Brand Management 101:
1) Promote brand love.
2) Don't promote brand hate.
On the heels of their decision to stop suing single moms and other small-time copyright infringers, record labels still don't seem to understand how to engender good will around their brands and build a long-term fan base. Case in point, Warner Music Group's decision to remove a YouTube tribute to John Williams.
The video in question by choreographer and musician Corey Vidal, featured a four-part a capella performance set to the Star Wars theme. It received 4,064,130 views and reminded many, including yours truly, of Williams' brilliance.
What was WMG's response to this incredible, free publicity among a new generation for the brilliant composer whose catalog they own? WMG had the video removed for copyright infringement.
The result, of course, is the loss of a promotional opportunity for WMG and now more bad will for WMG and all record labels. Want evidence of the incredible backlash against WMG on this front? Just check out Corey Vidal's YouTube page and read the comments. Though I'll warn you in advance that many of them are unfit to reprint here.
Perhaps a better course of action for WMG would've been to create a contest around the video and to feature the Star Wars soundtrack throughout. In fact, why not hire Corey and have him wear a t-shirt for a website where fans could download John Williams' music?
What do you think? How would you have managed your brand similarly or differently?
Update: Indeed, John Williams is not dead, as I erroneously alluded to in my original post. Thanks to the anonymous commenter for catching that one.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Corey Vidal and Why Record Labels Might Be Their Own Worst Branding Enemies - Ministry and Business Marketing and Media Blog
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3 comments:
Look at it this way:
Kory Vidall used the audio clip in that video without permission and initially claimed it was his own.
When moosebutter, the creators of the tune were contacted, they could have easily DMCA'd his video, but instead decided to work with him.
moosebutter has gained a massive amount of exposure from the video, much more than if they had removed it from the beginning.
John Williams is not dead the last time I checked
Sounds like clueless bizdev and higher-ups asserting their Flintstoneage power around. But I'll just lrave it at that without knowing all the details involving copyrights and how they apply - like maybe their lawyers are being threatened by whoever gets kickdowns as well. Lots of percentages get dolled out, it's pretty amazing how they divy $$ from sales.
This is well-written and you make some excellent points.
I wrote a story about Corey Vidal and if I wasnt on my iphone i could link it here easily. Alas, no copy/paste love fpr me. To read...Its titled "Star Wars tribute" and youll find the link here: http://geeks.Pirillo.com/profile/Krystyn
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