Priority Records sends alerts via wireless in an effort to better reach the hip-hop community.

Priority Records’ vision to use wireless as a means of effectively reaching the hip-hop community all started with the record label’s Senior Director of Marketing Robert Redd. In November 2002, Redd flew to New York City to attend a listening party for Snoop Dogg’s latest album, “Paid Tha Cost To Be The Boss”. Within a two-hour time period, Redd ran into three different people in Times Square who mentioned receiving a page announcing the listening party taking place that evening. The page had been sent out to subscribers of UrbanWorld Wireless, a wireless news content provider. “It really made it clear that [wireless] was a viable means of promotion and marketing,” Redd says.

For Mike Johns, CEO of UrbanWorld Wireless, it was evidence that his dream of providing the urban community with relative news content had been realized. “It was amazing for me to hear [Redd] say that because we remember when it all started with just a dream,” says Johns.

Paid Tha Cost To Be The Boss Campaign

Priority Records teamed up with UrbanWorld Wireless (www.urbanworldwireless.com) to promote Snoop Dogg’s newest album, “Paid Tha Cost To Be The Boss” and the hit single, “Beautiful”. The campaign launched on February 14, 2003, and is scheduled to end March 20, 2003. However, instead of using mobile phones, the record label is utilizing Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) to reach the African American/Urban Youth Market ages 17 to 35. Johns says devices like Motorola’s Timeports and Danger’s Sidekick are more effective than mobile phones in reaching this population because PDAs were the first devices to which the hip-hop community was introduced and were therefore the first to be adopted.

Alerts

The campaign includes a total of seven tag liners and five full-text messages. These alerts were sent out to UrbanWorld Wireless’s 120,000 subscribers who, by registering for the service, all opted in to receive information via their wireless devices. The tag liners are embodied in the news content the company sends on a regular basis to its subscribers. By sending the short message service (SMS) alerts with the news content, the company aims to remove the advertising element of such alerts so as to make them more natural and relevant for subscribers.

The full-text messages are sent alone but UrbanWorld Wireless varies the messages by sending them randomly and wording them differently each time. Johns says within the young market (17 to 35) too much structure can have a negative effect. “You’re going to get a better result if you mix it up,” he says. “We don’t want to saturate our subscribers with the Snoop Dogg alert.”

For example, the full-text message sent on February 20 reads: “A REAL BANGER: The album PAID THA COST TO BE DA BO$$ featuring the smash hit single, ‘Beautiful’ & ‘Lollipop’ w/Jay-Z......IN STORES NOW! U-DUB ALERT.”

However, in another alert, the message reads: “PRIORITY RECORDS PRESENTS: The smash HIT SINGLE in the club ‘LOLLIPOP’ featuring JAY-Z & the HOT track ‘YOU GOT WHAT I WANT’ featuring LUDACRIS off the BANGIN' new album by SNOOP DOGG, PAID THA COST TO BE DA BO$$ in stores NOW! From BRICK CITY to LONG BEACH... tha album is guaranteed HEAT! U-DUB ALERT.”

Redd says the conversational tone of the messages is important. “You don’t get the feel that it’s a commercial for the masses,” he says. “It’s not telling you to go buy anything or do anything. So it’s less hardcore than a commercial but a lot more direct and personal.”

As subscribers receive these alerts, they have the chance to respond. The number of responses received will be recorded, allowing Priority Records an opportunity to not only receive feedback about the album, but also to measure to a certain degree the reach of the campaign.

Sweepstakes

The campaign also includes three sweepstakes. The first one took place in Los Angeles on February 28, 2003 during a Soul Train Music Boards pre-party. During the event, subscribers were encouraged to find five new people to register with UrbanWorld Wireless. Those who registered at least five new subscribers were entered into a drawing to win Snoop Dogg clothing ranging in value from $60 to more than $100. If subscribers registered more than five people, their name was entered more than once, increasing their chances of winning. Five winners out of 40 participants were selected. Winners were notified by an alert via their PDAs.

By conducting such sweepstakes, UrbanWorld aims to further increase its subscriber base, Priority Records is able to promote the album, and subscribers are given an incentive to participate, says Johns. Two other sweepstakes are to follow where winners will be selected in a similar fashion. One is scheduled to take place in New York on March 13th and the final one in Chicago the week after.

Survey

A final element to the campaign will be a survey, which is scheduled to take place at the end. The survey will be sent out to subscribers via their PDAs and will ask them questions regarding their opinions of the album, the music video, and the follow-up single, “Lollipop” with Jay-Z. Surveys sent out via wireless devices serve as a valuable way to receive feedback from subscribers, says Johns. “When you advertise through radio or traditional print, you don’t have any way to measure [the effectiveness of a campaign], but with wireless you can actually generate feedback.”

Universal Records Finds Success Through Wireless

Priority Records is not the only record company to turn to wireless devices as a way to promote an album or singer. Universal Records recently worked with IPSH!net (www.ipsh.net), a wireless marketing and technology firm, to conduct a campaign to promote Nelly’s video, “Air Force Ones,” and to increase its chances of being played on Black Entertainment Television’s (BET) program, “106 & Park”. The program is a music video series, which involves video countdowns and allows viewers to vote for their favorite ones. The campaign was launched nationwide in December 2002.

IPSH!net recently announced that, during the week of the campaign, 67.8% of the 29,178 fans who had opted-in to receive messages responded to the campaign by converting over to call the number provided in the SMS message. Participants then heard Nelly’s voice message and were able to vote for the video. Of the original 67.8%, more than half (58.5%) voted for the video. Following the campaign, there were hopeful signs that it had been effective when Nelly’s video rated #3 on “106 and Park”.

UrbanWorld Wireless Campaigns

UrbanWorld Wireless has been conducting SMS campaigns for nearly a year. One of its first campaigns involved spreading the word about De La Soul’s album, “Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump”. A recent 10-day campaign entitled “Spread the Word!” involved Comedy Central, Avesair (www.avesair.com) and Media Contacts (www.mediacontacts.com) in a joint collaboration to use wireless to promote “Chappelle’s Show”. As part of the campaign, subscribers received SMS messages on their wireless devices announcing the debut of the show on January 22, 2003. “The mobile component of the “Spread the Word!” campaign helped “Chappelle’s Show” achieve the highest ratings ever for any Comedy Central series premier episode,” says Avesair’s Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing Sean Harrison.

Ronetta Liggett, an UrbanWorld Wireless subscriber, says SMS messages are helpful because she is able to access the news when she is not at home via her wireless device. She says an alert announcing the release of a new album at the bottom of the message would definitely encourage her to purchase the album. “Word of mouth sells everything,” she says.

Wireless to Play Role in Music Industry

Johns expects to see an increasing interest from record companies in using wireless to promote. “Record companies are always looking for ways to have that edge over the next label,” he says. “You can only do so many videos; there are only so many outlets to promote a single or a song through music videos, radios, and your traditional media,” he says.

Meanwhile, Redd of Priority Records plans to continue using wireless to promote several other records coming out over the next few months. “I think [wireless] will become a part of your everyday business when you market and promote records,” he says. “It’s going to be a part of mine.”

Whether wireless will catch on in the music industry as a standard way to promote artists and albums is yet to be seen, but the examples set by Priority Records and Universal Records indicate wireless is a viable means of promotion that should not be overlooked.