While sick in bed this past weekend, I watched a new movie I thought would be a feel-good rom-com. Turns out, it had me hoarsely shouting at my laptop and furiously taking notes on content marketing.
Begin Again got some bad reviews because of comparisons to the previous work of writer/director John Carney. Once, his Oscar-winning movie of a few years back was far superior to Begin Again and it hurt the movie’s stand-alone presence, which was really quite good.
I can talk about the writing, which was clever and witty and carried so well by two leads who I adore – Keira Knightly and Mark Ruffalo – but I’ll glaze over that to touch on the more frustrating concepts of how to market a record.
Basically, it showed how the music industry is bad and the artists are good. How manipulation of the audience and – in effect – the artists, is what really sells records. Er …? Ok.
But it also demonstrates innovation in how the artist – the Greta character – and the industry rep – Dan Mulligan – go about recording a new album and getting it out in the world.
They decide to record outside in New York City, using the ambient noise and in one case, having street kids perform backing vocals. At the end of the film (SPOILER ALERT) Greta chooses to sell the album online for the low, low price of one dollar.
There’s this great scene where Cee-Lo Green, playing a slight parody of himself, says, “An outdoor album, that’s fucking crazy. Why couldn’t I think of that?”
Throughout the movie I’m thinking: these scenes where they’re jamming in alleyways and on rooftops, would be ideal marketing fodder.
You see them shooting photos, and even though I know it’s a film and I barely had a voice, I started to shout/mumble, “Why aren’t you filming these for Vimeo?”
I bet there’s a lot of record executives who would have said the same things Cee-lo and I were thinking. Cause from a marketing perspective, the movie's concept is the definition of innovation in a stale industry.
Curious about other boring products that have innovated in marketing? Check this, or this, or this (one of my favourites).
If I were marketing this record, I’d start with Twitter hints about the record, to be shared by all involved.
Not just the one viral Tweet sent by the Cee-Lo Green character. There would be a dedicated website featuring social feeds and blog posts about the events and feelings of recording each song in each location; which there actually is for the film. But I would time a weekly release of each video shot at each location, web profiles of each of the hired musicians with links back to their websites.
A co-ordinated approach for a music project like this, rolled out by word of mouth and social prowess could be hugely successful, especially if paired with a launch party where you buy the record for one dollar.
Would you buy it? Tell me in the comments.
I love music films, but this one was lovely. But for me, I think this wasn’t a music movie, it was an exercise in how to not market a unique concept record.
I can talk about the writing, which was clever and witty and carried so well by two leads who I adore – Keira Knightly and Mark Ruffalo – but I’ll glaze over that to touch on the more frustrating concepts of how to market a record.
Basically, it showed how the music industry is bad and the artists are good. How manipulation of the audience and – in effect – the artists, is what really sells records. Er …? Ok.
But it also demonstrates innovation in how the artist – the Greta character – and the industry rep – Dan Mulligan – go about recording a new album and getting it out in the world.
They decide to record outside in New York City, using the ambient noise and in one case, having street kids perform backing vocals. At the end of the film (SPOILER ALERT) Greta chooses to sell the album online for the low, low price of one dollar.
There’s this great scene where Cee-Lo Green, playing a slight parody of himself, says, “An outdoor album, that’s fucking crazy. Why couldn’t I think of that?”
Throughout the movie I’m thinking: these scenes where they’re jamming in alleyways and on rooftops, would be ideal marketing fodder.
You see them shooting photos, and even though I know it’s a film and I barely had a voice, I started to shout/mumble, “Why aren’t you filming these for Vimeo?”
I bet there’s a lot of record executives who would have said the same things Cee-lo and I were thinking. Cause from a marketing perspective, the movie's concept is the definition of innovation in a stale industry.
Curious about other boring products that have innovated in marketing? Check this, or this, or this (one of my favourites).
If I were marketing this record, I’d start with Twitter hints about the record, to be shared by all involved.
Not just the one viral Tweet sent by the Cee-Lo Green character. There would be a dedicated website featuring social feeds and blog posts about the events and feelings of recording each song in each location; which there actually is for the film. But I would time a weekly release of each video shot at each location, web profiles of each of the hired musicians with links back to their websites.
A co-ordinated approach for a music project like this, rolled out by word of mouth and social prowess could be hugely successful, especially if paired with a launch party where you buy the record for one dollar.
Would you buy it? Tell me in the comments.
I love music films, but this one was lovely. But for me, I think this wasn’t a music movie, it was an exercise in how to not market a unique concept record.