Seen in Contagious Newsletter
Remember the days when budding musicians could only be heard by the masses once they had gone through the blood, sweat and tears of securing a record deal, getting airplay and finally appearing on Top of The Pops? When social networking sites came along, it was like a fairy godmother had waved a magic wand. Suddenly up-and-coming artists had an outlet for their music and a direct way to communicate with their growing fan bases.
Now Samsung has gone one step further by teaming up with Facebook, MySpace and Bebo to offer four bands the chance to have their music featured in an ad campaign for its F400 handset. In an app created by Techlightenment - which launched simultaneously across the three sites as well as at www.f400share.com - hopefuls can upload a short clip of music for others to listen to and vote for their favourite. The winning clip will become the sound-track on the F400’s radio and online ad campaign, which launches in the summer,
This strategy short-circuits the usual way in which soundtracks are chosen for ads which has traditionally involved agencies and record companies. For instance, London Calling founder and former director of music, TV and advertising at Universal Music, Tracie London-Rowell, was behind some legendary link-ups, including Leftfield’s (then unreleased track) Phat Planet on Guinness ‘surfer’. And BBH catapulted Make Luv, a track by Room 5 featuring Oliver Cheetham, into the number one spot after putting it at the heart of an integrated campaign for Lynx Pulse.
By
leaving it up to the consumers to vote for their favourite track,
Samsung is entrusting them with a key decision in their advertising
that could infuse the brand with kudos (think what The Dandy Warhols did for Vodafone - and vice versa - when Bohemian Like You became ‘the Vodafone song’). What’s more, in a summer where mobile operators and handset brands are all over an ever-chronic
epidemic of music festivals, Samsung deserves a definite thumbs-up for
trying something different.
www.f400share.com
