You be the marketer
It doesn’t happen often, but a couple of weeks ago I got what I thought was a great idea.
In reading about how some companies are starting to use blogs to promote their products, I thought, ‘why can’t a record label do this to promote their CDs’? Say pick an artist and send 100 copies of their CD to 100 bloggers, or better yet, give 100 bloggers (or 1,000, or 5,000) the chance to PICK any current CD they want from ANY current artist, and let them blog about it if they want, make it completely up to them!
Like I said, my getting a good idea doesn’t happen very often. So I got pretty excited about this one, and quickly emailed a marketing contact I had at a record label to ask them their opinion of using blogs to promote their artist’s CDs. Told them I thought it would be a great idea, and if they wanted to do something like this, let me know and I’d be happy to help get the word out through BMA.
It’s been over a week since I emailed them, and no word, so I am assuming this isn’t something they want to do. To be honest, I didn’t expect that any labels would want to do this simply because ‘no one’s done that before!’.
But can anyone give me a legitimate reason why such a campaign would NOT work? Just for example, let’s say that 1,000 CDs are given to the first 1,000 bloggers that request them, and they have their choice of any current CD from any current artist under the label’s management. The bloggers are under no obligation to blog about the CDs.
But obviously, many are going to do just that. And not only would they blog about the CD, they would likely blog about the promotion as well. Given consumers’ distrust of ‘money-grubbing labels’, finding one that was actually giving away music would be a goldmine of positive blog-love for any label smart enough to do this!
Now granted, one blogger seeing a positive review of a free CD isn’t going to sway too many readers to buy that CD. But when you see the same CD being given a good review on a different blog everyday, eventually you wonder if this might be something you should check into. Yes there would the cost of the CDs involved, but even for 1,000 CDs, I wouldn’t think the total cost would be over 1 or 2 thousand at the most, right?
So what am I missing here? Is the main reason why no labels want to do this is because they can’t get past the idea of giving away something? Or is it simply because ‘no one’s tried that before’? Perhaps I am simply giving the labels too much credit, maybe they don’t really get ‘what the big deal about blogs is anyway’.
If anyone in the record industry can address this from the label’s point of view, that would be incredible. Maybe there’s something we can’t see in the marketing mix from this side of the fence.
So what is it guys, what am I missing here? If you were in charge of marketing for a major label and this idea was pitched to you, would you do it?
