Business to Consumer Marketing: Transparency and Sincere Support

The  2014 annual CMO Panel, hosted by the Triangle chapter of the American Marketing Association on March 20th at the Briar Creek Country Club in Raleigh, NC, did generate much discussion on business to consumer marketing. Speakers included Noreen Allen (Twitter: @noreena) of Republic Wireless and John Ross, Senior VP and Chief Sales, Marketing & Communications Officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield NC (Twitter: @BCBSNC) spoke on the topic, and It is great to see so much interest in this area. Good business to consumer marketing is characterized by transparency and sincere support of an audience.

Reaching a consumer market, particularly a youth consumer market, is clearly a great challenge. The challenge is also exciting to no end: this is an incredible opportunity to form a mutually beneficial relationship with the target audience. What if I told you that your target audience wants, actually quite urgently, to engage with you?

Consumer-facing companies have the opportunity to empower and inspire our creative, ambitious, informed, and entrepreneurial selves. Give us tools to advance our craft and we will listen to your message; this is sincere support. Give us a platform and we will tell you how we feel; this is transparency.

What platform? Take as an example the Blue Cross Blue Shield NC twitter account. The theme of the account is one that aspires to inform its subscribers and to engage in open conversations with them about the costs involved with the healthcare insurance system. Because inefficiencies of the American health care system are widely known, this is a smart move. They aren’t trying to hide from the debate. Instead, they are positioning themselves as authorities on the topic and facilitating open conversations with their customers via the very conversational social media site, Twitter. This is very inspiring! I want to hear what they have to say. I want to join the conversation and let them know what I think. The internet has brought with it the age of transparency. It really is beautiful.

What tools? Reverting to the most obvious example ever, Red Bull is it. Really the product is crap sugar and wack chemicals, but you better believe if I was at one of their awesome free events I would drink one. That is power. I love your brand so much I will drink that stuff. By throwing awesome events, and by sponsoring and supporting artists and athletes, they make our dreams come true. The great thing about making a dream come true is that then the “sharing” and “publicity” thing is all taken care of. Make a dream come true and earned media value is a given.

Optimally with a consumer marketing campaign, both sides win. When we empower and inspire an audience, they become brand advocates. If using influence only, we don’t even need a huge budget. The relationship is mutually beneficial. It’s up to us as marketing managers to seize the opportunity.

The moderator of the panel was Karl Sakas – @KarlSakas, President, Agency Firebox (@AgencyFirebox)

Additional speakers included Dana McMahan (Twitter: @dhmcmahan), CMO for TOPO Brands (@TOPOdistillery) and Doug Warf (Twitter: @dougwarf), VP of Marketing for the Carolina Hurricanes.

Dee-1 – Jay, 50, and Weezy Music Video

This one needs no introduction. We’re going to let Dee-1’s words speak for themselves. If you don’t get it…well, we can’t help you with that. Go ask someone to explain it to you.

Or, just watch this Muhammad Ali video.

Post by Codeblack Life.

Netmix Global House Sessions Podcast Episode 15 mixed by DJ Tony Z

Image - Netmix Global House Sessions Podcast Flyer Episode 15

 

 

Nile Rodgers tells the story about how he heard Rappers Delight

One of the most prolific songwriters of disco and dance music, Niles Rodgers, is responsible for over 40 #1 singles, including classic records by Sister Sledge, Chic, Madonna, David Bowie and INXS, as well as more recent hits in collaboration with Daft Punk, Avicii and other EDM producers. Nile appears in this video at Canadian Music Week about where and how he first heard “Rappers Delight,” which samples his classic Disco hit, “Good Times” and inspired generations of Hip-Hop artists to riff off of breaks from other artist’s records.

As a young DJ growing up in the 80’s, I used to do exactly what Nile talks about. Bring turntables and a mixer out to the street or set up a boombox and blast the music so my friends could breakdance on a sheet of linoleum we’d put down in a parking lot or basketball court. It was the early days of Hip-Hop and we had no idea both Good Times and Rappers Delight would spark a new genre that is now a multi-billion dollar global business.

In an era before sampling became popular, “Rappers Delight” was one of the first controversial records that pitted musicians against DJs and studio producers. After some discussion back and forth after learning about the record, Niles was credited with a co-songwriter nod, which now appears in the liner notes of re-releases.

Here’s the original. Listen for the break at 3:05, where it just breaks down to the bassline, kick drum and clap.

Now, here’s Rapper’s Delight in its entirety, which mostly consists of that break and the Sugarhill Gang rapping over it.

Photek interviews Moby for The Drop: new series from Complex TV and DoAndroidsDance?

In today’s world of social media at hyperspeed, where videos are thrown up every second and promoted incessantly without much of a message, this new series form Complex TV and DoAndroidsDance?, an online dance music magazine, seems somewhat promising. The first episode finds two incredible electronic musicians in a simple conversation out of it comes a few gems from a relaxed conversation between these two legends. While it’s an interview and Photek is probably not the best interviewer in the world, he does ask good questions and gets into MOBY’s thinking and process.

Converted to black and white, this first video in the series feels artsy yet intimate. It’s refreshing to see MOBY pick up a bass to play some Joy Division licks toward the end of the interview and this plays as a reminder that musicianship – even in EDM – is important. In its simplicity, it teaches upcoming producers that MOBY doesn’t just program music in computers – he’s also a true musician, having learned to play instruments and mapping that early learning to his current productions. We hope the scene will inspire a young EDM artist to pick up a guitar or a bass and play around with the sound. To not be so reliant on Ableton, Logic and software synths to make electronic music. Bring in different acoustic sounds into an EDM production to differentiate.

We invite you to check out the 1st episode here and we’ve posted the embed below. We’ll be watching to see what comes of The Drop. So much media to consume and so little time to consume it, but these conversations are important nonetheless for upcoming producers and music fans to learn a little something from the leaders in the music industry. What the audience metrics will be and how this program will air remains to be seen. In a competitive Internet video landscape, you have to have something really special to monetize it and keep it going.

 

The magic of Chris Malinchak’s “So Good To Me”

Last night, I’m at the Disco 3000 party at Ben’s Tune-Up in Asheville. I discovered this party online. When I moved to Asheville on January 28th of this year, I immediately started looking for the house music spots. At first, I didn’t find much. But after digging a bit deeper, I stumbled upon Nighttimeswerve aka Adam Thome who is a member of the Earthtone Sound System crew with Josh Hughey. They’ve created for themselves quite a following as Earthtone Sound System, which was born in Atlanta, but has since relocated to Asheville. Along with DJ Trevor Baker, they created the Disco 3000 party, which currently occupies the outdoor space at Ben’s Tune-Up, a local Asheville restaurant/bar, weather permitting. On cold or rainy nights, they bring it indoors.

ETSS and Trevor are focused on playing a blend of indie dance, nu disco, breaks, house and tech house. It’s really about whatever is funky and gets the crowd going. They vibe off each other and switch off, preferring blending with Serato then using Traktor with the dreaded sync button (which I actually do rely on – I have no shame!). They surely had a dance floor moving last night. Now, I’m a sucker for these emo style house and tech house songs that feature singer/songwriters, rock vocalists or unexpected soul samples. So, to close out the night, Trevor ran this amazing song “So Good To Me” by New Jersey’s Chris Malinchak, which samples “If This World Were Mine” by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. The song went to number 2 in the U.K.

I was in the middle of a conversation with Adam when Trevor dropped eased out of the current track and brought this one in. I immediately cut-off Adam (sorry, dude!) and said, “what the f*** is this?” It was beautiful, but then again, anything that brings a deep house sound together with the legendary vocals of Marvin Gaye and Temmi Terrell should stop a conversation dead in its tracks. And, that’s what it did. So, without further adieu, here is the SoundCloud and official YouTube video below for your listening enjoyment.

http://soundcloud.com/frenchexpress/chris-malinchak-so-good-to-me

If you’re looking for a hot remix, check out MK’s reworking of this instant classic. I love both versions. Depending on the vibe of the party, you can rock either one and get a groove going.

 

Two great remixes by the renowned, MK!

Mark Kinchen, known around the world simply as MK, has been producing dance music since the early ’90s. MK is responsible for three incredible house music classics, including “For You” under the pseudonym 4th Measure Men, “Love Changes as MK featuring Alana,” and the legendary record by Nightcrawlers called, “Push The Feeling On.”

I first learned about MK when I heard this record, “Somebody New” (which I still have on vinyl!) on KMS Records in 1989. KMS was Kevin Saunderson’s label out of Detroit. One could argue that while we attribute tech-house to German producers like Terry Lee Brown Jr, MK was really one of the early pioneers of tech house – the blending of techno and house. And, it’s clearly apparent on this record as well as the “For You” release.

According to his Wikipedia entry, his discography stops short in the late ’90s and doesn’t pick back up again until 2009. But in an interview with PublicSF, MK mentions doing two or three remixes a month after the Nightcrawlers record. A quick check over on Discogs and you can see that MK has credits on 435 remixes at the time of this writing. That’s pretty incredible, as I personally had no idea he had done that much work. I guess someone has to get started correcting the Wikipedia entry! It’s a huge body of work and maybe it’s time to go back and revisit many of these mixes. Well, that’s when I have some time, because that’s a lot of stuff to wade through.

Since we’re not going backwards but forwards, here are two recent MK mixes that I really loved. The first is a remix of Duke Dumont’s hit, “I Got You,” which is also available on Beatport as a download.

http://soundcloud.com/mixmag-1/premiere-duke-dumont-i-gotyou

This one, Wankelmut feat. Emma Louis, “My Head Is a Jungle,” was one of the top tracks on Beatport’s Deep House and Tech House charts. MK took a crack at this one and the results are here on Netmix. We love this mix and we hope you do too!

Coldplay – Magic (Sebastien Remix)

We’ve been listening to phenomenal music this week. Coldplay’s new album, Ghost Stories, hit the store on May 19th. When we were scoping out Moby’s latest release, Almost Home, we discovered that the same DJ/Producer, Sebastien remixed that record and this one too! Of course, we had to just jump on the Sebastien bandwagon and get this one onto the blog as well. Okay…so we’re a little late to the game on this Sebastien dude. He seems to be scoring a few points with choice artists who make incredible music. Could Sebastien be the next Calvin Harris? It looks like he’s working his way down that road, for sure.

Here’s the original official Coldplay video for single, “Magic.” The song is about a love somehow broken. By whom it doesn’t say, but the memories of that love still persist and while the relationship fades from view, it was still like magic, even if it’s now no longer together.

Here is the Sebastien remix of Coldplay “Magic” we discovered on SoundCloud. He gives this record a nice bottom end deep house flavor with simple piano chords throughout that keep this song grounded near the original. Simple, emotive and effective.

http://soundcloud.com/s-bastien-official/coldplaymagicsebastien

Not sure yet where to buy this remix as the download has yet to make itself available. Hopefully, we’ll see it soon.

If you’re looking for more of an electronic dance music remix, the legendary Giorgio Moroder gives this one a spin as well. You can hear the difference in the more polished sound of the experienced dance music veteran in the complex synth and drum patterns.  This is available now for download through iTunes.

Moby feat. Damien Jurado – Almost Home (Sebastien Edit)

Moby’s new album, “Innocents” is out now and this song, Almost Home, features the American singer-songwriter, Damien Jurado on vocals. It’s an emotive and sensitive downtempo number with a sweeping hook and long synth pad washing underneath. Very ethereal and though provoking. Classic Moby in his ability to find and work with interesting vocalists flying under the mainstream radar, but popular in their own right.

You can hear more of Damien Jurado’s folk sound and singer/songwriter abilities on his website.

Here is the official YouTube video for Almost Home.

If that’s a bit too downtempo for you, here is a remix from Hamburg, Germany based DJ/Producer, Sebastien. This guy is definitely someone to watch for his ability to work with strong vocals. Maybe a German version of Calvin Harris? We’ll see!

Buy this release on Beatport

 

Frankie Knuckles Tribute at Scandals Nightclub Asheville NC – April 24

On April 24th, I’ll be DJing a Frankie Knuckles Tribute Party, which coincides with both MOOGFEST and Dining Out For Life here in Asheville, NC. The FK Tribute will be in Scandals Nightclub (11 Grove Street) from 11 pm to 3 am during the Dining Out For Life After Party. The party is FREE, so come on out and celebrate the life and legacy of Frankie Knuckles, while also contributing to a good cause – the Western North Carolina AIDS Project (WNCAP).

Let us know you’re coming to support here.

Frankie Knuckles Tribute Party Asheville April 24 2014