Original blog posting here
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The King of Air Guitar
As an introduction to this post, I should provide some background. When I was down in London a few weeks back, I met with Will King, and the conversation that followed dovetailed nicely with some of the thinking I have been doing about the current state (and future) of the music industry (read these posts for a heads up: The Music Industry - An Introduction, and The New Music Industry - Part One). This blog post is the product of that conversation (and a couple of others). I hope it'll spark some conversation. I think it will.
It's official. The world is turning into a meritocracy - only the good will thrive. Within the next couple of years, Spencer's oft used quote will have to be updated. Rather than 'survival of the fittest', it becomes 'survival of the best'. With the emergence of Long Tail economics and people using the Internet to break down the barriers to creation and distribution of creative media, it's no longer a competition to see who can shout the loudest, or throw the most money at the problem. With more and more demanding the attention (and hard earned cash) of the masses, the buying public will no longer accept anything less than great, and it's becoming increasingly obvious that bigger isn't necessarily better. The challenge to bands (or, for that matter, any company that wants to sell something) is helping people find out that their product exists in the first place. Will King, the CEO of King of Shaves, has come up with an interesting way of trying to find an audience online - both for an unsigned band, and his new razor. If he succeeds, 20 million people will be exposed to his product, and an unknown band will have unprecedented exposure.
Using music to market a new product isn't anything new. Advertisers have been using the power of music and bands to support their brands since the advent of mass media. For a lot of companies, however, getting a track from an established act is not only difficult, the cost makes it downright prohibitive. Will King is only too aware of the pitfalls of this kind of strategy:
"In 2006, we ran a regional TV campaign featuring John Terry that used the track 'Dirge' by Death in Vegas. It was the only track we wanted to use, and the whole campaign nearly faltered as it was a nightmare for our (then) ad agency to agree usage terms with the copyright owners, plus it cost literally tens of thousands of pounds. It was pretty stressful."
Looking to avoid these problems when launching his new Azor - his first foray into the razor market - he looked to try something different, and went to one of his employees, Matthew Bean, for help:
"When I knew we'd have a campaign bus to launch the Azor, and thought about using Guitar Hero on the Wii as an audience activator, I thought it would be good to involve a band. Matt (and his brother and drummer, Doug) were good musicians, and I simply asked Matt if he could arrange some music that sounded 'right' - and he did, writing the lyrics later."
Bean (a sales support executive by day) took up the challenge, pulling a band together (called Beanius), writing the track (called John Tracy) and playing a series of live sets for King of Shaves at various promotional events for the Azor. The initial impact of the track online is relatively minor - the band's video on youtube.com has had 459 views, and John Tracy has just over 2000 plays on Myspace - but King sees potential in the band, and isn't afraid to throw the considerable weight of his brand in with Beanius' lot:
"Using music appealed to me, but in a genuine way - not signing up an established band, but seeing if we can get an unsigned band signed. King of Shaves (the brand) is all about 'being the best you can be - being a king - winning' not 'already won, telling people about it'. We back challengers to titles, not defenders...I like music, and it's satisfying to be in a position to 'impart momentum' to a band that I think is good."
So the question was raised as to the best way to go about getting both Beanius and the Azor out to a wider audience. This is where Chris Kempt of Kempt comes in; a company that specialises in 'advergames', online flash-based games which advertise a product. As Chris himself puts it:
"Put simply, at Kempt we believe that the secret to a great ad campaign is to be engaging rather than interruptive, or rather that a campaign will be more successful if it somehow manages to be interesting and relevant to the consumer. If well executed Advergames are an excellent way of achieving this, they setup what I call a "fair value exchange". The game entertains the user and the user in return feels more positive towards the brand, it's human nature really. When this is done well the resulting trust built up translates into much higher than average click-throughs, long interaction times, huge numbers of registrations and simply immense levels of traffic."
With the involvement of Kempt came the introduction of King of Air Guitar, a Guitar Hero inspired game that gives prominence to King of Shaves, whilst shifting John Tracy to centre stage - literally - along with a mixture of unsigned and established acts (Eureka Machines, The Dead Petal, The Wildhearts and Electric Six). The thinking goes that if you can get the right 'advergame' with the right product and the right band, the effects could be startling. But the risks are there, as Kempt points out:
"It should do well, as it's a very good example of its genre, but with viral we're always at the whim of the internet. So it could be 20 million visits, but there's always a real danger that it'll flop, too - that's kinda what makes it exciting and rewarding, at the end of the day. Viral (in the strictest sense) is a meritocracy, you will only do well if what you're producing is genuinely good."
It's clear that the success of the venture will only be guaranteed if both the Azor and Beanius have the quality to interest the volume of traffic that they will soon be experiencing. King is philosophical about their chances.
"I believe they can build on John Tracy, but that, my friend, is down to them. They've got the makings of the band, but they've got to make it happen. I'm just providing the springboard."
Chris Kempt echoes the sentiment - it's all down to the quality of the music.
"A piece of marketing can only ever be as effective as the product it promotes lets it be. So... would a viral game be a great way of promoting a relatively unknown band? If they are crap, no. If they are any good, then absolutely."
So how does Matthew Bean feel about the avalanche of traffic that could soon be coming his band's way?
"I believe this is going to be a really good thing for the band. Yes, in an ideal world we'd have more professionally recorded tracks. However, I'm a firm believer that if you turn down all the opportunities which come your way because they aren't perfect, then the perfect one will never come along... I feel confident about the band's future because KOS are bringing us lots of opportunities and Beanius have got the goods to back it up."
So if 20 million people play King of Air guitar, and 0.2% of them were to buy the track, it would be a number one hit. For frame of reference, according to the official chart company, in it's first week of sales last year, Kanye West's single 'Stronger' sold just under 37,000 units. If this experiment is a success, is this something that King of Shaves would look to repeat in the future? Definitely, according to King:
"We could sort of be an X Factory brand, a 'we want you to realise your dreams - convince us that you can, convince others you're worthy - and who knows'. I like the King of Shaves & New Music angle. It appeals to me. King of Shaves has always been about 'Important: Enjoy' and music is a great source of enjoyment for many."
Circumventing the traditional record company model of a band gaining exposure was always going to be a result of elimination of the barriers to creating and distributing music. Record companies say that they still have a part to play, even though the industry has moved from selling the tangible product, but if King of Air Guitar is successful, it could open the floodgates to the possibility of countless bands promoting and marketing themselves through partnership with businesses, rather than record executives. The labels used to be the tastemakers - filtering the vast volume of music available to the public so that only the best makes it through. The filters are now shifting away from the record companies, and it's down to the people to decide if Beanius and King of Air Guitar is worth their time.
If you're interested, here are King of Air Guitar, and Will King's blog.
