Click the X

YouTube pop up ads.  I hate them, you hate them.  Like a pesky fly, the mouse is ready to pounce on the X as soon as the video hits the magic 10 second mark.

But do they work??

I personally find most advertising on social media untrustworthy and tacky when in this form.  Integration with traditional media would help remove this stigma, and add credibility to an advertising campaign.  But what do you think?

Do you think these ads are effective? And have you ever responded to one or even taken notice of the product??  Share your thoughts below!

"Consumers associate music with Coke" - Joe Bellioti, Coca Cola.

Earlier this year Coke launched Coca Cola Music, a new branded platform for experiencing and sharing music.  Not letting the rather indifferent response towards the launch using Maroon 5, Coke has announced overnight that it's amping up the service and pitching it against Apple's iTunes and the crippled Myspace. 

Apparently just drinking Coke is the key to connecting you with other people to share music. Too easy.

So easy in fact that Joe Bellioti, director of global entertainment marketing at Coca Cola, states that this social media project aims to double the entire company’s revenue to more than $200 billion by 2020.


A great blog on SMM as an integrated marketing tool highlighted the differing views on the effectiveness of Coke's design and monitoring of it's social media activities, and with this new platform announcement, will surely only intensify.

So if it is to believed that past social media activities by Coke have been underwhelming, do you think this can reverse their luck??

Post your comments below!

Justin Timberlake Is Bringing Music Social Media Back

I've been reading a lot about Justin Timberlake's investment in the company which has recently bought out Myspace, and how believes he has what several rounds of Myspace managers lack - the ability to create a place for fans to consume music and connect with their favourite artists.

“There’s a need for a place where fans can go to interact with their favorite entertainers, listen to music, watch videos, share and discover cool stuff and just connect. MySpace has the potential to be that place” - Timberlake.

Back it its heyday, Myspace Music was the trendy, cutting edge go-to site to interact with both established and unsigned artists.  Lily Allen and My Chemical Romance are just two of the many who effectively used the platform to launch their careers.  Fast forward to 2011 and the site is losing a million users per month, with fans now preferring to interact with artists over a range of different platforms - Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc...

It seems logical to merge this fragmented social media presence into one platform a la JT's Myspace 2.0, but is it possible? Facebook attempted this with it's BandPage link -

However users have found it clunky, slow and not interactive. 

Apple then gave it a shot with iTunes Ping, where "your music is more social. Join the conversation, and follow your favorite artists and find out what your friends are listening to with iTunes Ping".

 

Again, users have complained of functionality and navigation issues, as well as a lack of communication with peers.  These are just two of the several sites attempting to offer the ultimate music experience.

So this begs the question, do fans want an all-in-one platform to consume and share music and no one has got it right yet? Or are fans happier with a more fragmented, multi-platform experience?

Perhaps the best way to answer this is just simply to ask what you use to interact with your favourite artists. Are you still a MySpace music fan, or have you steered towards Twitter, Facebook, and/or YouTube to get your fix?

Leave your comments below!

"Content doesn’t matter at all. Only the fact that other people are sharing it" - Gawker’s Adrian Chen

Welcome to Friday! 

Here is where I'll be sharing my thoughts and ideas on social media, specifically on its radical influence on how music is accessed, promoted and shared.  It is my view that in a time where illegal downloads and music accessibility is so widespread to the point where some have argued that the passion and thrill of enjoying music is waning, social media helps to offset this by bringing the listener in closer and building stronger relationships between artists and fans.  However, while this is a proven effective tool, bringing an audience closer can remove the marketing gloss that management works so hard on polishing.  This and other issues related to social media and the music industry will be explored here on Friday.


So why "Friday"?? Yes, you guessed it, Rebecca Black.  Black's story is the ultimate social media marketer's dream and demonstrates the power of this phenomenon.  While her song "Friday" gained notoriety purely through public ridicule, in the process she has gained worldwide publicity, surpassed Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber in YouTube hits, topped Twitter trends for the first half of 2011, gained numerous Facebook fan (and hate) pages, and now is recording a debut album.

All of this achieved simply by recording a song about her favourite day of the week.

Rebecca Black - Friday (OFFICIAL VIDEO) by timesbg

So while you learn how to "get down on Friday", let me ask you this -

Does content matter in social media? Or does sharing only occur when content is of some importance and/or relevance? Leave your comment below!