Sunday, November 18, 2012

"UNLOCKED" with Rihanna


Though I have been following Rihanna since her “Pon de Replay” days, I have not been a big fan. But in recent years, with top charting hits, I have been paying a lot more attention to the star. She was recently named No. 1 on Forbes list of Social Networking Superstars, ahead of both Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, with 23.8 million Twitter followers and 59.6 million Facebook. Because I spend so much time researching, learning and thinking of new ways to utilize social media, I had to take notice to The Rihanna: UNLOCKED campaign.

unlocked image

The promotion of her 2011 album release Talk That Talk, came at a difficult time because Rihanna was on tour at the time. It is typical for an artist, to do different appearances and for the label to leak content, Island Def Jam was looking for a new and creative way to share content with fans.

Named ‘Best Use of Social Media’ Award at the 2011 Creative Media Awards, UNLOCKED, is a Facebook app that asked listeners to “like” her fan page, which allowed them to go on missions to uncover content. Fans were able to unlock lyrics, Rihanna’s new “R” logo, the single “We Found Love”, her new website, the album’s release date and its cover.  Well what was the ROI on the campaign?

  • Fans created 928,000 "stories"
  • 118,000 tweets were created by the campaign, which equated to 5,000 per hour
  • 420 million total Wall impressions
  • Talk That Talk entered the Billboard charts at number 3 with 198,000 albums sold
  • "We Found Love" was the most listened to song on Facebook in 2011 and has since then gone triple-platinum 

This is once again, a great example of how record labels are willing to think outside the box, in creating marketing campaigns for artists. It is not just about the masses but providing unique creative content for each individual fan. UNLOCKED is only the beginning for Rihanna, as she has recently started her 777 tour (7 performances, in 7 cities across 7 countries). 


Sunday, November 4, 2012

Financing Your Start-Up


When starting any business, research is very important part especially with obtaining start-up capital. There are several ways to receive start-up money for a new business: crowdfunding, friends and family, angel investors, private equity and even venture capitalists. One resource that many entrepreneurs forget about is the Federal Government.

Government grants are funded by tax dollars and require very strict compliance and reporting measures to ensure the money is well spent. Grants from the federal government are only available to non-commercial organizations, such as non-profits and educational institutions in areas such as, medicine, education, scientific research and technology development.

The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) provides grants to economically distressed communities to generate new employment, help retain existing jobs and stimulate industrial and commercial growth. The mission of the EDA is to “lead the federal economic development agenda by promoting innovation and competitiveness, preparing American regions for growth and success in the worldwide economy.”

The EDA evaluates all projects to determine if they advance global competitiveness, creates jobs, leverage public and private resources, can demonstrate readiness and ability to use funds quickly and effectively, and link to specific and measureable outcomes. The EDA encourages its partners around the country to develop initiatives that advance new ideas and creative approaches to address rapidly evolving economic conditions.

The investment priorities are as follows:
  1. Collaborative Regional Innovation
  2. Public/Private Partnerships
  3. National Strategic Priorities
  4. Global competitiveness
  5. Environmentally-Sustainable Development
  6. Economically Distressed and Undeserved Communities

The EDA also shares recent recipients of EDA Grants. The Burlington Electric Department received $1,000,000 to assist in the establishment of an Energy Efficient Revolving Loan Fund (EE RLF). The fund will provide on-bill loan financing for up to 150 commercial electric users seeking to make efficiency electrical improvements. Other recipients include: the City of Garden Grove, CA; City of South Gate, CA; the Norman Economic Development Coalition; Village of Greenfield, OH; the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, CA and more. 

U.S. Economic Development Administration. (n.d.). Retrieved Nov. 4, 2012, from United States Economic Development Administration: http://www.eda.gov

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Hot Trends in Social Media



In my last post, I looked at what the music industry can learn from the fashion industry in regards to social media and fan engagement. With social platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr and newcomer Pinterest, marketers are now seeing the importance of incorporating media visuals in their social media campaigns. Here are a few examples of the hottest trends in social media. 


Pinterest:
The third most popular social network behind Facebook and Twitter with 104 million visitors,   Pinterest is a social bookmarking platform where users collect and share photos of their favorite events, interests and hobbies. In a recent article on Mashable.com, 1 in 10 retailers are offering Pinterest pins on their sites.

One of those top retailers, Gucci, unveiled an ad apart of the Fall/Winter 2012 digital campaign. By clicking on “Pin It”, two images will appear. The first being a full-size image of the ad, and the second being a product shot of the shoes.


I too can admit that Pinterest is one of my new addictions; I love being able to save pictures of clothes, cars, or anything that is of my interest. Here is a picture of some of my favorite things.


Facebook Fan Pages:

Brands are taking notice how popular how photography based social networks like Pinterest and Instagram have taken off. A study showed that of the top 10 brands on Facebook, users liked photos twice as often as texts and shared videos 12 times more than photo and texts posts combined. The number one Fashion brand on social media engagement, Burberry, is investing heavily in image and video content.




Brands Celebrate Milestones:
After reaching a monumental 5 million Facebook fans, Old Navy put together a video thanking fans with a special 30% coupon at the end of the video. 




Go here to see a few more of the hottest trends in using social media marketing