Filed under: Brands & Marketing, Environment | Tags: advertising, Britain, generation difference, music, Orange, outdoor, poster, racism, Rock Corps, Tinchy Stryder
A lot of people still say Britain has a racism problem. Whilst there is no doubt that this sick issue perpertrated by ignorance still exists, things are nothing like when our parents were young – thankfully!
Case in point is this Orange poster:
Tinchy Stryder and Orange poster
Whilst walking by the poster last night (with some older generation folks) they stopped and pointed it out to me as an example of how things have changed (for the better). It took me a few moments to work out what they were talking about and then I realised. It was the realisation that left me with mixed feelings – sad that I still recognised what they were talking about and happy that it was not immediately apparent to me. I also wondered if anyone at Orange or their ad agency had given this any thought? There may well be the few who get offended but the same url /monkey is applied to all the posters and relates to the personality of fun (I think). Advertisers need to be aware of how their work can be viewed and the social ‘baggage’ that they sometimes have to drag along. Likewise they should never shy from a good idea because of the risk of a few people taking the campaign out of context. The Orange campaign is a good one and any person offended by the above advert is as equally narrow-minded as the person that would endorse it for the wrong reasons.
So my conclusion is that it’s a good thing most people will miss the ‘racial banana skin’ on this advert as it shows how our country is progressing and moving on from horrible racist terms to describe people, but the fact this post was written shows we still have some distance to go. What are your thoughts?
Filed under: Coffee Break | Tags: album, Downloading music, fine, Funny, Illigal Download, kazaa, music, music piracy, neoco, piracy, song, There goes the kids college fund, US woman fined
The piggy bank's probably not going to cover this one
Now, I’m sure many people have many views on this, but I’m still in shock about the amount that this poor woman was fined I’m under the impression that 29 songs is about 3 albums, which I’d say is about 20 quid? I’m pretty sure these songs wern’t on special.
Now, I’m not sure if you find this as funny as I do, but the best it is that she was originally fined $250,000 but it was a mistrail and obviously the music industry found some better lawyers.
It makes you wonder though, how exactly do they expect her to pay? If she’s got a good voice maybe they should take her on tour as some kind of “anti piracy extreme tour” it could definitely make a dent in fine!
Makes you appreciate Spotify that little bit more.
Thanks NME
Filed under: Brands & Marketing, Cool & Online, Events, Hot List Clients | Tags: alternative, blog, Bowie, cool event, digital agency, jazz, london, Meltdown, music, sold out, Southbank Centre, Spotify, tickets, Twitter, we loved Massive Attack last year
Meltdown headliner
Tickets now on sale for the AWESOME Meltdown event.
This has been an absolute stormer over recent years with previous guest directors including Massive Attack, David Bowie, Morrissey and more. this year, free jazz legend and icon of the avant-garde Ornette Coleman will take over Southbank Centre’s riverside venues and spaces as the 16th director of Meltdown. Reflecting the restless, unfettered spirit of this year’s director, Meltdown in 2009 will provide a platform for avantrockers, jazz and world music artists alike – giving free reign to reinvention, improvisation and the collaborative concerts Meltdown is renowned for.
As the Southbank Centre digital agency it was our task to put together all the comms for this year’s event including the dynamic website that draws on several social feeds, including Twitter, Blog and a Spotify playlist.
Meltdown homepage
There has been a great response from the community – the Twitter feed already has nearly 700 followers and newsletter subscriptions are high. So don’t sit here reading any more – go and check it out and why not treat yourself to some tickets too!
Filed under: Brands & Marketing, Cool & Online, Social Networking/ Word Of Mouth | Tags: artist, content, creators, deodrant, Media Guardian, music, Procter and Gamble, Q, record label, TAG, TAG Records
Following on from Benn’s post about “Coke’s Trans-media Storytelling” (trans-media storytelling being the most unlikely buzz-word), it seems more brands are becoming “content creators” in a bid to drive sales. As reported in Monday’s Media Guardian, Island Def Jam Music Group (IDJ) and Procter & Gamble’s TAG brand have recently formed a new hip-hop record label, TAG Records.
At this point, the cynics amongst you may be rolling their eyes. As praneeth points outs quite succinctly on his blog, to be a successful label the focus must be on the music, not on P&G products; but this won’t be possible because the purpose of the music label is to promote P&G products. Taking a quick search on Google suggests that reaction to the label isn’t overwhelmingly positive! Comments on the daily swarm include the witty “this stinks” (TAG is a deodorant brand) as well as the more thoughtful “Be somebody, sell out”. Brilliantly the comments also include such gems as:
“HI MR. DUPREE, I,M CALVIN, WITH 4 ARTISTS, THAT ARE INDUSRTY READY.. I HAVE 3 FEMALES, AND 1 MALE RIGHT NOW’
CONTACT CALVIN SCHEXNAYDER, 559 276 1737”
Whether or not Mr Dupree is listening is another matter.
TAG Records has recently announced its first signing, the Brooklyn rapper “Q”. It will be interesting to see how the label progresses and if the venture is successful. I doubt that most of the audience will really care what label an artist is signed to if they are sufficiently talented. In addition with the financial muscle of P&G on board we should be hearing a lot more about Q in the future.
It’s worth having a quick look at the TAG Records website if you’ve got a spare 2 minutes; the “TAG” section is worth it alone! “When it comes to the hustle, if one piece isn’t right it could all fall apart. So whatever you’re doing out there, make sure you keep it fresh. After all, when you smell good, you fell good and when you feel good, you too can Make History.
I’m now keenly awaiting for the release of “You really need to buy some TAG if you’re going to be cool”.
Filed under: Coffee Break, New Technology | Tags: artificial intelligence, artists, brain, computer, dancing, machine, music, punk, robots, scientists
A collaboration of artists and scientists have created robots which have been designed to love punk music, and show their appreciation of it through dance.
One of the creators, Professor McOwan, from Queen Mary University, said he built the machines because of his fascination with human-computer interaction. They made their dance debut at a 3 day event called Neurotic at the ICA.
The robots use neural networks which are a collection of computer processors that function in a similar way to a simple animal brain. They are popular in the field of artificial intelligence because of their ability to recognise patterns from a sensory input such as visual or auditory information. McOwan said that “the robot brain, for want of a better word, was played lots of punk, reggae, disco and classical and over a period of time the robot has learned to recognise and appreciate the patterns of sound in punk music.” The neural network understands the music in a similar way to a human brain, breaking down the sound into a series of frequency bands.
So during Neurotic, when the robots listened to the live music, in very basic terms, they matched the patterns of the music against the statistics from other types of music they has listened to before. And, if it was punk music, they would rock out…
See the robots in action at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7489030.stm
Really, really clever stuff, but is it just me or does anyone else think they could have programmed the robots to do something useful? I mean, I know it’s all in the name of research and development etc, but dancing robots don’t really have much use to anyone do they? Nevertheless, it looks like we might see more of these clever robots soon…and maybe some useful ones.
Read the full article on the creation of the robots at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7487645.stm
Filed under: Cool & Online, New Technology, Social Networking/ Word Of Mouth, Technology | Tags: Browser, Cypress Hill, Digital, digital marketing, download day, downloads, Facebook, Fire Fox, Firefox, Foxy Tunes, FoxyTunes, functionality, Guiness, IE7, Insane in the membrane, integrated, Internet Explorer, join the dots, Last FM, lifestyle, market share, marketing, Microsoft, music, new, Statistics, UK, World record
Part of the big overhaul coming to Facebook is going to see a wealth of new functionality. Some of this is already trickling through – you may have noticed the very basic chat function on there.
Now you can also have your music added to your message signatures so everyone can see what you are listening too – and even click through to listen themselves. It’s a nice interaction with FoxyTunes – which is one of the best Firefox extensions ever. Not tested if it ties in with Last FM. I love it when technology starts to ‘connect the dots’ like this as it enriches dialog between consumers and makes a richer environment for digital marketing at large.
- Loving the tune? Facebook message with song signature
While on the subject of Firefox, why not help them set a new world record for most software downloads in a day. At the time of writing this, there are still 11 hours to go and currently the UK is third in the world, just behind Canada and way off the US (of course). Interestingly, the UK has delivered more downloads than Russia, Brazil and China!
– Firefox download day world record attempt
Firefox’s true aim is to step up from number two to number one in the browser market, but their current 10-15% of market share is dwarfed by Microsoft’s Internet Explorer at 80-85%. Slowly people are seeing the light and making the switch but Microsoft’s monopoly deal with PC manufacturers means that a huge percentage of users still us the browser that came with their PC. Which sucks for us digital marketing people as Internet Explorer, particularly IE7 is a pile of horse sh*t and requires additional resources to deliver the same display as Firefox.
Filed under: Cool & Online | Tags: amazon, Barnes & Noble, books, bookstore, Borders, Browser, digital marketing, launch, movies, music, online, refreshing, site, The Magic Shelf, window
Borders has gone solo, after its 7 year web sales tie in with Amazon. David Runk of the AP announced that Borders has returned to being an independent online bookstore, with a major facelift designed to increase interest in its brand.
I’ve had a look around the site, borders.com, and think its a really cool and easy to use site. The storefront has rich visuals, with ‘The Magic Shelf’ centrepiece – a browser window that users can interact with to view highlighted books, music, and movies. Users can operate this menu several ways. If you choose on option from the lefthand menu, it will take you to your desired shelf. You can then toggle the arrows at the edges of the window to see all new and/or recommended picks. Or you can simply grab the window and drag your way about the shelves. Whichever way, its great to be given the choice of how you want to browse.
Borders claim that it is refreshing its online storefront not just to compete combating with the likes of Amazon and Barnes & Noble, but also to create a more interactive experience for its customers, with author-contributed shortlists, interviews, and other content. Borders also states that, even with the launch of its new website, it remains open to a sale of the business. According to the AP, Borders announced some two months ago that it might put itself up for sale, and that Barnes & Noble very recently “confirmed it put together a team to study the feasibility of a deal.”
Filed under: News, Social Networking/ Word Of Mouth | Tags: BBC, Billboard, chart, iLike, Last.fm, MTV, music, MySpace, News Corp, show, social network, streaming, teenage, tv, Viacom, video
MySpace and MTV are teaming up to launch a weekly show called “The MySpace Chart” on MTV2. According to The Guardian, the companies are launching a website, which will allow MySpace users to stream a variety of music videos for free. The MySpace Chart show launches on March 16th and will air videos based on the votes cast on the new site.
The move marks another collaboration between the most popular teenage social network and the TV network tailored to them. The two companies previously combined forces for the Presidential Candidate Dialogue Series. MTV is owned by Viacom, while MySpace is owned by rival media company News Corp.
It also reflects the emerging trend that charts from social music sites are starting to cross-over into mainstream media. In addition to the new MySpace/MTV initiative, iLike has teamed up with Billboard, while Last.fm has a partnership with BBC.
Converse Music are holding their first event of 2008 ‘New Blood Live’ on 14th Feb. This is a free event, held at The 100 Club on Oxford street. Bands to play are Bombay Bicycle Club, Death Set, The Chapman Family and Fat Sue! Entry is on a first come, first served basis, so make sure you get there early – doors open at 7.30!
