eMusic: Crossing Over into the Mainstream
[Brand Building | Music |2007-2008]
Sing a happy song
M&F makes niche brand huge
While keeping it cool
It's an age-old dichotomy: How do you give a beloved brand mass appeal, while also maintaining your base of loyal fans?
As the world's largest seller of independent music and the nation's #2 digital music retailer, eMusic is a recognized
leader within the digital music industry. M&F's challenge was to expand the company's subscriber base by increasing
its visibility across a broader consumer audience, while also retaining its core demographic of discerning music fans.
Working with a limited budget, M&F began to raise brand awareness by adopting a tone that was not off-putting to the
base, and appealing to the uninitiated and communicating this by securing high-profile interviews for eMusic staff in
mainstream media outlets. Highlights include booking editor-in-chief Michael Azerrad on NPR's Soundcheck and several TV
morning shows. M&F followed this up by conducting an extensive media outreach campaign targeted to women and busy
parents to launch eMusic's Audiobooks service.
Throughout 2007, media coverage included more than 300 print, broadcast and Internet placements totaling more than
52.5 million opportunities to see or hear about eMusic in trade and consumer media. As AOR and strategic counsel in
2008, M&F continues to insert eMusic into news and trend stories about the digital music industry and launch
additional brand-building campaigns.
