I’m not sure exactly what One Direction’s fans were expecting but it wasn’t this.
For the last week or so, communiques from the group (or at least their ‘people’) started to wind their supporters into a frenzy of anticipation. A big announcement was promised. Actually make that a BIG announcement. But what could it be? After the JLS shocker, many feared the worst. The more optimistic followers predicted an album, maybe even a live one. (Incidentally, I know all this because, as regular podcast listeners will be aware, I am now a paid up member of the 1D fan club).
Well, in the end, it transpired the BIG news was some more concert dates. When one considers the boys are on a world tour right now, and most young fans have reached the limits of their disposable income – or that of their parents – more gigs was something of a damp squib.
For the last week or so, communiques from the group (or at least their ‘people’) started to wind their supporters into a frenzy of anticipation. A big announcement was promised. Actually make that a BIG announcement. But what could it be? After the JLS shocker, many feared the worst. The more optimistic followers predicted an album, maybe even a live one. (Incidentally, I know all this because, as regular podcast listeners will be aware, I am now a paid up member of the 1D fan club).
Well, in the end, it transpired the BIG news was some more concert dates. When one considers the boys are on a world tour right now, and most young fans have reached the limits of their disposable income – or that of their parents – more gigs was something of a damp squib.
I spent the majority of my career in advertising, as a copywriter. And one of the first lessons I learned was to always ‘under promise and over deliver’. It’s the only way to satisfy both the client and their customer. Clearly the One Direction marketing mob somehow managed to transpose this old adage and BIG disappointment was the result. Which, in light of the voluminous size of the 1D marketing budget, is a shame.
Marketing pop and rock groups has always been a haphazard affair. Consider the substantial costs to record labels – taking out full page ads in the music weeklies of the seventies and eighties, only to find nobody was that keen on acquiring a Jimmy The Hoover album. But, having signed the band, forked out for a studio and producer and pressed up a few thousand discs, they had no choice but to give the advertising their best shot. Going way beyond big press ads, the label’s dollar had to stretch to record pluggers, button badges, picture discs and those covert fellows who’d tour chart return shops, buying up product to boost chart performance. Yes, this was all recoupable from the artist – but what if they sold next to nothing?
Underground acts (read: unsigned) on the other hand, would make do with photocopied A4 sheets, pasted illegally to public walls with a bucket of flour and water. If the band had attracted sufficient ‘buzz’, this lo-fi approach could be enormously successful. An irony not lost on the accountants at the big labels.
Of course, this is the unfortunate truth: it’s not about the lavish advertisements, it’s about word-of-mouth anticipation and popularity. It’s about the ‘buzz’. A spray painted campaign urging the industry to ‘sign The Banshees’ surely built more awareness for Siouxsie’s crew than the combined efforts of Polydor’s subsequent, expensive marketing push.
And you just can’t buy the ‘buzz’. Remember the extensive promotional gubbins accompanying the launch of Gay Dad? See where that got them. Then a record like ‘Pump Up The Volume’ dominates the charts for weeks, on the strength of nothing more than its own momentum.
Bluster is never enough to shift units and hollow hype has nasty habit of back-firing. When Springsteen legged it round London, tearing down posters of his stubbly visage beneath the legend ‘The Future Of Rock and Roll’, it was because he understood the perils of over promising all too well.
The digital era has, to some extent, changed the nature of entertainment marketing. Or at least the mechanisms. Social media is tailor-made for the buzz spreading process. Album to flog? Start racking up those ‘likes’ and ‘follows’ and the need for elaborate, pricey 48 sheet posters, limited edition t-shirts and double page spreads shrinks dramatically. However, you can’t set about creating the precious clicks yourself. You’ll soon be rumbled, because they only have merit when they’re supported by bona-fide, positive chatter. Real-time, authenticated recommendation is the only currency of value in this brave new world. Which is just another way of saying ‘the buzz’. And, as the PR troops at camp One Direction have discovered, an artificial buzz is worse than no buzz at all.
Marketing pop and rock groups has always been a haphazard affair. Consider the substantial costs to record labels – taking out full page ads in the music weeklies of the seventies and eighties, only to find nobody was that keen on acquiring a Jimmy The Hoover album. But, having signed the band, forked out for a studio and producer and pressed up a few thousand discs, they had no choice but to give the advertising their best shot. Going way beyond big press ads, the label’s dollar had to stretch to record pluggers, button badges, picture discs and those covert fellows who’d tour chart return shops, buying up product to boost chart performance. Yes, this was all recoupable from the artist – but what if they sold next to nothing?
Underground acts (read: unsigned) on the other hand, would make do with photocopied A4 sheets, pasted illegally to public walls with a bucket of flour and water. If the band had attracted sufficient ‘buzz’, this lo-fi approach could be enormously successful. An irony not lost on the accountants at the big labels.
Of course, this is the unfortunate truth: it’s not about the lavish advertisements, it’s about word-of-mouth anticipation and popularity. It’s about the ‘buzz’. A spray painted campaign urging the industry to ‘sign The Banshees’ surely built more awareness for Siouxsie’s crew than the combined efforts of Polydor’s subsequent, expensive marketing push.
And you just can’t buy the ‘buzz’. Remember the extensive promotional gubbins accompanying the launch of Gay Dad? See where that got them. Then a record like ‘Pump Up The Volume’ dominates the charts for weeks, on the strength of nothing more than its own momentum.
Bluster is never enough to shift units and hollow hype has nasty habit of back-firing. When Springsteen legged it round London, tearing down posters of his stubbly visage beneath the legend ‘The Future Of Rock and Roll’, it was because he understood the perils of over promising all too well.
The digital era has, to some extent, changed the nature of entertainment marketing. Or at least the mechanisms. Social media is tailor-made for the buzz spreading process. Album to flog? Start racking up those ‘likes’ and ‘follows’ and the need for elaborate, pricey 48 sheet posters, limited edition t-shirts and double page spreads shrinks dramatically. However, you can’t set about creating the precious clicks yourself. You’ll soon be rumbled, because they only have merit when they’re supported by bona-fide, positive chatter. Real-time, authenticated recommendation is the only currency of value in this brave new world. Which is just another way of saying ‘the buzz’. And, as the PR troops at camp One Direction have discovered, an artificial buzz is worse than no buzz at all.
