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It's dissertation time !

As you may already know, I am a final year student in PR & Communication and I am therefore currently writing my dissertation.

My dissertation question is : Self-Promotion in the Music Industry : a PR tactic ?

I am currently conducting some primary research and put two surveys online, one aiming to the general music consumers (in other words, almost everybody !) and the other one aiming to music artists and/or their manager.

If by any chance you had 2-3 minutes to offer me to answer these few questions, I would very much appreciate it ! 

To take the general public survey, click here (English version) or here (French version)

To take the music artists survey, click here (English version) or here (French version)

  

Also, if you are a musician (signed or unsigned, I am interested in both perspectives) or a professional from the music industry (record labels, music promotion professionals), I am looking for people to interview to ask a few more questions than in the survey or for people to use as case studies. So if by any chance you are available for a few minutes and are interested, please do not hesitate to contact me by clicking on "email me" in the right menu of this page !

And if you know people that would be interested, please share this post with them !

Thank you in advance for you time and your contribution :)

Launch of Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 and use of Social Media

 
 

For one of my third year assignments, I have been looking at a campaign organized by the agency Wolfstar for the launch of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1. This campaign  won the CIPR PRide Gold Award 2009 in the Best use of Social Media category for the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire region.

                      

 

Wolfstar is a Public Relations, Social Media and Word of Mouth agency which was chosen by Sony Ericsson over many other PR agency because they wanted to integrate Social Media in their existing traditional PR launch activity.

   

 

The main objectives of this campaign were :

- to build an online knowledge and awareness of the Xperia X1 smartphone

- to differentiate Sony Ericsson and their new phone from their numerous competitors

- to demonstrate that Sony Ericsson is a leader in integrating Social Media into their corporate communication strategy

- to make sure that the campaign had a global reach (not only the English speaking countries) 

- to use the Social Media strategy as a learning platform to develop a global corporate communication.

The creativity of the campaign was that they actually let bloggers "co-create" the campaign by having them involved so that it wasn't marketing led, they targeted influential but non technology blogs to get outside of the Sony Ericsson "bubble" and treated the influential bloggers as being as important as key media so that they wanted to spread the word around the blogosphere and the web.

The campaign was highly successful as they reached all their objectives even better than what they expected and Sony Ericsson was recognized as a world leader in integrating Social Media into corporate communication while being a really cost-effective campaign. They also can use the experience (and actually have) for new campaigns. (see full results)

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I would really like your feedback about this case study so if you could take a couple minutes to give me your opinions by answering a few of the following questions, I would be really thankful !

So what did you think about that campaign and about how they have done it ?

When you buy a product, do you research it first ?

If yes, how ? (Internet, specialized magazines, you ask for information into the shops...)

If you research it on the Internet, where do you ? (official website, blogs...)

Are you only looking for general info about a product or consumers' opinions as well ? Why ?

What do you think are the limits or the risks of a campaign based on the bloggers content like the Sony Ericsson one ?

Thank you for you time and your help !

Fancy shopping on e-xford Street ?

Oh oh. It's that time of the year again. Busy streets and Christmas shopping in the cold and the rain...

What about you do your shopping on London's famous Oxford Street, only you do it comfortably seated on your sofa ?

NearLondon created a web software which brings Oxford Street to life in 3D in a perfect replica of the real street. Even the weather changes according the real London weather ! You can now walk down Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street and shop at your favorite stores. 

  

This new software is also a good opportunity for media and advertising as daily news headline, adverts and promotional campaigns will appear in the virtual streets and shops. And other big city might be next, New York City, Tokyo, Paris...

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So if you want to give a try to the beta version of the software released three days ago, check out the official NearLondon website and have a look at their promo video as well !

Source : The Independent (30/11/2009)

Wolkswagen's fun theory

  

 

For the past few months, Wolkwagen has been initiating and developing the "fun theory". The aims of this theory is to demonstrate that simple things you do or should do everyday because you have to can be changed into something fun that you want to do. Changes of behavior about environment, boring bits of the day, your own health... anything really as long as it is for the better.

See for yourself through the following examples :

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Bottle Bank Arcade :

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Piano stairs :

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The world's deepest bin :

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A competition, the Fun Theory Award, has been taking place since 1st October and will close on 15th December 2009. It is open to anyone who would like to submit their ideas, their inventions, so if you are inspired, go ahead ! You might win 2500 € !

For more information, click here.

What else ?

Ah yes, George is back ! For a new Nespresso advert campaign of course, what else would it be ?! 

But this time, he's not the only celebrity in it, John Malkovich joined him.

First version :

Second version :

If there is one brand for which celebrity endorsement works, it is this one because, let's face it, what would Nespresso be without George Clooney !

After money... come sex toys !

It's not money that will be distributed this time but sex toys. After the failed guerrilla marketing promotion two weeks ago, SexyPrive.com (website specialized in selling affordable sexy items) is planning to distribute around 6000 "Christmas sexy packs" on Saturday 12 December in Paris' 4th arrondissement. Same objective as Mailorama, create a buzz and increase people awareness of the website. These packs will include a thong, a condom and a sex toy, their total value is estimated around 50 000€.

 

 

Provocation, shock, risk, dare... What's next !

Guerilla Marketing : Originality or Provocation ?

• When : Saturday 14 November 2009
• Who : Rentabiliweb (audience monetizer and audience builder website, event organisators) and Mailorama (website that pay Internet users for reading their emails and visiting selected websites, owned by Rentabiliweb)
• Where : Paris, 7th arrondissement, Champ-de-Mars / Eiffel Tower

Last week, Rentabiliweb announced that they would distribute 100 000 € in cash (5€ to 500€ bills) to anyone that would be by the Eiffel Tower at 2 p.m. on Saturday 14 November. The objective was to promote their company Mailorama and to increase their audience.

The event was cancelled for security reasons which led to major disorders and violent incidents as between 5000 to 7000 people had come. Broken shop windows, knocked over cars, vandalized stores, rocks thrown on the Police...

It obviously sparked off a lot of reactions from the public, the Media and members from the Government which put the Internet company in the spotlight of the debate. And Rentabiliweb is famous for that ; a few months ago, they also launched a website called "Fais mes devoirs" (Do my homework) offering to Junior High and High School students the possibility to get their homework done or corrected by professionals in exchange for money. The website was closed three days later but the buzz was huge as well for the company as for the employee who came up with the idea. Same employee who came up with the idea for Mailorama cash distribution by the way...

...???...

So what to think about this kind of event ?

It has been done before in France (Easyjet dropped free plane tickets in Paris La Defense from a dirigible airship) and in other countries such as the USA and Canada and it went pretty smoothly. Then again, it wasn't always announced so does it make the surprise factor important ?

Is it a good idea to use money as promotion ?

So many questions I am hoping you can give me your opinions and reactions on !

Come on in !

Hi everyone,

Let's start from the beginning, shall we ! My name is Marion, I am a foreign student at Southampton Solent University (Hampshire, UK) in my third year of a bachelor Public Relations & Communication.

I'm guessing now you're starting to see where I am going with this blog, that's right, it's all going to be about PR & Comm, so if for some obscure reason you ended up on this blog when you are not interested at all by this topic... Boring ! If you are actually interested by all this, please react, tell me what you think about the different case studies I am talking about. It is all about communication isn't it ?!

As I mentioned above, I am a foreigner so, please, forgive me for my grammar and syntax mistakes, I will do my best.

Hope to see you around here !

Marion.