Wolf Tracking

Marking the continued erosion of traditional media viewership and readership, millions of consumers flocked to search engines to track the tragic events at Virginia Tech. Understanding this challenge and changing consumer behavior, many top-tier news organizations purchased search engine ads to promote their coverage.

The Associated Press ran a wire piece commenting on news outlets promoting their coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting via search engine ads. Ad Age sent out a poll to their readers asking them if it was in bad taste for these news organizations to capitalize on a tragedy.

At first blush, this approach may seem crass, especially if you look at the search terms that were purchased. The New York Times bought, “Shooting at Virginia Tech,” while others put their money on the general term, “Virginia Shooting.” As the AP article keenly points out, these search term ads are akin to yesteryear’s newsboys on street corners.

This use of technology reflects a changing consumer mindset and underscores the fact that the rise of social media is powerful and lasting. During the Web 1.0 era traditional news sites such as CNN.com were the first place people went for news. That was before the rise of powerful search engines such as Google that more and more consumers are using as their entry point to information online. News organizations are adapting to user behavior and are delivering content in ways that are palatable to consumers.

I understand what these news organizations are doing and support them for responding to an evolving market. Remember, promotion of news coverage is not a new phenomenon. Media companies have been touting their anchors and reporters with billboards, radio segments and TV ads for years. While many of us cringe to hear that the “Gray Lady” is associated with frank search engine ads, it is a necessity to remain relevant with today’s consumers.

Regardless of how you feel about the music of Nine Inch Nails or its front man Trent Reznor, last week marked the end of an aggressive ad and marketing campaign to promote the Nine Inch Nails critically acclaimed sixth studio album, Year Zero. The buzz started with secret messages in Nine Inch Nails tour t-shirts and morphed into leaked songs, strategically placed USB drives and numerous websites devoted to the futuristic concept album.

Despite being a band that has been signed to a major label for nearly it’s entirely career, something about the guerilla marketing tactics for Year Zero manages to give the project an organic, underground feeling. Reznor’s embrace of social media and his creative marketing decisions have made fans of all musical genres open their eyes to the wave of a new era of musical promotion. The marketing for Year Zero has pushed the boundaries of how an album can be marketed and Reznor proves that it doesn’t have to come at the expense of the music or the art.

The name of the album itself seems to suggest a sort of leveling out of current life, of perceptions, an erasure of common truths and judgments. The irony of this title however, or perhaps a better statement would be, the genius of the album, is that instead of starting over or leveling the current trend of early music leaks driven by the ever shifting fan controlled music industry, Reznor in his very rock star way clung to these trends without fear. Instead of resisting and fighting the early release of his music, the explosion was decidedly controlled, Pandora was let out of its box, but it was Reznor’s hand lifting the lid.

The marketing for the new album had somewhat of a snowball effect and turned into a veritable scavenger hunt for clues. In February a fan noticed a Nine Inch Nails tour T-shirt with the letters that spelled the words “I am trying to believe” and people seemed to believe there was more behind the message, and there was. This secret code lead fans to the internet, and what they found was a website that had been registered as iamtryingtobelieve.com, as well as dozens of other websites associated with the album, all with closely related IP address some as simple as the promotional art (a bombed out Hollywood sign, circa Year Zero) that visitors can erase with their mouse and others with short video clips. Around this time secret telephone numbers related to the album appeared, and when fans called there were pre recorded messages of clips from the “future”.

Then in mid February USB drives started appearing on Nine Inch Nails tour spots in Europe. Around the time the first secret message was decoded from a tour shirt, a USB drive was found in a bathroom stall during a Nine Inch Nails concert in Lisbon with an MP3 track from the new album. Others were to follow in Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester complete with the promotional art. It was rumored, and largely accepted, that Reznor himself was responsible for the drives, and after a listening party that turned into a leak of a poor recording of the album on April 1st, the album was made available for streaming on April 4th.

In a Guardian article Reznor was quoted as saying, “The USB drive was simply a mechanism of leaking the music and data we wanted out there. The medium of the CD is outdated and irrelevant. It’s really painfully obvious what people want — DRM-free music they can do what they want with. If the greedy record industry would embrace that concept I truly think people would pay for music and consume more of it.”

In spite of his alleged involvement in the leaks, it is Reznor himself that resists the term marketing or advertising at all, especially in response to Rolling Stones‘ statement that the album’s fan involvement and subsequent promotion is a “marketing team’s dream.” In his own words, Reznor imagines the album free of all market influence “…what you are now starting to experience IS ‘year zero’. It’s not some kind of gimmick to get you to buy a record - it IS the art form.” But we know better. Regardless of what you call it or how much you like the music or the new album, it is clear that Reznor stared into the fear of artists, large record labels, and studios alike, embracing a future of music that pushes and embraces artistic concepts, but also expands the avenues that can be used to market and consume music.

Reznor’s campaign teaches us that it is still possible to give the consumer or the fan what they want, but creatively control the way in which they receive the information. For Reznor this project is a concept album of the future, an imaginary musical space that began with a laptop on tour, but for those of us watching, the campaign is a perfect synthesis of art, marketing and technology. And after the promotion is complete, there is still more mystery to uncover, and it is this that will keep a true fan or interested newcomer buying the album and coming back for more. The CD’s color changing, thermo-chrome heat sensitive CD face doesn’t hurt either, because who could pass up an opportunity to see that?

To uncover the mystery yourself, below are just a handful of websites associated with Year Zero:

• http://yearzero.nin.com
• http://www.iamtryingtobelieve.com
• http://anotherversionofthetruth.com
• http://uswiretap.com/case_number_required
• http://cedocore.com

At this year’s NAB, high-definition (HD) definition products were everywhere.

From new whiz-bang HD cameras to HD blank recordable media and even virtual HD booth babes, there’s no doubt that it’s finally here.

And while all of this is exciting (I have two Panasonic HD TVs myself), the HD displays at NAB didn’t knock my socks off.

But there’s a little something called iVDR that did. As luck would have it, it’s not yet commercially available in the US and not expected to hit the consumer market until late 2008. Although, it’s already in Japan.

So what’s iVDR?

iVDR is a secured, removable hard disk drive that is supposed to be a new information platform designed for interconnecting homes, cars and mobile living. It’s 160 GB and will cost about $300.

In the future, TVs will have a port that allows you to plug in the iVDR and record your favorite music videos, DVDs and the like. Furthermore, new automobile manufacturers such as Toyota and Nissan have plans to produce cars with HD TVs that will have a cartridge to house this hard drive.

Of course, intellectual property and copyright protection of digital content issues will have to be resolved before my dream of this ultimate convenience can truly be realized.

And yes, Apple knows this (hint: Apple TV) and consumers do too.

Nevertheless, for me, a tech’d out Mom of two little ones, who routinely pops in new DVDs like Happy Feet and Charlotte’s Web while transporting them around town and taking long road trips, this is certainly GOOD news!

While I enjoy cool tech stuff and gadgets, the real way to capture my pocketbook is to make my life easier.

This is exactly what the iVDR will do.

Instead of shuffling DVDs in and out of the car, I’ll be able to record up to about 30 standard DVDs (each DVD holds about 4.7 gigs) and let them zombie out in the car-while I ride in absolute tranquility . . .

This week’s move by MySpace to block video widgets from Photobucket may begin a mass exodus for the social networking giant.

Freedom of expression has been the building block of success for MySpace and now that freedom is being restricted…again…a gradual process that began by limiting the users’ ability to embed content such as music and video players: Tila Tequila, Revver and now Photobucket.

What everyone wants to know is – “what’s next?”

In a recent statement, MySpace commented that it “allows its users to embed video, slide shows, and other features from third parties so long as they comply with our terms of service.”

If this is the case, then the terms of service go against one of the key principles of Web 2.0 – giving users the ability to own data and exercise control over that data.

It is time for MySpace to open up and begin forging relationships with companies like Photobucket — users should have the freedom to mix and match services in MySpace. If the company continues to take its name so literally, they could end up being the only ones left there…

Following two years of research and thousands of consumer comments, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced this week that it will maintain its ban on the use of cell phones in-flight.  The ban has been in effect since 1991.

In contrast to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), whose ban on cell phone use is based on a fear of interference with mission-critical navigational and communications systems, the FCC’s concern is interference with cell phone signals on the ground. 

The seatback phones we’ve all grown accustomed to use a special FCC frequency that operates outside the range of regular cellular phones, circumnavigating the interference concerns voiced by the two agencies.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of allowing cell phone use on airplanes.  Let’s face it – who wants to hear, “no, I love you more honey bun,” or, “dude, I’m flying over the Grand Canyon right now – it’s so cool!” during a 5-hour flight across the country? 

But as today’s consumer grows more accustomed to constant connectivity, the FCC and FAA are going to have to find a solution to satisfy travelers’ needs (desires really).  Think about how much more productive you would be on that cross-country flight with access to the outside world – it could change business travelers’ outlook on flying, and perhaps, business altogether.

So what’s next? 

Onboard broadband connections are scheduled to debut as early as next year using cabin Wi-Fi hotspots according to the FCC.  Simultaneous to its investigation of in-flight cell phone use, the FCC began the process to wirelessly connect travelers to the Web.

According to CNET, a spokesman for AirCell, the Colorado firm that received an FCC license last year enabling it to set up hot spots on aircraft, confirmed Tuesday that the company still plans to begin offering its exclusive service to passengers by early 2008. 

AirCell says customers can expect connection speeds on par with those on ground, and that access for a day will cost $10.

Fliers taking advantage of onboard Internet access may not be able to conduct VoIP calls, however, as that would still require the blessing of both the FCC and FAA.

For now, the cell-phone issue is closed as far as the FCC is concerned, but the issue may arise again. The agency said it may “reconsider this issue in the future if appropriate technical data is available for our review.”  Either way, frequent fliers should be pleased that flying will soon be a much less isolating experience as email, Google searches, and instant messaging are on the horizon.