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ADVERTAINMENT:
Barcodes in commercials, wristwatch credit cards,
and bathroom
broadcasts are just some of the changes we're going
to see as
advertising keeps on blending with entertainment.
 By
Scott G (The G-Man)
Scott G, president of G-Man Music & Radical Radio,
is a creative
director of the National Association of Record
Industry Professionals
(NARIP) and writes about music for
MusicDish.com and
the Immedia Wire Service.
Advertainment! Ahh, the very name sends thrilling vibrations up the
spine of anyone with marketing in their blood or
communication in their
genes. And it produces a strong shiver of disgust
from many of my
colleagues in the music industry.
"I don't want my songs to be involved in
advertising," they say,
forgetting entirely that by wearing branded running
shoes, a t-shirt
hawking Fender guitars and a baseball cap emblazoned
with the Peavey
logo, their very lives are involved in advertising.
Plus, if they attend
an awards show,
they happily state the brand and designer names of
everything they're
wearing.
They further ignore the fact that radio itself is a
form of
advertainment. What gets played has little to do
with musical
accomplishment or artistic merit, but is directly
related to the backing
of large corporate distributors. I have been told to
budget anywhere
from a quarter of a million dollars to $350,000 in
promotional costs to
obtain national radio play on (the
appropriately-named) commercial radio
stations. Is it any wonder that corporations are
seeking ways to build a
little brand awareness into the songs?
Turn on any rap, urban or hip hop station and you
can start counting the
product mentions in the lyrics, some paid-for, some
just happenstance.
In the electronic-pop field, I have done it myself.
On my "Electro Bop"
album are songs such as "Paranormal Radio" (which
begins as a
documentary about American Technology Corporation's
HyperSonic Sound
system), "Sheena Sez" (about talk radio host Sheena
Metal), and "Check
the Tech" (about the joys of watching the TechTV
channel).
Has this advertainment hurt acceptance of the album?
Not that I've
noticed. Many e-mails from around the world cite
"Paranormal Radio" as
their favorite track. Not one person has complained
about the ad
messages, I assume because the audience for my
dance-oriented music is
pleased to receive information about technology and
a far-out rock-talk
jock such as Ms. Metal.
Ads and entertainment go hand-in-wallet in many
other ways, some pretty
strange. In music alone, we have all wondered about
Bob Dylan's "Love
Sick"
in Victoria's Secret commercials (not to mention Mr.
D himself smirking
between shots of the lovely bodies wearing the
lingerie). But don't
overlook Keith Richards in the "Cover Girl" ad while
"Honky Tonk Women"
plays, or Willie Nelson's "Red Headed Stranger" in
the Herbal Essence
spot, or Iggy Pop's liquor/drug/sex-soaked "Lust for
Life" blasting
throughout the Royal Caribbean commercials. (Love to
work with the
Account Executive who was able to sell that
concept!) By contrast, Sting
crooning from the back seat of a Jaguar seems a very
model of
demographic compatibility.
And that's the point: ads and public relations are
routinely dismissed
as silly, annoying, intrusive or a waste of time
right up to the moment
when they are delivering facts the reader or
listener wants. Then,
suddenly, the sponsored message is viewed as helpful
and instructive.
Therefore, the trick is to achieve the right match
between audience and
message.
One problem is choosing your media. Just listing
advertising outlets can
be daunting: TV, radio, outdoor, newspapers,
magazines, transit, direct
mail, Internet banner. Many of these have subsets:
paid inserts
(advertorial) in newspapers and magazines, sponsored
"newsbreaks" and
infomercials on broadcast media, static or animated
announcements at
stadia, those dreaded 'Net pop-ups, brand names on
sports uniforms and
equipment (can you say NASCAR?), etc.
One of the most enjoyable categories for producers
of both music and
advertising is viral 'Net marketing, which has had
some notable success
stories such as BMW Films, the Seinfeld AmEx
campaign, and of course,
Burger King's Subservient Chicken.
We haven't even considered cooperative advertising,
which can be
anything from myriad logos at the bottom of an event
poster to the
branded music tones and flashing-light Intel
trademark that ends every
other commercial for someone else's computer
products.
But it extends further. Consider: Magazines that
sell cover stories;
product placement in movies and TV (and yes, live
theater); branded
clothing; bumper stickers; even fliers stuck on
parked cars. There are
ad messages on private automobiles (and those
anti-humanistic trucks
that some insist are called SUVs). Pull up behind a
vehicle in traffic
and you can read an ad for the car dealership on the
license plate
frame, plus another piece of public relations for
the state on the plate
itself. (Come on, you don't think it's hype to put
"Land of enchantment"
on every vehicle licensed in the state of New
Mexico?)
You might think that this plethora of options makes
it easier for firms
to get their messages across to their targeted
demographics, but a good
case can be made for the opposite view. TV audiences
are turning to Tivo
and pay-per-view. Radio audiences are discovering XM
and Sirius
Satellite Radio. Newspaper readership is becoming an
oxymoron. Motion
picture audiences can be heard groaning, mocking or
booing the
pre-feature commercials.
This means there are a lot of people working on new
ways to get the
product benefits into the brains of the consumers. I
do it with humorous
radio scripts and subliminally seductive music, but
there are going to
be some innovations in our industry, and at the risk
of appearing
foolish, I'm going to make a few predictions. Within
the next few years,
we'll see:
- Debit card scanners in TV sets, so you can order
during barcoded
commercials with the flick of your remote.
- Barcodes in songs, so you can download from iTunes
by swiping your XM
or Sirius player with your Visa or MasterCard.
- Credit cards built into wristwatches, so your
"plastic money" is
always close at hand.
- Links to product sites in every scene of DVD
movies or computer games.
Do you want the shoes in the Tony Hawk Pro Skater
game.
Click-click-click and they're on their way to you
via FedEx (note
product placement for the big competitor to United
Parcel Service).
- Broadcasts of infotainment and advertainment will
pop up everywhere:
in public restrooms, at the Starbucks, at traffic
signals, at the gas
pump, on your mailbox, in the packages you purchase,
in the parcels that
arrive at your door, etc.
- Captive broadcasts. Just as you can preview
the music on packaged CDs
(available in EU now, but coming soon to the USA),
the product benefits,
price points and warranty information will play as
soon as you lift up a
product in the store.
- Digitized logo placement in the rebroadcasts
of syndicated TV shows
("Hey, we can sell the product placement another
three times!")
- Branded ingredient lists on menus.
- Corporate artwork that takes you on a
virtual tour of the company.
- Interactive ads, where you get to play Jerry
Seinfeld and/or Superman
(or the driver of the BMW) in a five-minute escape
from reality (and
from reality TV).
- Holographic projections of commercials from
postage stamps, car and
house keys, magazine covers and ad pages, etc.
And these are just the changes we'll be seeing in
the next few years.
We're not even discussing the opportunities for
advertainment once we
move beyond traditional broadcast methodology; when
microchips are
embedded under your skin, YOU will be the receiver
for TV, radio,
satellite, telephone, and global positioning system
signals. And at that
point, the possibilities for marketing communication
via advertainment
are going to become truly mind-boggling.
Are these prospects exciting, frightening, or both?
My view is positive.
After all, a lot of these new forms of communication
are going to need
my scripts and my music. The G-Man's albums are released by Delvian
Records and are on
Apple's iTunes. He can be reached via
www.gmanmusic.com.
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