The results are in for the Bum Rush the Charts initiative on
22nd March.
The campaign was attempting to put a podsafe music aritist,
Black Lab, at the top of the iTunes charts in order to send a message to the
mainstream music industry from the social media community.
As a podsafe music artist myself I think this is a great
initiative.
Unfortunately the single didn’t get to the top but I hope
the community doesn’t miss the big picture here just because the main goal
wasn’t achieved. It was hugely successful in terms of awareness and the fact
that people were motiviated ‘globally’ to do something collectively on a budget
of $800. Also the organisers must have learnt heaps about staging an event like
this and I’m sure they will be sharing those thoughts on the blog.
So far there have been thousands of downloads and the songs got into the Top 50 in
many countries in the world.
I thought I would offer up my thoughts on the results and
some suggestions about how to improve the next attempt;
- Community members participated in
the event for many reasons but the main one is to be part of an experience.
They wanted to take an action and then see the results of that action when they
checked the iTunes Top 20. The experiential element to a campaign like this is
critical
- The Financial Aid Podcast who pulled
together Bum Rush The Charts is a fund raising Podcast that helps provide
college fund for US students. To really harness the power of a global audience
I think they should look to spilt the charity donation between this and a
charity that has a more global appeal ? AIDS, WWF etc. The US angle was
too esoteric.
- Another challenge that the global
nature of this initiative presents is tracking web metrics globally. I believe there was
some under-reporting because some of the affiliates tags only work within US
territories.
- I wondered if the campaign would
have been more successful if the time period targeted was a week rather than
one day. Most of the traditional music charts run for a week and given the
LongTail effect this could have helped the groundwell effect.
- Do it again quickly, build on the
buzz !
