Mobile Music Week - Part Two - Music Marketing

Those managing sales of recording artists face two major challenges, acquire new fans that will buy the product and sell more product to existing fans.

It’s not as easy as it might sound. Developing a relationship with a record buyer is tricky - most of them want to go to the gig or buy the album, end of story. Why should they want to enter into a dialogue with the label, what’s in it for them?

We faced this challenge when we started working for World Circuit Records, the label famous for Buena Vista Social Club, amongst others. One of their primary marketing tools is live performance, and their artists spend a lot of time touring the world, appearing at festivals and gigs. However, anybody getting into the music has a hard job connecting further with the band.

We devised a tour support campaign, based around a series of short-codes to help capture interest, provide further avenues for exploration and collect data for further marketing pushes. The overall aim; to allow people to immediately engage with the band in a number of contexts, facilitate longer term engagement and build an accessible fan-base using mobile.

We developed a series of touchpoints using a number of shortcodes, which appeared in magazine ads, in festival programmes, on the band’s Myspace page, the label newsletter and on backdrops or big-screens at gigs. By using numbered shortcodes we are able to track response rates accross different channels.

In terms of user experience, we ensured that there was something for every level of mobile user. A series of SMS push messages offered basic information, content via WAP push or further interaction via a link to a mobile site.

In terms of deliverables, we built a WAP site, hosted content and set-up a SMS auto-response. The wapsite had a data capture facility, as well as content downloads. I won’t reveal the price here, but it was well within the reach of an independent label, and something that they can re-use for other artists.

The results so far are very promising. We’ve had a steady stream of responses to the shortcodes in magazines, but the real peaks in numbers happen during live gigs. This weekend at WOMAD saw interactions peak at nearly 500 during the festival, even though the band was by means top of the bill. Those gig goers will leave WOMAD with the band ringtone on their phone, a wallpaper if they went to the WAP site and every single one of them will have an SMS stored with the name of the band and their album.

More importantly, the label has their mobile numbers, in some cases their e-mail addresses and permission to send them more information on the band and the label. Follow up communications can include gigs, TV appearances and special offers as well as a degree of cross-selling of other artists on the label.

By our standards, not a hugely off-the-wall creative campaign, but an imaginative use of dependable technology which suited the client and their target audience. Mobile is great for capturing consumers when they are most receptive to engaging with a band and then developing a more profound and longer term dialogue. We expect we’ll be doing more work for record labels in the future.

Also posted on www.welovemobile.co.uk