Digital Marketing Group (as seen in Smooth Jazz Monthly)
Monday, February 9,2009
In the early spring of 2006, David Chackler, a veteran of the music biz wars, took a look at the state of promotion and radio airplay at terrestrial radio. He saw the opportunities for most new, and even some established acts, to get their music exposed, shrinking, especially in the Jazz, and Smooth Jazz radio world. With many years of experience in promotion and marketing, both as a label owner, executive, and head of promotion for several major labels, Chackler realized the time had come for a “new paradigm”. In the world of Smooth Jazz, he guided the launch of such stellar careers as Michael Lington, Down to the Bone, Soul Ballet, and Daryl Hall’s solo album, as well as many others. Utilizing his past experience, present day opportunities and the undeniable future of the Internet, the creation of Digital Marketing Group had begun.
The medium in the new millennium that was making the most impact on music consumers was the World Wide Web. The basis for the creation of Digital Marketing Group would become the ability to infiltrate the Internet and begin to develop, market & promote the music artist. To this end, Chackler teamed up with Matt McGlynn, a young internet & graphics genius, who cut his teeth in the music business as part owner of “Rockpile Magazine”, the home for Independent Alternative Rock and together with Chackler’s long time associate and business partner Deborah Jawicki, they formed Digital Marketing Group, designed to lead the way to the “new paradigm” in music marketing.
Digital Marketing Group provides targeted exposure through web-based promotion and product placement including Internet Radio and streaming digital outlets. Their focus is based on consumer groups related directly to the specific release and the artist’s objectives.
The internet based campaign markets the releases directly to an artist’s or group’s specific core audience by utilizing Digital Marketing Group’s relationships with popular digital media and information sources, including the top Internet Radio aggregators; Live365, Shoutcast, Yahoo, MTV and VH1 networks along with digital service to 5,000 + Internet radio stations with specific follow-through depending on the genre.
Their philosophy is that, a well-rounded, web-based identity is critical to on-line marketing success. DMG helps artists to establish these online identities by creating profiles on popular social networking sites like MySpace and YouTube. Another part of their strategy is to help promote album sales by offering free downloads and/or exclusive discounts through custom built Media Pages, which function as portals to all of the artist’s related sites. Links to these Media Pages are then distributed through the above mentioned social networks as well as email blasts to DMG’s own genre-specific email databases and strategic alliances with partner websites. These offers are disseminated even further through the viral spread of this information through the web. One of DMG’s strengths is targeting people who love the music to begin with, these fans in turn love to spread the word. When you’re talking about a network like MySpace, with over 150,000,000 people, then the sky is the limit!
Postings throughout the Internet targeting official and unofficial sites of related artists, entertainment communities (radio/retail/media), genre specific sites, lifestyle & community portals, message boards/chat rooms, e-groups and newsgroups, with the intent to drive traffic towards your website and/or download page and e-commerce sites. PR programs will solicit web-based CD reviews and feature articles.
Knowing the importance of keeping clients aware of how their custom campaign is building and progressing, in-depth status and progress reports are provided on a bi-weekly basis.
Digital Marketing Group’s campaigns are designed to “build the buzz” on the artist across the web, and drive “direct to consumer” sales to the artist’s website or any other site they wish, and to increase the digital download income of the artist.
Recent breakthroughs in the U.K. have caused their music charting system to begin to recognize digital downloads as a relevant means of determining the popularity of contemporary music. One can only assume that the U.S. and the rest of the world will eventually follow suit. With huge outlets for physical album sales, such as Tower Records, meeting their untimely demise, it’s plain to see that the Internet is truly a force to be reckoned with in the music universe of the 21st Century. Independent artists and small record labels are now, more than ever, able to fight the battle for exposure on their own. Digital Marketing Group is quickly establishing itself as an ally to these warriors, aiding them in their crusade to reach the consumer directly by cutting out the middle man.
“The most important result from digital promotion is digital sales. Web users are never more then a click away from buying your record, and DMG’s marketing campaigns take advantage of this.”