“Panos’ Brew” is Sonicbids founder/CEO Panos Panay’s weekly (or more) post about whatever happens to be on his mind. Look for musings and observations on entrepreneurship, the state of the music business, his experiences with members, interesting things he’s seen in his travels, or just about anything else.
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For those of you who did not have the chance to participate in the Billboard/BrandWeek Webinar that we sponsored, you can access the whole thing, on demand, from the Billboard site.
Some highlights:
- There is more demand than ever from brands for great music that resonates with consumers;
- There is a market shift, with independent music becoming highly desireable to marketers because of its authenticity, ease of procurement, and because it generally costs less than major label music (but not free);
- 78% of brands have visual guidelines but only about 24% have audio guidelines. Isn’t that amazing?
A couple of good questions that we did not have the chance to answer during the webinar:
Q: Are there any don’ts in conducting battle of the bands digitally?
A: Yes. Some of the ones that quickly come to mind are: 1) Make sure that you define your objectives upfront (if it’s meant to promote your brand, don’t send them to another site; if you want to capture consumer contact info, make sure that you have the right to contact them, etc.); 2) Do your best to prevent voting fraud (people find ways to circumvent the system); 3) make sure that what you offer the bands has real value to them, otherwise they won’t care (i.e. telling them that the grand prize is “worth $50,000” when it’s a bunch of junk is not acceptable) ; which leads me to 4) Treat bands with respect. You are trusting them, after all, to be viral carriers of your message.
Q: Is it wise to hold a contest for indie artists to be in a commercial or is it better to just hire someone?
A: I guess it depends on your objectives. Creative contests have the ability to raise viral awareness about a brand (through the bands to their fans) that can generate excitement and interest about a new product, well before a commercial is even aired. And you can usually accomplish that for a fraction of the cost of just what one major network-aired ad costs (and be more effective). On the other hand, if that’s not the objective and you are working on a coordinated marketing campaign that’s kicked off all at the same time, then perhaps hiring the artists without a whole lot of fan fair is best.
Happy to answer more questions. In the meantime, feel free to browse my personal power point below.
Panos
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