The Music Tee is a pretty cool concept developed by LNAclothing and Invisible DJ. Invisible DJ works with artists and record labels regularly to develop unique programs and platforms to promote music for up and coming artists. LNA sells plain-ish-American-Apparel-ish style clothes primarily to the funky, hipster crowd. Naturally, these two companies would come together at some point, and hence, The Music Tee is born.
The Music Tee prints the album cover art on the front of the tee, and the song list on the back. The hangtag that comes with shirt purchase contains a URL that allows you to download the entire album. Sounds awesome you say? I think so too. What I see are a few ways the Music Tee may inspire within the music world…somewhere most of us think of as a slowly dying place where artists don’t get enough credit (or money) for their work, and labels are doing everything in their power to stay afloat. Here are a few of my thoughts on how Music Tees can boost the industry:
Easy, grassroots style promoting (who doesn’t like to wear t-shirts of their favorite bands?)
Bringing back the enthusiasm for awesome cover art
Generate revenues for the digital music that would replenish sales that are lost and diminishing from cds
An easy ice-breaker for meeting people who share the same music tastes
The first music tee I saw is the one for “The Asteroids Galaxy Tour” that is being promoted on the site. This makes sense because Invisible DJ contacts and clients tend to be up and coming artists. However, Mos Def just started selling Music Tees for his latest album, which gives a little more credit to the product and increases the chances that this concept will take off. A blurb was written about music tee in YPulse, a Gen Y online publication, and feedback/comments tend to be very positive for everything I’ve seen about the subject. I’ll be watching how Gen Y responds to this once it really goes mainstream. From an interactive perspective, there are many ways we can build off this concept to create cool campaigns for music tees. This could be something like developing an application to allow fans to “Design-Your-Own Music Tee”, to contests that leverage multiple social networks. The Music Tee already utilizes a concept of social advertising by having people wear their own advertising and talk about the album on their backs, and therefore lends itself quite easily to the social world on the web. Or, this could be a combination of both – something similar to what Twitter and Threadless Tees in a collaboration called Twitter Threadless Tees (create your own t-shirts with your tweets!).
Kudos to LNA and Invisible DJ for thinking outside-the-box. I love the concept, and I think it will do a lot for music fans and artists alike.
I am not a screaming teenage girl (i.e. the Jonas Brothers’ fan profile), but I WILL be checking out the Jonas Brothers + UStream event on Facebook tomorrow night at 5PM PST. This is the first time Facebook has really done something exciting and innovative in the music space, and if successful, MySpace might as well just kiss their community goodbye. So, what are those brothers doing tomorrow from 5-6PM? Well, it is going to be the premiere episode of a series of four live webcasts (May 7, 21, 28, and June 4) and they are planning to debut their latest song titled “Paranoid” live using Ustream! Remember UStream? Matt was the first to blog about it, and we are all convinced of its superiority in the interactive online video space…as is Ashton Kutcher and Punk’d.
Naturally, this live stream will be accompanied by live Facebook chatting (think Barack Obama inauguration), and I for one am very excited to see how smoothly all of this pans out.
The Jonas Brothers’ got themselves the best management and marketing team. They are managed by their dad and Johnny Wright, and marketing I assume is done by Hollywood Records, their label. Whoever these marketing gurus are, they are totally on top of their game – the brothers are present on every social media platform you can think of. They are on Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, iLike, and bebo.They are also on Wikipedia, and have a comedy series on the Disney Channel.
Poor MySpace…the only thing they have had left is was their music community…
Recently I decided to search about a way to set up our company Twitter account so that it will automatically feed tweets from various people within our company. I searched around the web, but didn’t come up with much. I found one site that got me off to a good start, but I developed the process and detailed it out more from there. If you find yourself with a similar need (or want), follow the instructions below. And if you have any questions, please feel free to comment below or send me a tweet @runnerchiq!
Step 1:
Create the main Twitter account you will want as the feed central. (For example, our main Twitter account @zugara is feeding from the company blog, and people from within the company such as: @KobraKai, @Jack2point0, @Bigboots, and @runnerchiq.)
Step 3:
Login to your new Twitterfeed account and click on “Create New Feed”. (If you don’t see this option, click on the “my feeds” link in the upper right corner.)
Step 4:
Click on the large “>>Authenticate at twitter” link up top. This can be a tricky step so please read: If you are currently logged into a particular Twitter account, Twitterfeed will detect this and think that you want to connect to that account. Be sure to read the message that pops up and make sure it says the name of the MAIN Twitter account you are wanting to feed all the tweets through. So in my case, I wanted this to say “zugara”. If the incorrect account name is displayed, click on the “Sign out” link, and type in the correct username and password for the MAIN account you are trying to set the feeds up for. When this is finished, click the button “Allow”.
Step 5:
If you typed in the correct credentials, you will be taken back to the main “Create a new Twitter feed” screen (with the yellow box). Here is where you can set up your feeds. There could be two scenarios:
1. Feed your blog posts
Paste the RSS feed from your blog into the blank space after “RSS Feed URL”
2. Feed the tweets from everyone in the company (will need to repeat the same steps per person)
Type in “from:runnerchiq” – with the “runnerchiq” portion swapped out and replaced with the tweeter YOU want
You now should see a screen complete with all tweets from your specified tweeter
Now click on the link titled “Feed for this query” to the right side of the main results screen
Copy and paste this link into the blank space after “RSS Feed URL”.
Step 6:
Now you are ready to fill in the rest of the remaining sections on the “Create a new Twitter feed” page. This you will have to play around with to create something to your liking. Here are suggestions and what I have done.
I want everything to be updated as soon as possible, so I have the “Update frequency” set to “Every 30 minutes” and Post up to “5” new updates each time.
I have included only the “title” because of 2 reasons – 1) The blog descriptions are too long, and the title is sufficient, and 2) This tends to duplicate really short tweets…see here for an example of what I’m talking about
I include the item link and have it shortened
I post new items based on “pubDate”
And I prefix the tweets (with the exception of the feed pulling from our blog) with “RT @runnerchiq” with “@runnerchiq” swapped out with whatever tweeter the feed is for. This way, users won’t just see a bunch of random tweets that don’t necessarily make sense from one main Twitter account. This also gives personality and thought credit to the person speaking and encourages followers for that particular account
I don’t have any filters by keywords, because I don’t require them, but perhaps you might
And be sure to check “Active”!
Click on the “Create” button
(Repeat for each account you want feed through)
And that pretty much sums up the entire process! One last thing to note is that Twitter takes a few hours to actually approve each feed, and you can check the status my logging into Twitterfeed, clicking “my feeds”, and looking at/scrolling over the symbol to the left of the Username. For example, if a feed has been approved, the symbol will change into a green checkmark and when scrolled over, it will read “status ok…” The feed I created for our company blog was not approved at first, so what I did was delete the feed entirely and tried again…at which point it got approved! I’m not sure what Twitter’s process for approving feeds is, but it doesn’t seem totally streamlined.
Check out the “Honda Insight – Let It Shine” campaign on Vimeo. (You MUST click on this link to experience it in its entirety!) It is an awesome experience created by Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam. Does everyone remember the Nintendo Wario Land – Shake It! Campaign on YouTube? Seems like agencies are getting more and more creative in this space…and I like it! Page takeovers are a smart thing to implement when you really want to limit the user dropout rate from your video/commercial.
If you’re as curious about this campaign as I am (are all of those real headlights?), check out the making of video:
Why is this the first time I’ve heard about Shopflick?! I love to shop, but always do it in-person because I enjoy the experience: seeing, touching, trying on, and viewing in the mirror at all angles. I don’t enjoy shopping online, because more often than not, I find myself returning clothes that looked great in the thumbnail picture shown on the site, but awful on me. Shopflick is the first retail site I’ve experienced that really does a great job at meshing the in-person experience with the online experience.
You can go to Shopflick to browse through very funky, cool clothes. (Yes, even men!) It is not unlike any other retail e-commerce site at first: select a section, click on a thumbnail image of one that looks good to you, and view a detail page about that item. Normally, however, the detail pages on other retail e-commerce sites contain just a single photo with a short text description. Sometimes you can view additional close-up photos and/or change the color of the item. Shopflick takes it to the next level!
When you click on a thumbnail in Shopflick, you are taken to a detail page that will contain the photo, and a “Meet the Designer” video. This video isn’t super high quality, but I think that is part of its beauty. It is a very personal video in which the designer(s) speak to you about their product line and what they try to achieve with their clothing line. It really gives you a feeling that you know the designer personally, and by understanding the craft behind the creation, there is sure to be a higher sell-thru. (Would be interested to find some stats on this!) These videos are short and sweet, encouraging you to watch all the way through. Also, on some of the products, if there is other footage on the specific product you’ve selected, it is included so you can view the item on an actual person from all angles. I am really impressed by Shopflick’s video integration because it is very compelling to a shopper like me, and doesn’t look expensive to make. (i.e. possibly shot on a handheld digital camera!)
The site also encourages you to join the community, where you can save favorite items, post comments/feedback, and even become a seller within the community. The list of designers featured on Shopflick is respectable and quite long! There is also a “Videos” section that contains series of webisodes such as Hall of Style and Kitchen Couture.
I first read about Shopflick on Mashable, and now I can’t get myself off this page. I’m sure to buy a thing or two before the day ends. Because I liked their video integration so much, I thought I would explore what Shopflick is doing in terms of social media. Sure enough, they are up to date, with a Facebook page, a YouTube page, and even a MySpace page! The YouTube page features the “Fashion Designer Series” and other various fashion videos. Nothing too fancy here, but in my eyes, very innovative in the retail web space.
Disclaimer: We Are Organized Chaos will post Zugara company case studies from time to time. These are meant to share success stories (and failures), statistics / analytics, and things we have learned for the greater good of the interactive world. Please feel free to contribute your own stories and opinions in the comments section.
For all you Twitter users out there, you may have experienced frustration when trying to change your background image. There is no easy way to add text (i.e. contact information for your business) unless you are a designer and have access to Photoshop. Or, there is the option to pay an online designer $75-$100 for a custom background, which I think is absurd! That is why we, at Zugara, developed a “Free Twitter Designer” application: http://www.freetwitterdesigner.com/. Free Twitter Designer allows you to utilize Photoshop-like tools online to fully customize your own Twitter backgrounds (complete with text, shapes, upload image, pre-designed backgrounds, colors, etc.), for $0. Better yet, 50% of “tips” received in the PayPal Donation Jar go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation!
Due to the success of this pet project, we felt inclined to share statistics to date. In just under one month, Free Twitter Designer has received:
35,094 unique visits
69,207 page views
79% new visits average
An average time of 5:12 on site
18% click to “generate image”
As for the last bullet point, the “Generate Image” button was tracked as a “goal”, given that is the entire purpose of the site is for users to create Twitter backgrounds they download and upload to Twitter. We are pretty happy with these results – and this is just for the first month alone!
To coincide with the launch of Free Twitter Designer, we created an account @freedesigner. We have gained a following of about 850 followers, and we have been tweeted/blogged about several times…including two very influential tweets from the well respected @ mashable. (Thanks!) The following is a list of various published articles, blogs, and even videos:
So how did we do this? We found a great niche that hadn’t yet been marketed for the Twitter community. The idea for custom Twitter backgrounds is not new. Even the idea for Free Twitter backgrounds is not a new one. But was there a site that made the designing process easy for people of all design levels, and allowed for true customization? Not from our perspective. We took a popular concept and made it the best. Then we passed on the idea to all our friends, and opened up a dialogue between @freedesigner and other Twitter Tweeps. There’s no better way to market a social community tool, than to talk about it with the social community.
Every year everyone makes their resolutions and we hear about change to come – whether it is in the workplace, in our personal lives, or in politics.This year the buzz word for our industry has been loud and clear: Social Media.If you think social media is merely a trend, think again.
The following is a video that really exemplifies how far we’ve come as a technical society.It is the 2008 Version (3rd edition) “Did You Know” video by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Brenman.The facts are believable because we are accustomed to our technological advanced and internet dependent society, but when you take a step back and look at the numbers they are presenting and just what all of it means for our future…it’s breathtaking.I am interested in many of the things presented in the video that aren’t necessarily directly related to social media in the interactive world; things like technical students studying material their first year that is irrelevant their third year…the top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004…1 out of 8 couples married in the US each year met online…!!We are moving so fast forward that our lives (and life partners) wouldn’t be the same with the www.
As it relates to social media, starting with a concept as simple as the Google search engine, users around the world go online for the same reasons – to find and to exchange information.The only difference is that prior to the social networking boom, only a handful of people were the ones sharing information, while millions were taking away.The beauty of the social media revolution that we are in the midst of, is people are able to achieve this same goal (information exchange), but they have much more control over it.We are all excited to read, learn, and to fill our heads with knowledge of all kinds, and now we have a place to communicate back to the world our opinions and other knowledge we’ve attained via other methods and other people.Our society is none other than an information society and there is no better way to be in-the-know than by engaging in online communities and by immersing yourself into the social media revolution.
Over 175 million active users on Facebook. More than 13 million users updated their statuses at least once each day. The fastest growing demographic is 30 years and older. More interesting facts: http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
We Are Organized Chaos (WAOC) is Zugara’s (www.zugara.com) interactive marketing and advertising blog where we’ll be featuring some great projects and discussing upcoming trends in the digital world. Work — good and bad — will be critiqued. Hope you’ll enjoy reading our insights and thoughts on interactive.
