It is challenging to engage a mass audience - different styles, tastes, preferences, etc. But how about an already engaged audience? Musicians generally have some amount of rabid fan base always on the lookout for news, gossip or photos. I recently heard that Madonna's site is getting upwards of 3 to 4 million hits per month in what is a essentially a "down" time for her - no album, no tour.
The Tori Amos "machine" is ramping up for the promotion of her new album "American Doll Posse." Tori released a voice message on her site today:
Hey there, this is Tori. So by now you may have heard about American Doll Posse. I wanted to officially introduce you to the girls. They will all be going on tour. We're out shopping right now, and I can't keep a-hold of a-one of them. They'd love to get to know you; they've all heard so much about you. You can look for them online. They will all be accessible if you can find their blogs, which they update frequently. Instead of an Easter egg hunt this season, I'm hosting a Posse hunt. Happy hunting.
So, her 5 personae each have a blog hidden in the blogosphere. Fan are already on the hunt and I'm guessing will be regularly reading and discussing 5 new blogs in the not so distant future. I'm sure there will be bragging rights for finding one of the blogs first. And don't forget about all the blogging about the blogs.(And what about the blogs blogging about the blogs blogging about the blogs!)
Five channels through which to learn about Tori. Five channels for her marketing team to buzz the new album.
Very, very clever.
Thoughts?
Good question, Jeff. Tori Amos fans have historically been considered 1. more engaged with the artist and 2. very online enabled. I actually think it might work for this particular segment. For some other "product", it might be entirely inappropriate.
Posted by: tina bronkhorst | March 23, 2007 at 07:52 AM
Great strategy - innovative way to engage with multiple aspects of a "value prop" (arguably a crass way to talk about Tori Amos but let's face it, big music is big marketing these days). I do have a question about this strategy - is it too much? Yes they're increasing the likelihood an individual fan will find a unique dimension of Tori to engage with, but will it be a lot of work (more work than fans are prepared to invest) figuring it out? Will be interesting to see what happens.....
Posted by: Jeff Flemings | March 23, 2007 at 07:02 AM