Insightful articles, opinion and commentary about mobile and web.

By Simon van Wyk

As Peer Group Media director Andrew Reid mentioned in an the earlier post “The music in me…”, successful music marketing campaigns are a multi-year commitment, which means there are a wide range of things that need to be measured to gauge the overall success of the venture.

The fact that most of the campaigns mentioned in last week’s article about case studies are still going after several years (in the case of the Red Bull Music Academy, more than 10 years) indicates that the companies involved are happy to continue their involvement, which is a measure of success in itself.

However, none of the companies mentioned in the case studies have been forthcoming about the analytics used to measure the success of their campaigns, and not a lot has been published generally in this specialised area.

In a recent interview on Billboard.biz, Steve Yanovsky, music and emerging media strategy consultant at media investment management firm Mindshare, gives some insight into the various things companies need to consider when engaging in music marketing, including what to measure.

He says: “It’s ironic that one of the highest rated shows in the history of television is a show about music. There is no disputing the social aspect and commercial impact of blockbuster films such as New Moon or hit TV franchises such as American Idol. As with music, they are also vastly communal and can be deeply personal. But, they are finite platforms. Unlike film and TV, music is neither confined by space, time, season nor location. It is completely portable, addressable and measurable.

“And although music can be passive and active, engagement with it is mostly unrestrained, both to the conscious and the subconscious. Lady Gaga wears several pairs of sunglasses in her new video Bad Romance, including a pair of Carrera White Champion. Yes, a music video is screen facing and all of three minutes. An aspiring female fashionista will watch it dozens and dozens of times. After reading this month’s feature pictorial in Elle magazine just prior to walking into Macy’s, she hears the song. Does it remind her of those sunglasses she wanted buy? It is one possible scenario that moves Carrera to the top of their consideration set at the height of purchase intent. Surely, this is the outcome Carrera hoped for in the first place.

“This reflects the importance of music in what I call the “thrivecycle”—where consumers live, thrive and buy. If connecting on an emotional level is central to consumer engagement, then music offers a multitude of paths to accomplish this.

“…Music is both content and media. If we characterize consumer engagement as the sum total of the number of daily impressions plus the total amount of content consumption, then music offers the largest array of consumer-facing touch points (reach) than any other category and is by far, the most consumed entertainment content today. This includes all daily interactions that consumers directly or incidentally have with music—all physical and digital music sold. It is every other format that music exists within or is engaged, including both entertainment and advertising.

“If attention is the biggest cost in marketing, then all of these are potential attention silos. If done collectively over time, it can help create the emotional equity to build trust with consumers, which is still the most valuable connection a brand can make.”

Tags: billboard.biz, case studies, music marketing, podcast, steve yanovsky