A Brand Manager’s Take on MySpace Music

If you haven’t heard by now, the much-anticipated MySpace Music is officially live after getting EMI to come onboard as the final major label on the site.  Though they still don’t have a CEO in place, they do have a rumored $2 billion valuation and some serious buzz at launch.  All the usual tech bloggers like ReadWriteWeb and Techcrunch have great summaries of the site so I won’t go into a rundown here.  Instead, I want to provide the perspective of a Brand Manager looking at this as a way to digitally connect with consumers.

First a little background since I have a pretty long history with MySpace.

• For starters, when I was working as an Assistant Brand Manager on Secret, we did one of the first-ever CPG campaigns on the site, which included co-branded music page with a then unknown artist named Rihanna.
• Second, I have some very good friends who work at MySpace, thanks in part to the above campaign
• Finally, I actually met my girlfriend on MySpace, a surprising fact that has been pretty useful in games of “two truths and a lie.”

So what all this means is that I have a soft spot for MySpace and I’m usually pulling for them with new initiatives.  Thankfully on this latest program, they gave me plenty of ammunition to cheer about.

Here are my thoughts:

MySpace’s key to success will be capitalizing on their brand equity of “discovery”:  When I hear about a new band, MySpace is always the first place I go.  No matter if the band is signed to a major or a complete undiscovered, I know there is a 99% chance they have a MySpace where I will be able to hear a few of their songs.  Theoretically I could do the same with iTunes but it has always been hit or miss if they have new bands.  In the short-term, MySpace won’t be able to win by just promoting big, new releases.  Instead, they neeed to focus on their equity of discovery and promote the up and coming bands like crazy.

MySpace Music won’t win over marketers if it is just another “banner ad” media buy: There has been a lot of debate about the CPM’s MySpace will need to charge in order to make this ad-supported format work.  At the heart of the debate is the fact that current social networking media buy CPM’s are extremely low.  The fact is that if MySpace treats this program like more banner ad media inventory, then they have already lost.  What they need to do is create truly compelling, holistic campaigns that tie bands to brands.  The first appeal of MySpace to me 4 years ago as a markter was that MySpace gave me access to artists I couldn’t afford to sign individual deals with.  They were the gateway for me associating with some amazing music.  MySpace needs to leverage that strength to create some really compelling marketing campaigns that in the end make CPM’s irrelevent.   The type of advertising that Pandora offers on their site is a start, but MySpace needs to go much, much further than that.  Create marketing programs that exist on and off the web.

Amazon.com made a brilliant move partnering with MySpace and providing DRM-Free Music: Honestly until I read about the deal with MySpace Music, I didn’t even know that Amazon offered music downloads.  Now they are going to be a click away whenever I listen to new music.  However, the key to this deal working out for them as well, will be point #1 above.  If Amazon can become the place to buy new, up and coming music, then they can put a serious dent into iTunes market share.  When I hear about a band like Benjamin Del Shreve, I want to be able to go straight to their MySpace page, listen to their songs and buy them if I want.  I want to stop having to flip a coin in the hopes that iTunes might carry the band.

MySpace Music needs to bring the social back to music:  In order for MySpace Music to truly be revolutionary, I think they need to bring the social back to music.  Fred Wilson over at A VC has talked at length about his love of mix tapes and MySpace seems to be listening.  But they need to avoid having MySpace Music be a walled garden where how I listen to and share music is limited.  Don’t make me go to MySpace to use your service.  Let me download an Adobe Air player for my desktop.  Also make it easy for me to share my favorite music with my friends.  Give me a widget on my blog showing my playlist.  Hell, find a way to let that same widget live on Facebook since to me Facebook and MySpace aren’t competitors.  MySpace needs to not make the horrible mistake of acting like a portal and forgetting that the future of the web is social media…not isolation.

Treat MySpace Music like a brand and hire accordingly:  As a huge music fan, I see a lot of potential in MySpace Music.  But I also see them making a couple of mistakes that could have major negative impacts on the site being as revolutionary as they want.  In my opinion, the best thing they could do is hire a CEO who gets not only the Social Web, but also Brand Marketing.  MySpace Music needs to act like a brand, not an Internet Portal.  Don’t just hire a web guy…and please don’t hire a media/music person.  Get someone that can build this into the brand that it has the potential to be.

Related articles by Zemanta

• First Impressions on MySpace Music
• Initial Thoughts On MySpace Music
• MySpace Music Puts Major-Label Tunes in Streaming Playlists [Streaming Media]
• MySpace Music Launches
• MySpace Music Launches Tonight and It Looks Very Cool
• This could actually work: MySpace Music
• MySpace Music launches

“Where does he get those wonderful toys?”

Bat Signal in NYC

The bat signal lights up the Woolworth Building to promote The Dark Knight.  I haven’t been this excited for a movie in a long time.

Photo courtesy of Olga Bas

Content Marketing = Brand New Marketing

Every once in awhile you come across a presentation that blows you away…both because of its content and because of its design.  The latest from Helge Tenno is one of those presentations (which I found thanks to Paul Isakson who consistently delivers his own great presentations).  Helge’s presentation takes you through the concept of Content Marketing, pointing out that “Content isn’t king.  Conversation is king.  Content is just something to talk about.”

Wonderful stuff that I really encourage you to check out.  My favorite quote of the presentation:

Content Marketing = Participating in activities facilitated by the brand (slide 62)

PR / Influencer Marketing done the right way

Have you heard about the BK Crown Card?  It is a great example of Public Relations and Influencer Marketing done the right way.  The premise of the program is simple: if you have the card, you get a lifetime of free meals at Burger King.  And with only 12 cardholders in the world, the BK Crown Card is the ultimate “status symbol”…more so than an AMEX Black Card could ever hope to be.

The program has been around since 2006 but recently got a PR bump when Hugh Laurie (star of TV show House) claimed to be a BK Crown Card carrying member.  The key word in that sentence is claimed since unlike Jay Leno, Jennifer Hudson, or Robert Downey Jr, Hugh wasn’t a card member.  But thanks to the PR buzz from his claim, he is now.  Ahh the perks of the rich and famous…

What is the future of media?

Absolutely stellar presentation on the Future of Media by Neil Perkin.

Jaffe thinks the creative function should fade away?

“Why don’t you all just fade away.” – Rex Manning, Empire Records

 I couldn’t help but think of this quote from my favorite movie when I finished reading Joseph Jaffe’s latest blog post on “Is it time to phase out the creative function“.  In one of the more provocative posts I have read in a long time, Jaffe basically calls the creative function out and argues that their time has passed them by.  Jaffe argues that in today’s world, “creativity is just way too imporant to be left to a single person, a dynamic duo, or a department anymore.”  He goes to state what I think is the most important part of his argument:

“I’d begin by losing the word ‘creative’ from any job title and thus, any walking silo.  Every–and I stress every–single person involved in the process of engaging surprising, delighting, empowering and converting consumers has to be creative.  Any less will just result in failure.”

Last week I wrote about how there is a difference between being a Brand Manager and being a Marketer.  This is one of the points that Jaffe was getting to.  In the old world, you could just be a Brand Manager and rely on your creatives to come up with brilliant marketing campaigns.   But in order to be the best Brand Managers in the future, you will need to be a brilliant Marketer as well.  You need to embrace that breakthrough ideas could come from anywhere…the consumer, the agency and even the client.  You cannot just sit comfortably in the background with the thinking that the ad campaign you approved will be the solution to everything.

Now to be clear, Jaffe isn’t arguing that creatives should fade away, but instead the creative function as currently defined should.

Redefining luxury today and in the future

Folks at scenarioDNA put together a great presentation on the changing face of luxury.  Not only do they define 4 luxury personas (Purists, Guilted Lillies, Passport Posse & Brand New Heavies) but also talk about generational differences within these 4 personas.  Great read for those in luxury marketing or those looking at the concept of masstige.

Future Department – The Next Issue

Just finished reading the The Next Issue and it was filled with some truly great quotes.  If you aren’t familiar with The Next Issue, it is a new monthly magazine put out by the Future Department.  The magazine includes some killer commentary from thoughtleaders in a variety of industries.  Here are a couple of my favorite quotes that really echo what the industry is facing (more after the break):

“Creating traditional advertising was easy.  You were doing the same thing over and over again.  Now, if you’re doing it right, you’re making it up fresh each time.  And the mix of skills you work with changes every time.” – Vinny Warren, The Escape Pod

Being like Dad isn’t a bad thing

I’ve been a huge fan of the new Canadian Club campaign ever since it broke a few months ago.  According to the latest article from AdAge, it appears I’m not the only one.  The campaign, under the tagline of “Damn Right Your Dad Drank It” has helped Canadian Club reverse one of the longest declines in the spirit industry.  From the article, “case volume of Canadian Club in food, drug and liquor stores rose 4.4% in the 13 weeks ending March 8.”  This is after case shipments went from 3.9 million in 1980 to 1.5 million in 1995 and further down to 1.3 million last year.

In my eyes, the success of this campaign shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that knows Gen Y/Millenials.  For younger consumers (ie the 21 to 30 set this campaign goes after), being like your dad isn’t a bad thing.  Family is more important to this generation of consumers than ever before and dad is a role model, not an old guy.  In fact, doing something your father did isn’t a bad thing, especially when you think about your dad as a cool young guy that enjoyed life.  Canadian Club got it right on this one with their new generation of consumers.

How do you measure Social Media?

Ian Schafer points us to a great article/discussion over at Adweek on the metrics of Social Media.  In my opinion, this is one of the biggest issues facing the industry right now.  The largest advertisers (like P&G) have embraced the traditional aspects of social media, putting up banner ads on MySpace, etc.  We are experimenting in order to figure out how to fully embrace social media but measures are the struggle in order to get total buy-in.  As the article points out:

That makes it hard to compare data from social media with other measures, said Marcel Lebrun, CEO of Radian6, a social media tracking firm. “The online ad world has page views, impressions and clicks,” he said. “That kind of thing doesn’t exist yet” in social media. 

I highly encourage you to read the full article here.  Also, I would love to hear your thoughts on how the industry should think about social media metrics?  How can we overcome the hurdle?