Pepsi Music & Crowdsourcing
Posted on | August 10, 2009 | No Comments
Recently, I have been considering both sides of the debate on social media. Is it improving our lives or making us even more A.D.D.? I don’t know, but what I do SEE are communities forming, more rapidly than ever.
It is extraordinary to watch. I post question on Twitter and I get responses from people all over the world. Some of these people have become trusted filters (see The Long Tail by Chris Anderson) to me. I have been expanding and contracting my Twitter family, but this past week, I have added several companies.
One of them Pepsi. The actual handle is @PepsiMusic. Obviously I follow a lot of music related folks, and I was curious to see what @PepsiMusic had to say. Today they posted the following tweet:
After I saw this I found myself smiling a very big smile. FINALLY a brand embracing the potential for Crowd Sourcing.
Go on…. ask the public what they think!!!
Now, from some perspectives this might put me out of a job as a Music Supervisor and Music/Brand Strategist, but it still thrills me. Market to me meaningfully corporate America, I BEG YOU. Let me first say, that in a brick and mortar, pre-internet world, this was very easy to do. Michael Jackson fit almost everyone’s ear buds, but today in a LONG TAIL world, the advertisers, marketers and brands have had a very hard time figuring out how to connect with the public. They might be missing a pretty big boat if they don’t get on board soon. See the name, look…it’s right there on the side; THE ARK.
Music is a naturally sticky marketing tool; the perfect “catch net” to draw new fans to a brand, but music is also highly subjective. Much like my last blog post, I must digress to the notion of the ad communities, “We know best” mentality. Another point to the matter; FACT – the majority of the music chosen to be in ads (tv, internet) is chosen based on the likes/dislikes of the people MAKING the commercial, not on the likes/dislikes of the people BUYING the product. I never understood why. Sorry, I just don’t.
Why don’t you want to choose music that you KNOW is geared towards your demographic? In a time where focus groups and demographics play an even heavier role in the life of an ad campaign, why isn’t the first criteria for a piece of licensed music on a spot the demo? Who likes this music? Who already listens to it, and will the fans of that Band be a potential new fan of our brand? Today I saw the first little sprout from @PepsiMusic. Arguably one of the biggest brands in the world, which historically would put them in the “last one to change” category. So lets watch together as Pepsi embraces the opinion of Twitter’ers around the world to tell them who they should broadcast on behalf of their brand.
Go forth, build communities, and then have the sense to LISTEN to them.
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