This seems so obvious, yet it took some time to realize it. According to this Reuters article, Blue Note records (one of the most famous brands for Jazz Music) has dived into offering a digital experience:
The label is in the process of revamping the site to become a social network and digital music store for fans of jazz and blues — the staples of the Blue Note catalog — rather than a simple promotional Web site for its artists.
They are targetting the age group of the 35 to 55 year olds. It’s not the typical target group for downloading music and/or getting heavily involved in social networks, you might think.
But it is indeed a target group
with more money available than the teens (and apparently more willing to spend it on music, too)
looking for specialised music – think about the long tail effects of digital music!
There seems to be a trend, as Blue Note is not the first:
Blue Note’s pending Web site is just the latest. Universal Music Group opened a digital jazz and classical music service in the United Kingdom in January, and last December a social networking site aimed at the 35-and-up crowd called Urban Boomer (UBTunes) went live.
Brandweek features a good, summarising, article of what brand marketers should take into account when dealing with all stuff „web 2.0“.
The user-generated content upheaval—manifested in blogs, podcasts, videocasts and wikis—is quite real, and so is the revolution of consumer empowerment. But despite the resultant chaos, brand managers simply must learn to maintain a balanced perspective. Yes, the digital media environment is being democratized, but that doesn’t mean that you have to turn the keys to your brand over to the digital inmates of the Web 2.0 asylum.
That is a bit harsh. „Digital inmates of the web 2.0 asylum“! But in a way he’s right. Brands do not have to respond to every web 2.0 challenge, just because someone thinks it could be fun if the brand did. Just like you, yes you, dear reader, wouldn’t just jump of any bridge, just because someone else thinks it’s fun. Brands need to engage with their target audience in a way that is true to their core brand personality. That implies that some brands might actually engage more carefully and less openly than others.
Brands might also take very different approaches in the way the open up the conversation with their target audience. But to some degree, they will all have to:
If you’re to have any hope of maintaining your brand equity in the Web 2.0 world, you must begin by assuming that while your happy customers will remain silent, your critics will be all too happy to denounce you online. So you might as well provide the place for discussion and retain some control of how the dialogue develops. An invitation to the public to air its views need not, however, be a free-for-all. You should take a hard-line on obscenity, vulgarity, hate speech and intolerance. You may even want to curb anonymity to raise the overall civility of the discourse.
Regard this as an opportunity: you never had the chance to learn so much about your customers. Providing an open platform for your customers gives you the ultimate opportunity to learn about the opinions of your target audience – you can even find out about the tonality they prefer, which in turn can help you (or rather your agency) write better advertising pieces.
Engage your customer, ignore the hype and don’t fear the revolution—whether it’s downloaded from iTunes, read from blogs or stolen from YouTube.
Funny! This reminds me of:
„The revolution will not be televised“ – Gill Scott Heron
„The Television will not be revolutionised“ – (I think it was Joseph Jaffe, who said that in one of his podcasts)
But the quote I find the most useful – and it is also something I keep telling everyone:
there’s also no single ‚right way‘ to manage in the reality of the Web 2.0 world. Be prepared to experiment.
OK, I am echoeing others here, but this one I have to mention – let alone for my own records. You might have seen this video:
Joe Jaffe found it in 2006 already and I remember thinking back then: what kind of nonsense of „user generated content“ brands will have to deal with in the future. And I was thinking about how brands could properly respond to this kind of stuff. But I never thought about what they did now: it has apparently been sold to McDonalds by their agency Arnold. It just doesn’t say anywhere for how much. Now it constantly runs on US television, probably costing lots of media money…
Joe now feels a bit stale. For one, because he found it already such a long time ago, but also because of the tagline in the beginning which says: „user generated content“.
The difference between then and now is that it’s easier than ever before to become a micro celebrity. It still takes talent and hard work, but really anyone can do it. […] Beyond „micro fame“ if you will, the rise of personal brands really reflects something deeper in society that’s changing. In American culture in particular we have always been proud of individualism and expression. Before Web 2.0 we might dress a certain way or do something to stand out. Nowadays, that happens online and it’s being driven in large part by the maturing of the Net Generation – Gen Y.
So Steve talks about the increased opportunities to live out individualism to create microcelebrities.
While Mitch Joel podcasts about „echo chambers“. He argues, that instead of the podosphere, the blogosphere and any other social media being an echochamber, we are merely creating celebrities.
These are two different angles for a similar thing. Steve says, it is all about individualism, supported by the web enabling self expression. Mitch argues we’re quoting&supporting each other to create our own celebrities among each other. Both results in more or less unknown individuals becoming (micro-) celebrities.
Clickz references a study about user generated content – or consumer generated content, as it should rather be called. This is from August 2006, but nevertheless quite interesting, as there seems to be some interesting findings even related to „traditional“ internet advertising:
Almost three-quarters of people who publish amateur video content online are under 25, and of those, 86 percent are male. […] Other findings of the „Generator Motivations Study“ include that as many as 73 percent of content generators notice Internet advertising, a much higher ration than what’s found in the male 18 to 24 year-old demographic as a whole. Also, 57 percent of all content creators surveyed said they are willing to feature brands in their videos, and many within the group have already done so. […] The report suggests opportunity for marketers, if campaigns are executed properly. „Approaching the right communities, with the right tone and incentives can motivate users to generate content featuring brands,“ the report said.
Sounds good, being from Germany, I now wonder if the situation is (or will be) similar in Germany?
Wo ich sonst so bin...