Despite Negative Tweets, #TwitterCrucialToMarketing

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As advertisers increasingly turn to social media, problems can arise, accidentally sending consumers unintended mixed messages.
A promoted Trend on Twitter reportedly cost $120,000 per day, and gets the advertiser the sponsored slot at the top of the trending topics list.
But as Ad Age points out in this article, sometimes these paid spots end up surrounded by unappealing Tweets or hashtags.
When Lexus had the paid spot on April 20, it was trending next to topics about events associated with that date including the Columbine Massacre, Hitler’s birthday, and marijuana (related hashtag #uknowurhigh).
A more recent paid spot advertising the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week was recently trending next to #reasonstobeatyourgirlfriend, with some Tweets yoking the hashtags together (“She won’t shut up during #sharkweek!!! #Reasonstobeatyourgirlfriend.”)
A Lexus spokeswoman told Ad Age, “We feel social-media users can distinguish between trending news topics and promoted topics. It’s not that much different than if we purchase an ad in a newspaper that is reporting about the day’s news, good and bad.”

Whether the trending topics are good or bad, Ad Age says Twitter is a crucial part of marketing campaigns. “Having a strategy for Twitter is more important than any run-of-the-mill banner ad placement that might net you a few cheaply-acquired eyeballs and little else. The platform enables water-cooler conversation being conducted by millions over some period of time and the clearest distillation of that is the trending topics list.”

Twitter execs are also planning stricter moderation in the near future.

Marlee Scott Goes Dancing • New Darrell Scott Disc • AJ Offers Free Concert

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Marlee Scott has released a dance mix of her country single “Beautiful Maybe” to over 240 DJs, club owners and dance instructors. The special high-energy version was remixed and produced by Allen Morgan. Listen to it here. The radio version was produced by David Kalmusky and written by Marcus Hummon, Tia Sillers and Tania Hancheroff. “I cannot wait to get out on the road and start playing my music for everyone!” says Scott, who grew up in Alberta, Canada. “There are parts of the U.S. that I’ve never been before, and I’m getting ready for my first official radio tour down here. I am so pumped to meet everyone at Country radio!”
 
 
Darrell Scott is set to release Long Ride Home, the artist’s seventh studio album, on Oct. 11. The self-produced, 16-track project was mixed by Ray Kennedy and will utilize the services of Thirty Tigers for marketing and distribution. According to Scott, the collection leverages his songwriting as a vehicle to revisit and pay tribute to the music of his youth. Scott has three Grammy nominations and an Americana Music Award. http://www.darrellscott.com/
 
 
 
 
Alan Jackson fans will have the chance to earn a free show in conjunction with the release of Jackson’s as yet unnamed album coming up this Fall. Fans will have until Oct. 10 to vote for their city at  http://eventful.com/alanjackson. Eventful works closely with partners in the entertainment and music industries to design and execute powerful social media marketing campaigns which engage consumers, generate critical data regarding local demand, drive awareness and generate ticket sales for movies, concerts, family shows and other live events. Eventful’s community of over 17 million registered users use Eventful to discover, promote, share and create events.
 

Pinpointing 2011 Country Sales

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Country album sales are up an astounding 4% YTD as of 8/7/2011 with 22,930,000 units scanned. That is some good news. However, before we open the second bottle of Cristal Champagne (on sale HERE for $295 ea.) it seems appropriate to survey 2010 and compare it with possible expectations and release schedules for 2011.
Graph 1 (above): This line graph shows how 2010 sales increased during the period from mid-August through mid-November.
Graph 2 (right): This shows how the rate of sales increased last year (2010) during the same period covered in Graph 1. Note that late Oct and Nov. show particularly steep increases generated by Taylor Swift, Sugarland, Rascal Flatts and Keith Urban debuts.
Table 1: This table shows the albums and debut week sales totals that occurred between data points on Graph 1.
Table 1: 2010 High Roller Album Debuts
8/15/2010: Blake Shelton-33k
9/5/10: Little Big Town-42k, Trace Adkins-50k
9/19/10: Jamey Johnson-63k
10/3/10: Kenny Chesney-184k, ZBB 153, Billy Currington-45k
10/17/10: Darius Rucker-101k, Band Perry-53k, Toby Keith-71k
10/31/10: Taylor Swift-1,047, Sugarland-202.7
11/21/10: Jason Aldean-193k, Rascal Flatts-165k, Keith Urban-162k, Reba-64k, Brad Paisley Hits-31
 
Looking at 2010 there are 17 “heavy hitter” releases on our list including Taylor Swift’s million plus effort and Sugarland’s 200k+ debut. Then we had Kenny Chesney, Jason Aldean, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts and Zak Brown Band all in the 150-200k range.
This year’s schedule is not completely revealed, but MusicRow’s upcoming Album Release Calendar currently shows only six power titles ahead— Luke Bryan, Jake Owen, George Strait, Lady Antebellum, LeAnn Rimes and Miranda Lambert. However,  Trace Adkins just debuted (8/7/2011), with 47k (pretty close to last year’s 50k showing) and there are some newcomers on the list like Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alina that are shifting product nicely. Also contributing to 2011’s early lead are solid recent debuts from Eric Church, Blake Shelton, Chris Young and Justin Moore. However, to surpass 2010 country will need to find additional sales ammunition with which to entice consumers especially during this uncooperative economy.
Reader Challenge
Cook up some math-based scenarios and ring in below with your year-end prognostications in the comment area. Country scanned 43.718 million album units in 2010. Guess the correct first three digits of the 2011 sales total and win a free MusicRow subscription! Ready, set, GO!

Album News: Luke Bryan, Kevin Fowler, McClymonts

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Luke Bryan’s highly anticipated new album Tailgates & Tanlines hit stores today (8/9) and he kicked off release day by performing “Country Girl (Shake It For Me)” on Live! With Regis & Kelly (pictured below). Bryan will also be performing on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! later tonight. Tomorrow (8/10), he’ll appear on the Today Show and then be featured in ABC’s special “CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night To Rock” Sunday, August 14.

Photo: Michael Monaco


• • • •
Texas mainstay and Average Joe’s artist Kevin Fowler released his sixth studio album Chippin’ Away today (8/9) as his single “Hell Yeah, I Like Beer” spent a fourth week at No. 1 on the Texas Music Chart.
Fowler wrote eight of the collection’s 11 tracks and the second single, “That Girl,” will be impacting country radio later this month. A weekly web series following Fowler’s life at home and on the road, “The Good Life,” also started this week and is available for viewing here. Fowler and band are currently on the road in Texas and surrounding areas. Concert dates are available here.
• • •
Aussie sister trio The McClymonts is set to release its new album Wrapped Up Good in the United States Tuesday, August 23.
The sisters–Sam, Mollie, and Brooke–started their own imprint BSM Music in partnership with Universal Music Group. They also recently set out on a nationwide tour of county and state fairs, having wrapped up a stint on Jason Aldean’s fall 2010 tour.
Eleven of the 12 songs on Wrapped Up Good were co-written by the sisters, and production was handled by Nathan Chapman and Adam Anders (Glee, Backstreet Boys, Nick Jonas). The Australian release of Wrapped Up Good was a Top 5 Best Selling Country Album in 2010, and its first four singles were No. 1 on the Australian country charts.

Hot Times At Jake On The Lake

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Sony salutes the Gold digital certifications of two Jake Owen hits. Pictured (L-R): Sony SVP Promotion Skip Bishop, SVP Marketing Paul Barnabee, Jake Owen, Assoc. Director Sales Caryl Healey, and VP Promotion RCA Keith Gale.


Jake Owen treated music tastemakers to an afternoon retreat on Tuesday (8/2) at Jake On The Lake. The Nashville press corps and industry execs braved the heat and gathered on Music Row to board buses bound for Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville, Tenn.
At Anchor High Marina, Owen performed songs from his upcoming release Barefoot Blue Jean Night and shared details about the project which has tracks produced by Joey Moi, Rodney Clawson, and Tony Brown. Against a backdrop of sweltering summer heat and squawking ducks on the lake, Owen candidly told about his background and journey to Nashville.
Particularly he spoke about his search for outside songs for his third studio set. For example, the lead single and title track from the pens of Eric Paslay, Dylan Altman and Terry Sawchuk, has turned out to be the fastest rising single of Owen’s career. It lands at No. 7 this week on MusicRow’s CountryBreakout chart.
“I’m from Florida and I ran around barefoot my whole life,” says Owen of the song. “I think all music fans crave authenticity and this song is as realistic as it gets.”
After his performance, Sony execs surprised him with gold digital single plaques for 500,000 downloads of “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” and “Eight Second Ride,” from his previous album Easy Does It.
Guests at the Sony-fest enjoyed a southern smorgasbord of fried chicken, catfish, hushpuppies and coleslaw. Cool drinks were from Island ROX, a new frozen cocktail mixer from the brains behind Dippin’ Dots.
Owen will perform Saturday night (8/6) in Nashville as the special guest on the U.S. leg of Keith Urban’s Get Closer 2011 World Tour.

Pinky Gonzales BubblesUp In Oregon

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Pinky Gonzales


Digital services company BubbleUp has tapped music marketer Pinky Gonzales to lead a company expansion in the Pacific Northwest. He is a former partner at echomusic and Belmont University Adjunct Professor.
The new office will compliment the company’s existing operations in Tennessee, Texas and Connecticut where they handle digital services for Margaritaville, Keith Urban, Zac Brown Band and BB King’s Blues Clubs.
BubbleUp CEO Coleman Sisson explains the expansion: “Portland is a great town full of technical and creative talent to compliment our existing operations. With the addition of Pinky Gonzales, a guy we’ve done a lot of business with over the years, we’re hitting the ground running. It’s an exciting move for all of us.”
Several new hires are planned for the Portland office, specifically tech and design talent.
Gonzales will also play a role in the recently announced Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE), an entrepreneurial endeavor led by ad agency Wieden + Kennedy and sponsored by Google, Nike, Target and Coca Cola.
Contact info:
Pinky Gonzales, West Coast Operations BubbleUp™
(615) 513-­5607
[email protected]

Rascal Flatts Feted For No. 1 Single, Platinum Album

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MusicRow Pres./Owner Sherod Robertson (R) presents a plaque to Jason Sellers (L) for the song reaching No. 1 on MusicRow's CountryBreakout chart. Photo: Christie King


Music executives gathered last night (8/3) to celebrate the recent chart-topping success of the Rascal Flatts hit “I Won’t Let Go,” from the pens of songwriters Jason Sellers and Steve Robson. It was the band’s 13th career No. 1 single.
ASCAP and the Flatts’ label home Big Machine Records hosted the evening at Nashville’s downtown Hard Rock Cafe. Big Machine boss Scott Borchetta upped the ante when he shared news that Rascal Flatts’s Nothing Like This album has been certified platinum.
“As we all know, the one-million sales mark of any album by any artist in the current environment is a big, big deal and I’m proud as can be that our first album with Rascal Flatts has hit this milestone,” said Borchetta. “Working with Gary, Joe Don and Jay over the last year has been an absolute blast and I look forward to making a lot more great Rascal Flatts music with them. They are consummate professionals, are ridiculously talented and it seems that they are having more fun than ever being in Rascal Flatts. I’m honored to have them with us at Big Machine.” Since 2000, the band has sold more than 20 million albums.
Publishers were on hand to salute the songwriters behind the “I Won’t Let Go.” Sony/ATV’s Troy Tomlinson toasted Sellers, and BMG Chrysalis’s Darrell Franklin read a letter from Robson, who was in London with his family and unable to attend.
Jay DeMarcus spoke for the band, “With God’s help we have been able to bring together a wonderful group of people to surround and reinvigorate our career. We are living a dream come true.”

Jay DeMarcus, Jason Sellers, Joe Don Rooney, Gary LeVox and Scott Borchetta. Photo: Ed Rode


 

Church Enjoys Heavenly Sales

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Capitol Chieftain Mike Dungan and his flock of the Capitol faithful have created a revival of sorts. First and foremost they receive a righteous shout out for launching Eric Church into the No. 1 spot on both the Top 200 and Country album charts with sales of almost 145,000 units. Secondly, their efforts have had the devout effect of raising country’s YTD album sales increase into heavenly territory above that of overall sales. According to Nielsen SoundScan, country album sales YTD are now up 2.9% while overall album sales are only up 1.8%.
And let’s not “pew pew” Church’s digital sales. The Chief album was downloaded over 51,000 times or 35% of total album sales. This is a lofty number which shows that country fans are rapidly jumping over the country chasm, aka—digital divide.
The congregation is still out on how this might have happened. Typically album sales are radio driven. Yet Church’s current single “Homeboy” is outside the Top 10 on mainstream radio charts and the single shows up this week at a lackluster No. 17 on the country tracks chart, hardly divine positions. (“Homeboy” has gone Gold however, in less than 21 weeks.)  And yet Chief is the second highest country debut of the year (behind Brad Paisley), outselling others this year that hit debut weeks with “perfect” textbook setups. So what has made the difference?  Could it be the artist’s strong touring schedule? Social networking?
“Is Eric the new Hank Jr.?” asks sales veteran Neal Spielberg. “There’s hits and then there are polarizing records that touch people and create rabid fans. Church has done a great job of converting people into solid fans.”
Church’s manager John Peets from Q Prime South has a pretty strong theory. “Yes it feels like a sea change of sorts for the country music industry,” he says. “The story here is that Eric didn’t get the traditional exposure that you would expect to be necessary to reach these levels. It wasn’t there for him, although we’re grateful for everything we did get. But what it tells me is that the new power is in the hands of the people. That is to say, the magic is created by great records with a point of view. And that’s what Eric has done with three great albums. It’s like we’ve reached a tipping point of sorts. We are just blown away and encouraged by this. It’s like Eric’s music represents something even bigger than him.”
“We have always put everything we have into making the best records possible,” explains Church. “Complete, individual pieces of work that strive to be as different and innovative as they are creative and artistic. It is a journey that at times has led us down the road less traveled. It is very humbling and rewarding to learn that a lot of people decided to follow us down this path. I can’t thank my fans enough and look forward to where this trip takes us next.”
Are we writing a new page in the country music sales handbook? Is social networking and digital word of mouth gaining critical mass? That would be great, since the existing book hasn’t delivered stellar results over the past few years. Please comment below…

Crowdsourcing Engages Fans, Fuels Traffic

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Crowdsourcing has been growing in popularity among marketers in recent years and offers numerous ways to engage music fans. The buzzword is derived from the concept of outsourcing a service to a crowd, instead of seeking answers internally. Essentially, it taps the consumer masses for collaboration and feedback.
Today crowdsourcing continues to evolve, with a variety of industries using it for product development, research, and marketing. In return for participation—usually done online—consumers receive prizes ranging from cash to gift cards to artist merch.
Crowdsourcing fuels peer-to-peer marketing, where fans encourage their friends to participate, and share videos, exclusive content, and coupons.
The music biz has been using it for fan engagement, such as recent initiatives by Paul McCartney and Florence and the Machine. The industry brains behind the famed Beatle created a contest where fine artists designed a work inspired by his music. A similar competition was held to design a dress for Florence and the Machine singer Florence Welsh, which solicited 60 million votes according to a press release from Talenthouse, the social crowdsourcing company that was tapped by Universal Music Group for both projects. From a marketing perspective, it is a way to drive traffic to the artists’ websites and social networks, as well as engage consumers who entered the contests or voted for the winners.
Social media is a key component of most crowdsourcing websites, because the companies require a Facebook or Twitter account to log in. Some, like Talenthouse, run user voting through the social media sites. Connecting through Facebook allows marketers to gather the user’s FB info, including gender, list of friends, “likes,” email address, and access to post to the wall, with user permission.
Numerous crowdsourcing websites have popped up in recent years such as Krush.com, Crowdtap.com, and Prizes.org. Each site works a little differently, but they mostly have users answer polls, solve problems, or give feedback on products. Among the big-name brands on board are Old Navy, American Express, and Adidas.

Black River Beefs Up Marketing Dept.

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Katie McCartney


Black River Entertainment has tapped Katie McCartney as Director, Marketing. In the new role, she will handle the day-to-day marketing activities of all artists on the label’s roster.
McCartney was most recently with Sony Music Entertainment as Manager of Marketing and Artist Development. Prior to that the MTSU grad held promotion and marketing posts at Lyric Street Records.
“We are thrilled that Katie is joining our team at Black River,” shares General Manager Greg McCarn. “She brings a great skill set and marketing background to the table and her enthusiasm and dedication are contagious.”
“I’m beyond excited for the amazing opportunity to become a part of the Black River family,” adds McCartney.