the couple might push for six months. Speaking of neighbors, some were not fond of the advertisement and color scheme. They complained and city council hasn’t been too agreeable.

The man behind the scheme is Romeo Mendoza, the founder and CEO.  The article reports “his ultimate goal is to turn 1,000 homes across the United States into giant advertisements for his marketing firm”.  Since advertising this format via the company’s website there has been “38,000 applications”.  Mendoza’s contribution to the article was pretty much stating that the scheme helps homeowners and that “he hopes the quirkiness… will convince companies to hire Brainiacs From Mars to run their advertising campaigns”. In the end, he believes the financial need of homeowners will give them the support they need to keep going. Although, Mendoza is aware of the challenge he faces with zoning laws and city council approvals.

Bank of America is Looking for a New Image

Bank of America is experiencing a “new day” and wants others to know also. “Bank of America puts advertising account on review” by Rick Rothacker of Reuters.com reports that Bank of America is seeking an advertising agency to restructure its advertising image. The company has put “its advertising account up for review” and “notified advertising agencies of its plans on Wednesday and expects to make a decision in April”. The notification stated, “it’s a ‘new day’ at the bank, despite ‘ongoing challenges we are addressing’”.

The article reports the last “advertising review” was in 2006 but the financial crisis has happened since then. Being one of the bigger banks in the U.S., Bank of America’s image has suffered greatly especially from “government bailouts, a falling stock price and an ill-fated attempt to implement a $5 per-month debit card fee last fall”.

Kim Kardashian Sues Gap Claiming They Hired a Look-alike

Did you know Kim Kardashian did a commercial for Old Navy? Oh, my mistake, it’s her look-alike according to Kardashian herself.  According to “Kim Kardashian sues Gap over look-alike model” by Steve Hargreaves from CNNmoney.com, she sued Gap Inc yesterday claiming the model is purposefully a Kim Kardashian look-alike. The statements quoted in the article from her lawyer and her:

“Old Navy used Kardashian’s likeness in the form of a celebrity look-alike, and styled the infringing ads to evoke Kardashian’s identity and persona”

“Kim Kardashian is immediately recognizable, and is known for her look and style, her identity and persona are valuable. When her intellectual property rights are violated, she intends to enforce them”

“I’ve worked hard to support the products I’m involved in and personally believe in”

Morgan Spurlock's New Documentary is About Advertising and Paid for by Advertising

“This article about advertising is about a documentary about advertising that its makers say is entirely paid for by advertising.” Let this digest for a moment. It sounds like a riddle but it isn’t. It’s a summation and opening line of “Film on Branded Content Examines a Blurred Line” by Stuart Elliott, which is about Morgan Spurlock’s latest documentary, “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold”.

Spurlock is best known for “Super Size Me”, which contributed to the debate about the role of fast food chains in unhealthy diets. “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold” is about branded content, “which is reshaping popular culture by blurring the line between entertainment and advertising in realms like movies, TV shows, songs, video games and online gaming.” In the documentary, Spurlock shows how he got advertisement funding by selling a movie about branding. Advertisers paid for advertising space and this film is going to have a lot of product placement. I haven’t seen the trailer but according to Elliott the trailer states, “everything from top to bottom is branded from beginning to end”.

Bad Publicity is Good Publicity? A Study Says Maybe

In light of the Charlie Sheen fiasco in the news, I thought BrandMakerNews.com post on bad publicity was inspired by it. It turns out their article was a repost of “Better to be reviled than ignored” by the Economist. The article begins with examples of bad publicity for well-established entities that barely bounced back from it. But Alan Sorensen, an economics professor, did a study looking at the New York Times book reviews and the effect on sales. The results:

“…well-known authors who earned glowing reviews for a new book could expect to sell 42% more copies, whereas a negative review caused sales to drop by 15%. For unknown authors, however, it did not matter whether a book was panned or lauded. Simply being reviewed in the Times bumped up sales by a third”

The study concluded that unknown brands benefit from bad publicity because the name is out and bad publicity won’t be remembered considering the brand isn’t well known. Simply put, consumers only remember the publicity. The article gave an example: Kazahstan whose tourism went up even after it was ridiculed on “Borat”. The article also gave an antithesis example: Vitaly Borker, the online eyeglass seller who purposely provided bad service to increase his online complaints and thus boast his Google search ranking. He was exposed after gloating about his strategy to the New York Times (I wrote about the article in “The Definition of Anti-Salesmanship”). He was eventually arrested for harassment and Google dropped his rank.

Entrepreneur.com: Their Guide to Your Startup, Days 7 to 9.

Here’s another post about Entrepreneur.com’s “Two Weeks to Startup” Series by Kimberly Stansell. I’ve previously written about days 1 to 6, which can be found in the post archives. This post is going to be days 7 to 9, Develop a Marketing Plan, Build Your Support Team, and Execute Your Marketing Plan, respectively. Remember, I’m offering quick summations, reading the articles will give much more valuable info (because if I repeated every single thing that would be plagiarism).

“Two Weeks to Startup: Day 7. Develop a Marketing Plan”

Marketing is essential to introducing your business to the intended target audience. At this point, with research done from day 2 and parts of your business plan written from day 4, the marketing aspect of your business should have already taken shape. With the plan, you go further by figuring the means of promoting your business, e.g. social media, print, or personal.

The article also states a customer service plan needs to be made along with the marketing plan. Customer service plan consists of ways to keep customers and build customer loyalty. For service, retail or client oriented businesses, a detailed policy “[considering] money-back guarantees, buying incentives, and the resolution of customer complaints” is needed.

“Two Weeks to Startup: Day 8. Build Your Support Team”

The title is pretty self-explanatory. The most important point is your team should be defined with broad, important ranges “from contractors and suppliers to advisory board members and employees”. Other than actually interviewing people, look amongst your network for those who have the qualities to benefit you and your business.

“Two Weeks to Startup: Day 9: Execute Your Marketing Plan”

Action. The keyword is action. Not only do you execute the plan, but it is now a portion of the job. You can’t just set up the ads, the site, and promotions and then wait. Do the work to reach out to your audience. The article gave more examples of things to do. But essentially the marketing plan is suppose to be a plan well thought out from Day 7. We’re working in days so there’s always room for improvement. Just be prepared, have a plan, and act.

All the articles include links to other sources on Entrepreneur.com and downloadable resources. For a list of the Kimberly Stansell's articles in the series so far, go here.

Walgreens Competes Directly with Major Brands

Walgreens is stepping up their game to get you to buy their store brand products. The company is starting a national campaign for their store brands. According to “Walgreens Launches Campaign to Push Store-Brand Products” by Tanzina Vega, the campaign will consist of ad commercials placed before popular shows, website ad comparing their products to other well known brands, sponsoring bloggers for post reviews, and their continuing print ads.

For most of the commercials, the star will be the Walgreen pharmacist. The message will be that if a pharmacist can recommend Walgreen brand products, they must be just as effective as other brand products. Other aspects of ads will include direct comparison to other brands in areas such as price and ingredients. According to article, many bloggers have been given free samples of Walgreens brand product and/or payment in exchange for their honest review.

Store brand products have gained some consumers as a consequence of the bad economy and a lost in confidence from major brands, such as Johnson & Johnson who experienced a year full of recalls.  I think the campaign will do well as I too find myself buying store brand over major brand. But I tend to also compare store brand prices amongst different stores. While Walgreens may convince consumers to stop depending highly on major brands, how will they compete against Walmart store brands or CVS store brands?

Let Entrepreneur.com Guide You to Your Startup

Entrepreneur.com is doing something really great. For two weeks, they will offer a series: 2 Weeks to Startup. Everyday from this Monday, Kimberly Stansell will give a day-by-day guide on gearing towards creating your startup business.

“Two Weeks to Startup: Day 1. Finding the Right Fit” is the task about evaluating your skills, interests and background and finding the business that would work with them. Things to do are to think about favorite interests, think of your resume, overview your personality, and speaking with people you know in businesses you’re thinking about opening. The article includes links to tools to help find the right business.

“Two Weeks to Startup – Day 2: Research Your Business Idea” is, as the title states, about research. First, find your niche. Your niche is dependant on the audience of your product or service. Not just the audience you want to reach but the audience that will honestly go to your business. Then, conduct market research. According to the article, three important areas of research: industry information, target market, and competition. Also use public free secondary sources. Secondary sources are mostly previous market research done about your product/ service, industry, audience or competition. This article also includes forms and links to tools to help with market research.

Today “Calculating Your Costs” should post on Entrepreneur.com. 

Steve Stoute Talks About Branding and the Recording Artist

I was cruising through Brandmakernews.com and came across, a post on Steve Stoute. Steve Stoute is the founder and CEO of Translation. Translation is a successful advertising agency whose purpose is to match celebrities with brands that properly complement their image. Steve recently did Influencers In-depth Series and was interviewed about the concept of cool. The video was featured on the post.

About halfway through the interview/ documentary, Stoute begins to talk about branding and recording artists. Stoute formerly worked in the record industry for many years so being in advertising he has a fresh unique perspective on combining advertising with artists. He talked about how today branding with artists doesn’t make sense. Seven years ago, the industry was not declining and before then, artists would not be branded with a product/ service that did not complement them.  An example of a bad combination he gave: Tiger Woods and Buick. Most did not believe that Woods would drive a Buick considering his wealth and the ad failed. He stated: “Artists would only do things that make sense to them, things that shared values”. Since the decline of the industry, “A lot of artists are aligning themselves with brands that they don’t have shared values with”.

For Stoute, an unnatural combination between artist and brand is a one-way relationship by which the brand is using the artist. His purpose and belief is that truth must come out within the branding; with that truth, the match will be received well by consumers. As a consumer and a music lover, I agree that when artists are paired with products /services I can’t imagine them using, it seems very fake and can ultimately destroy the personal brand of the artist. I encourage you to watch the video. Stoute knows what he talking about; his quest for natural partnerships between celebrity and product/ service has led to much success for his company.

Facebook Allows Advertisers to Use Your Posts

I previously wrote “Facebook and Japan: The Story of Clashing Cultures” about Japan’s rejection of the social site. Japan’s social networkers are very private. They belong to social networking sites which allow them to use fake names and avatars and give little to no personal information. Facebook is completely public and with previous privacy issues, it has been hard for the company to enter the Japanese market. Now, there might be another problem halting privacy advocates from the site. “Facebook’s ‘Sponsered Stories’ Turns Your Posts into Ads” by Laurie Segall reports Facebook will be taking posts mentioning particular brands, products, or services and allowing advertisers to use them as “sponsored stories” to post on your friends pages.

There is a video posted by Facebook to explain the advertising procedure. As of now hundreds of users have liked the video with some exclaiming they can’t wait. The problem with the advertising plan is no one can opt out. The video assures only friends will see the "sponsored story" but how does this help Facebook’s privacy image?

It is expected that sites like Facebook would use advertising to make money. But to allow advertisers to use posts without giving users the ability to protect their posts is ridiculous. Many have private pages and strict privacy settings to prevent such a thing from happening. And yet, it seems, Facebook is going to ignore the privacy settings it claims to respect.

Starbucks: 40 Years and a New Logo

On its 40^th birthday, Starbucks decides to reinvent itself with a new logo. According to Parija Kavilanz of cnnmoney.com, the new logo debuted yesterday. The familiar siren is enlarged and green; the company name is removed. Apparently, not all fans like the new logo. Some fans responded with confusion as to the reasons Starbucks would change a very familiar logo and also remove its name.

I like the new company logo. The siren is considered the company mascot and the enlargement is well done. The removal of the name may seem quite confusing, if Starbucks is not a well-known company. The article mentioned a comment from a fan that felt Starbucks was giving up great marketing space. I personally don’t know anyone who would not recognize the new logo as being part of Starbucks. Maybe this is the gift of 40 years, being able to receive recognition without having to give your name.

Kavilanz compared the logo change to Gap. The company had attempted to change its logo. The new logo was so hated that after one week, Gap regressed to the previous well-liked logo.  

Dan Schawbel: Personal Branding as a Gen-Y'er

I was cruising through Entrepreneur.com, looking for an interesting article to read and write about. I came across an article about Dan Schawbel an incredible, hard working entrepreneur. Schawbel is 27 years old. Being 24, I try to find stories relatable to my demographic and/or experience; It helps me to gain insightful advice from someone similar to me about possible challenges. Schawbel being from my generation, I was very excited to read, “How a Gen-Y’er Launched a Personal Branding Firm” by Young Entrepreneur Council.

Dan Schawbel’s road to entrepreneurship started in 2007 with a blog dedicated to personal branding. That turned into a magazine titled about the subject. His work gained him a job at a business magazine as an “up-and-coming personal branding expert” and a promotion at his full time job to social media specialist (that’s right, he was holding down a full time job, while blogging, running a magazine, and contributing to another publication). All along, Schawbel gained attention within the field of personal branding. In 2009, he wrote Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future. Finally, as of this year, Schawbel turned all of his work into Millennial Branding LLC and quit his full time job.

Russia Wanted a Makeover, an Ad Makeover

Does a country need an ad/marketing agency? I didn’t think so until I read “Selling the World on Russia (Leaving Out the Spies)” by Andrew Kramer. It turns out that Russian Officials were so concerned about it’s worldly image and the affect the image had on opportunities that, a few years, they hired various agencies to work on this image. The article profiled one of those agencies, Adore Creative, and Rupert Wainwright's, its CEO, adventure working with Russia.  Adore Creative’s job was to create a video for the 2013 World University Games, the 2014 Winter Olympics,  and the 2018 World Cup, three videos in total.

Russia wanted to shed the stereotypical images of its country. Wainwright wanted to “normalize” the country within the ads because “If people see that sense of normalness, he said, ‘the country will de-demonize itself’” But it wasn’t so simple for Wainwright. The Russian Officials were zealous on shedding Cold War images that their idea for the Olympic video was “a black-and-white montage of post-Soviet street protests and the Berlin Wall falling down…”, not very appealing as a promotional video. They also wanted to include a host of their philosophical ideas and imagery. Wainwright eventually worked with the tough demeanor of the officials to create videos which, along with the other work from the other agencies, helped Russia to earn rights to host all three of the games they submitted videos to.

The article presents a country as a client as a potential clash of ideals and a challenge for the agency.  Having contributed to Russia’s win to host all games is an accomplishment for Russia and the ad/marketing agencies which took them as a client. Wainwright stuck well to his guns; giving the Russian officials what they hired Adore Creative for, the ability to host three international games, three opportunities for Russia to reshape its image on a Worldly stage.

DVR Users & Advertisers

DVR users are watching commercials. When DVRs emerged, the marketing industry believed consumers would take advantage of the fast forward button and skip commercials. “The Myth of Fast Forwarding Past the Ads” by Brian Stelter reports the Nielsen Company clarified to marketers that DVR users, who playback programs within 3 days of recording, have increased their commercial viewings by 44%.  

This is great news for advertisers. The only issue is they must modify their advertising to appeal to those users watching commercials up to 3 days after their intended viewing. The article reports some advertisers are advertising early – using ads relevant for longer periods of time. The other tool has been to use contextual ads, ads using aspects of shows during which they advertise. The example used by Stelter is Toyota commercials during “The Walking Dead”. The commercials use zombies, the main subject of the show. The other great example is the various Superbowl commercials which all connect by using some reference to football.

The best part of this DVR user demographic: it is the ideal audience for advertisers. According to the article, the demographic includes young watchers and more financially set consumers, as DVR users are cable subscribers. Now, advertisers can rest assure that they have an audience and we, the audience, will watch more relevant, interesting ads. 

Music Blogs, the Music Industry, and Government Seizures

The government seizure of Limewire and other programs accused of copyright infringement has extended to blogs. I recently read “Piracy Fight Shuts Down Music Blogs” by Ben Sisario and found that music blogs, which “leak” anticipating music, have been seized. The featured blog in the article is OnSmash.com whose founder Kevin Hofman told his side of the story. Well, it seems that the website seizures might prevent “copyright infringement” but also disrupts a marketing business model amongst recording labels, managers, artists, and music bloggers.

According to the article and Hofman, the way his blog works is that, most times, he is given exclusive music by labels/managers/artists. The purpose of which is for Hofman to “leak” or post the music so as to create virtual buzz about said music or artist. Similar to the way celebrities give exclusive stories to magazines. Hofman is well known and accepted with some of the artists the government is accusing him of stealing from. Thus, creating a conundrum: “While the Recording Industry Association of America wants to shut them down, the rank and file of the record labels — particularly in hip-hop circles — uses them as marketing tools and publicity outlets.”