This year, 2012, marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the “Greatest Rock’n Roll Band In the World”…
…the Rolling Stones.
Naturally, as good marketers, the band are marking the occasion with a new compilation album “Grrr!”…
…a new logo…
…plenty of commemorative merchandise…
…a new film about the band “Crossfire Hurricane”…
…PLUS a new single “Doom And Gloom”.
Event-driven marketing at it’s finest! More marketing thoughts about the compilation album shortly…
…but first that new single.
I confess, even though I am a BIG fan of the Stones…
…in recent (and not-so-recent) years news of a new single would definitely NOT have sparked any great interest.
However, the release this week of “Doom And Gloom” has attracted some positive attention in the press…
…so I decided to check it out.
Have a listen (and look) for yourself here…
I LOVE this track! Best thing they’ve done in a long time and from a “Socionomics” point of view, seems to tap into the prevailing negative social mood (“Doom And Gloom” says it all really).
Note that the video is really quite simple as well. Wouldn’t be too hard to put together something similar yourself. Video in online marketing is now VERY important and I’ll have to put together a separate post about this.
I digress somewhat…
…back to the centerpiece of the 50th Anniversary promotion…
…the “Grrr!” compilation album.
“Do we really need another Rolling Stones compilation album?”…
…I hear you ask!
After all, there is no shortage of compilations and the previous big “anniversary” in 2002 saw the release of the quite adequate “Forty Licks”.
Let’s recap some marketing fundamentals…
1) Never underestimate the appeal of a “New” version. Not surprisingly, “Grrr!” contains 50 tracks and a somewhat different selection from “Forty Licks” (not the least change being the omission of the 4 embarrassingly mediocre new tracks written for that album). There are 2 new tracks on “Grrr!” including the new single.
2) Never underestimate the appetite of fans for product, even if they might already have the content in some other form. Will I buy “Grrr!” even though I already have pretty much everything on the album? Probably…or more likely suggest it as a Christmas gift (convenient time to release the album, eh?)
3) Never underestimate the impact of a new audience. It might seem amazing, but there is a whole generation of young music fans out there who probably don’t already have a Stones album! Shocking, I know…
So, I would be pretty confident that “Grrr!” will rack up healthy sales and attract a fair amount of interest.
One small marketing point to note…
…just to give “Grrr!” sales a little nudge…
…pre-order the album and you get the single straight away.
Not only are the Stones one of the all-time greatest rock’n roll bands…
…but they’re no slouches when it comes to marketing and making money.
UPDATE (14 OCTOBER 2012):
I’ve discussed other aspects of marketing by the Rolling Stones before, for example in this post…
“Social Media Marketing With The Rolling Stones”