The Rights Marketing Company’s blog

Wonderful story in the Observer today about the restored version of “Help!” which is showing tonight on BBC 4. Many years after the film was made (obviously) Dick Lester got a formal letter from MTV declaring him, for the work he did directing both of the early Beatles films, “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help!”, the father of the modern pop video. His response, apparently, was to IMMEDIATELY write back demanding a blood test! I love the “immediately” …

Am watching the film now with the kids dipping in and out between it and Bebo … Whatever’s happened since - and with Lennon’s murder (a movie about that just hitting the screens in London if you’re feeling an excess of Xmas cheer), Harrison’s death of cancer, and now the whole McCartney divorce thing - there’s been a fair bit to feel dismayed by for a Beatles fan over the decades. Wonderful to get back to unadulterated Fab Four.

I still think the best thing about them was the laughs … I love the story of Lennon, cornered by a US journo: “John! John! Is Ringo Starr the best drummer in the world?” Responded he, without missing the all-important Beat: “He’s not even the best drummer in the Beatles.”

Because I had nothing to say!

Since October 2006 we’ve been working with O2 - more recently their owner, Telefonica really - and Bacardi Global Brands on initiatives that have taken our work and our thinking in very exciting new directions. We’re delving deep in to 21st century media strategy, we developed The TouchStone framework for analyzing and evaluating 360 degree brand communication programmes, and more recently have been exploring advanced mobile marketing strategies.

I feel so privileged - despite the associated stresses - to have the opportunity to do this work. We have a way to go yet before the business is 100% stabilised, but it’s looking OK.

Tell you what … this blogging business ebbs and flows for me … for 3 months or more I’ve had little that I wanted to communicate outside of the work I do with the very exciting Rights Marketing Company, now well into its second year and very much on a roll.

Couple of things I plan to revisit over the coming weeks in this space … the growing relationship between music and advertising, the issue of media value in the context of a brand new set of consumer experiences, and finally - and perhaps more drily - the fascinating theoretical work we’re doing on the strategic impact for enterprises of the move from value chain to ecosystems.

Advertisers currently fund - one way or another - some form of content and embed their messaging inside or alonsgide. In Media 2.0, advertisers must move on from interruption of experience to enhancement of experience.

Deep in the labs at Rights Marketing we work on what comes next. And the idea we keep coming back to is micro-sponsorship, aka ‘reverse adtech’.

We see a day when advertisers will bid to sponsor the individual entertainment and other mediated experiences of desirable (affluent, commercially attractive) consumers.

It goes like this: the organisers of (say) the webcasting of a music concert offer the sponsorship rights to the usual suspects in media buying. 4 fmcg brands commit to enter the bidding program: Dominos, Coke, T-mobile and Quiksilver. When consumers sign up for the event, brands bid to be the unique sponsor of their experience of the content (and this can be offered to groups of friends - the tribal piece - as well as individuals).

Each brand not only commits to foot the basic bill for the consumer who signs up: they sweeten the bid with brand-exclusive, event-specific enhancements such as discount coupons (via web or mobile) for food and snacks during the event, online and/or mobile services to increase the individual (or especially the tribal) enjoyment of the event (for example rich chat environments where friends can connect and make new friends), or exclusive promotional merchandise (caps, t-shirts, even a branded CD of the concert to your door 24 hours later).

Consider for a second the Return on (yes, not cheap) Investment that derives from the remarkable Return on Attention that micro-sponsorship creates. The brand that wins the bid moves immediately from the usual painful and suspicious hovering around the outskirts of the party (’trendy vicar’, as it’s sometimes cruelly called) to occupy a welcomed and value-adding role not too far from the event core. The opt-in factor is highly positive, and the CRM potential is, for once, both genuine and large. And brand-consumer permissions go sky-high.

I wonder if at least some resolution of the well-documented marketers’ conumdrum (innovation and accountability) may lie in the adoption of this reverse-engineered advertising. We’ll certainly be suggesting it for our clients.

…. courtesy of the ever-watchful Michael Parekh, a piece from the NYT that's a must-read for all students of online music - and culcha …

REMEMBER that Mozart concert you wanted to get to last month? No, not that one. (Or that one. Or those other 10 or 12.) The one with Lorin Maazel conducting the New York Philharmonic in the last three symphonies at Avery Fisher Hall.

Well, that concert will come
to you in high-quality sound on Tuesday, when DG Concerts offers it for
digital downloading via the iTunes Music Store (itunes.com).
What's more, two programs from the Los Angeles Philharmonic's hip
"Minimalist Jukebox" series, performed this weekend, are scheduled for
release through DG Concerts and iTunes on April 4. Although pricing is
not final, each live concert will probably cost about $10 to download,
less for complete individual works.

Having become pretty jaded with my current music collection, and also rather bored with iTunes, this wakes me up a bit. I look forward to finding out more - surely this is the stuff that makes online entertainment truly fresh and vibrant? 

We’re delighted to announce, further to time spent together at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, that Prof Paddy Miller of IESE, the top business school in world (FT, Economist etc) has invited Rights Marketing to assist with the development and delivery of the new Leadership in Media MBA program (NY) and the media component of the core MBA program (Barcelona).

We’re beginning the development process on this today, for launch in both NYC and Barcelona in the fall. A priviledge and a pleasure.

… but it could be tomorrow

In an UnNews exclusive interview today the current CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, Mitch “Litigious Bastard” Bainwol, discussed the analog hole, and the recent controversy surrounding it.

Michael and Umair Haque of Bubble Generation examine the state of play and strategic implications of Media 2.0 in the first of a series of podcasts.