Songs of Life and Hope

On Sunday, a fantastically talented emerging artist released the fifth & last E.P of a series of five that he has been working on for a number of years now. 

His name is Ed Sheeran (http://www.edsheeran.com) -

Releasing these E.P's was part of a plan to generate enough hype and excitement around him that the Major Labels would take note where they had previously ignored him. 

1. You Need Me - http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/you-need-me/id354891501

2. Loose Change - http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/loose-change/id354878114

3. Songs I Wrote With Amy - http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/songs-i-wrote-with-amy/id366461000

4. Live At The Bedford - http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/ed-sheeran-live-at-the-bedford/id404452462

5. No.5 Collaborations Project -  http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/no-5-collaborations-project/id413889474

Fortunately his management (http://www.rocketmusic.com) - Elton John's relatively new entertainment company supported him in this and let him follow his own path. For Ed, his journey so far has proved to be a very successful. Prior to the release of the fifth E.P Ed signed a record deal with a Atlantic Records and plans to release an album either this year or next.

What has amazed everyone, following the release of said E.P is the overnight success of it. As I type, it currently lies at #2 in the iTunes chart:

Neatly tucked behind Rihanna but ahead of Tinie Tempah, Kings of Leon & Plan B - one of the biggest selling albums of 2010.

This has of course been done before by an unsigned act, most recently Mumford and Sons - but what this proves is that in this digital age where artists often connect directly with fans via social networks such as Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/EdSheeran) and Twitter (twitter.com/EdSheeran) - something Ed has done exceptionally well - it is more likely that thanks to loyalty, generated by hard working artists, their music is more likely to be paid for rather than downloaded for free (something Ed has stated he doesn't mind). For Ed this has paid of and he should be a role model to younger and even older unsigned acts trying to get noticed by the majors.

So as I leave you to ponder this amazing feat by a likeable, young, exciting new talent. I leave you with a video of him performing at our very own Station Sessions (http://www.stationsessions.com) courtesy of St. Pancras International who host it.

Please Enjoy!

DC

Don’t you love students…

They have such a hard life, constant partying, no real sense of responsibility, and a couple of lectures spread sporadically throughout their week. They do have bad tempers, demonstratedhere so probably best not to rub them up the wrong way…

The interesting thing about them is that they are extremely cynical, extraordinarily tech savvy, exceedingly trend aware and surprisingly susceptible to good quality communications.

We have recently embarked on a student focused online/experiential campaign and have the scars to prove it. We’ve discovered that as with most intelligible beings communication needs to be a give and take process. Given their characteristics, students require a particular effort, they aren’t difficult, they just need communication to be absolutely brilliant! (ie very pertinent, engaging and followed by free stuff!)

A few small golden nuggets for student focused campaigns:

•  Find a tone of voice that’s accessible, that you are comfortable with, and that you feel you can maintain.
• Be open minded about the things you decide are relevant, i.e. not just issues directly related to the campaign. Diversification keeps things fresh.
• Make communication open and engaging and invite response by remaining relevant not by asking people to respond, students don’t react well to being asked to do anything.
• Credibility is key, so positive brand associations, targeted exposure and maintaining reasonable marketing spend and are essential.
• Finally, choose your sites very carefully, and gain intimate knowledge of the university sites as universities differ considerably; what works in one is almost guaranteed not to work in another.

Students aren’t much different to you or I, except that they are very aware of themselves, and have slightly more time on their hands then we do. People generally want interesting content, and love something with a useful kickback. If you can make it interesting, engaging, useful it will fly!

ML