TCC Insights

Pop Music Madness

 By: Kellie Mazur, Administrative Assistant 

It’s like March Madness in July.  But don’t expect to see Duke and UNC battle it out. And no worries if Butler busts a bracket. I stumbled upon the “Ultimate Pop Song Tournament” while checking out one of my favorite blogs, The Awl.

Old Navy Sways, Spike Follows

By Drew Shields, Creative Intern

Whether or not the Vacay Sway is your dancefloor move of choice, Old Navy has been making moves in the world of television advertising by teaming up with mobile app company Shazam earlier this year.

Since its inception, Shazam's music identifying and tagging app has solely been focused on saving individuals from the mind-wrangling torture of trying to figure out the name of the song that's playing overhead while you wait for your oil change. The Old Navy team-up, which allows you to shop the items from the commercials right from your smartphone, is just the first play in Shazam's full-court press to expand its tech beyond simple redirects to iTunes and Spotify and into the realm of non-music marketing.

From Bad Romance to Bad Business

By Jeff Bucki, Senior Copywriter

I’ll admit it. I think Lady Gaga is pretty good, especially when viewed against the barren wasteland of today’s pop landscape. Gaga knows how to write a catchy chorus and her competition looks foolish trying to mimic her (right, Xtina?). Plus, she audaciously took her stage name from a band that has sold more than 300 million records.  From the start, Gaga aspired to be rock royalty.

So I was shocked to hear that for two days, her highly-anticipated new album, Born This Way, was available through Amazon for 99 cents. 99 cents! This wasn’t an album by some washed-up act like the Backstreet Boys or Poison. This was the latest release by the most celebrated act in music today.

Websites That Are Actually Quite Useful

 By Jeff Bucki, Senior Copywriter

I started thinking about the websites that I frequent while at work. Some are useful to what I do, and all of them are valuable in some form.

Dictionary.com  
A dictionary and a thesaurus all in one. If I’m working on a naming project, tagline or theme, it’s a very helpful resource. I still pick up the real books from time to time, but this website is so easy to use. I probably use it on a daily basis.

It's All Art, Baby

By Sue White, Production Design Supervisor

As much as Lady Gaga never thought she'd be asking Cher to hold her meat purse at the MTV Video Music Awards, I never thought I'd find myself at a Lady Gaga concert. Yet, here I was, thanks to a gift from my brother, taking in a Gaga concert last Friday at HSBC arena, ready to "just have a fun time." Now, I certainly am not president of the Gaga fan club, but I can appreciate her creativity, and passion and energy – clearly, she has an abundance of that. But the concert evolved into much more than just a "fun time." I was able to experience some effective guerilla marketing first-hand.

Koln to Cologne: 5 Tips to Overcoming a Mental Block

By Gina LoRusso, Creative Department Coordinator

Do you ever need to come up with a great idea and hit a mental block? You think the idea will never come. Or have you ever suddenly had an inspirational idea only to lose focus when you start to put in on paper? You think the idea may be lost forever. You’re not alone and I think most of you know it. I also think that knowing there is an army of people out there having the same trouble doesn’t help you solve your problem. Here’s some helpful hints for overcoming that mental block, or blurred focused.

And the Brand Played On

By Jeff Bucki, Copywriter

In this industry, brands are a very big deal. The most successful brands in the world – McDonalds, Nike, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and so on – are worth billions of dollars. It could be argued that nothing is more important than a company’s brand likeness. TV shows. Apparel. Film franchises. It’s all about the brand.

Which becomes a tricky question in the music world, especially when an established band loses a key member. Now if Bill Gates dropped dead tomorrow, Microsoft would go on. But what happens when a singer dies? Does the rest of the band (and the brand) die with him? What are the surviving members supposed to do? Weren’t they a part of that brand, too?

Popular WBFO Music Program Wins AP Award but Faces Elimination

By Dick Shaner, Senior Vice President

Last November I helped coordinate a Western New York media tour for Too Many Sisters, Toronto-based musicians Stephen Stanley (formerly of Lowest of the Low) and Carla MacNeil, to support the Buffalo-area release of their debut CD, “Non Barking Dog.”

Stephen and Carla were in town to perform at the Tralf along with Ron Hawkins and Dylan Parker (both also formerly with the Low), and Jason Tait from The Weakerthans, The Verge’s (XM satellite radio) 2008 North American Artists of the Year.

Stanley first came to prominence as a founding member of the Low, a band that Jeff Miers, music critic at The Buffalo News, has described as a “vital force in modern rock.”  Their release Shakespeare My Butt earned them a gold album and still ranks sixth on Chart Magazine’s best Canadian albums of all time.  It also helped earn the band a coveted lifetime achievement award from Toronto’s 102.1, the Edge, and induction into the Canadian Indie Music Hall of Fame.

One of the stops on our publicity junket was an in-store performance at Record Theatre near UB’s North Campus.  Alison Zero, talent producer and music reporter from WBFO, was on hand to talk with Stephen and Carla prior their performance.  Her interview, which later aired on the station’s “Morning Edition” and its “Buffalo Avenues” program, recently earned a first-place award from the New York State Associated Press.

Celebrity Tweeting

By Alyssa Mayer, Account Coordinator

Another social media blog from me, but I can’t go wrong with this entry since it involves a popular rock band and marketing all in one.  

Two years ago I took a roadtrip to Columbus Ohio to check out a Collective Soul & Better Than Ezra concert.  The concert was amazing and since then I’ve been a big fan, which is why I was beyond thrilled when I  stumbled upon @Collective_soul on Twitter.

Last week while scrolling through my feeds I noticed @Collective_soul posted a Twitter/Blogging contest to their status.  The contest rules state to be creative and tell people about Collective Soul: how you feel them, their social media interaction, how their music effects you or anything else. You also have to add in several links back to their sites.  Essentially, what I am writing right now counts as a submission.  For contest and prize details check out: http://openpresswire.com/celebrity/a-celebrity-that-gets-social-media-i-know-shocking/.  I wanted to share this because I think it’s a great case study about the effectiveness of a social media contest.

Appetite for Dr. Pepper

By Jeff Bucki, Account Manager/Copywriter

Every company would like to have more web traffic. Wouldn’t it be great if one day, thousands of people visited your website? Maybe. What if a hundred thousand people visited your site at the same time? Well, maybe not, as a soda manufacturer found out last year.

Yes, the most amusing pop culture moment of 2008 was the strange case of Dr. Pepper vs. Guns N’ Roses. For those that missed it, here’s the story.

Guns N’ Roses was one of the most popular rock bands of the late 80s and early 90s. Their mercurial lead singer, Axl Rose, managed to alienate all of his original bandmates until he was the only one left. He had been working on a new album called Chinese Democracy for more than 14 years, and few thought it would ever see the light of day. Every year, a release date would be set, and then cancelled. It was like Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown. And yet it kept happening, year after year. Guns N’ Roses were an industry-wide joke, and everyone figured it would be at least another 14 years before the album was released, if at all.

Enter Dr. Pepper, which looked to capitalize on the situation to prove how hip they were. Early last year, the soft drink company offered a free 20 oz. Dr. Pepper to every man, woman and child in America if Guns N’ Roses put out their eternally-delayed album in 2008. It was a simple way for the company to get some free publicity by thumbing their nose at Axl Rose, a very easy target.

Yes, the marketing wizards at Dr. Pepper thought they were pretty clever, until Guns N’ Roses shocked the music world by actually deciding to release Chinese Democracy last November. Was this to spite Dr. Pepper? Possibly. All that was certain was that Dr. Pepper now had to make good on its free-soda-for-America guarantee, which conceivably meant 305 million bottles of Dr. Pepper. Gulp!

So the company set out to make good on its promise. Americans had to visit drpepper.com on the day of the album's release to obtain a coupon that could be redeemed for a free soda. Conveniently, Dr. Pepper restricted the giveaway to a 24-hour window, so they wouldn’t lose their shirt on this generous offer.

But Dr. Pepper underestimated the demand they’d receive, which caused the website to crash on the only day people could register for the free soda!
Once they realized the website wasn’t working, Dr. Pepper posted a phone number so that people could call to get their free product. Comically, there was a typo in the phone number and callers looking for free soda ended up reaching a Cleveland-area law firm.

Because of these mishaps, the company’s image took a hit. Dr. Pepper’s witty bit of attention-mongering had fizzled in the eyes of the public.

There are a few lessons to be learned from all of this. One, don’t make a promise to every person in America unless you can back it up. Two, if a gazillion people visit your website at the same time, it’s probably going to crash. And three, don’t mess with Guns N’ Roses.