Brands and bands… and social media savvy
By Hugh Jordan. E x four. Our Brands, bands and social media savvy event over at the IAB UK HQ earlier this week shed light on consumer activity online, and on just how brands and bands need to engage with users/audiences in the space.
Nick Roberts, associate partner at Thinktank International, kicked off proceedings with findings from Nokia’s Global Youth Exploration Study 2010. He emphasised the ‘pick-and-mix approach to identity’ youth now has, making it harder to define them demographically. He attributed this primarily to the online world.
“Young people are open to success and feel the Internet has empowered them to achieve that success on their own terms,” he said.
“Consumers expectation, Roberts added, was for “brands and bands to be open and commit to shared values [the consumer] can engage with.”
On the subject of the Net, MySpace Music’s Craig Tuck and Simon Daglish, sales group head and vp commercial director of the company, respectively, were candid about the nature of social media usage.
They recognise that their users also sign up to Facebook and a number of other social networking sites – and that this is integral to MySpace’s business model.
“Eighteen-to-24 year-olds spend 50% of their time online,” said Tuck. “Social networks are an appointment to listen and watch.”
Daglish used Vodafone’s Music Studio to demonstrate the advantages of this interconnectivity. Vodafone witnessed a 25% increase in brand advocacy due to unsigned bands taking part in the ‘one to watch’ competition on MySpace, mobilising fans across all social media networks and driving traffic through to the MySpace Music portal.
Jakob Lusensky, founder of Heartbeats International highlighted the need for marketers to “understand the culture of music”. The Four ‘p’s of marketing – price, product, place and promotion – needed to be replaced by the four ‘e’s. By which he means emotion, experience, engagement and exclusivity.
Moderator Kieron Matthews, marketing director of the IAB UK, leveraged ‘e’ jokes to maximum effect throughout the afternoon, and in the panel debate later asked Lusensky whether his less tangible parameters would make it harder for brands to target their marketing.
Lusensky agreed they might, adding “but consumers are not rational beings. Emotions play a big part.”
