Are Condom Makers Smarter Than Record Label Execs?
Are Condom Makers Smarter Than Record Label Execs?
It’s an age old question; and we’re afraid that once again label execs are on the short end of the brain stick. AdAge.com reports that, "in an effort to reach young listeners with risque marketing messages at the same time it avoids FCC decency rules, condom maker Durex has purchased product placement advertising in podcasts."
Why aren’t the record labels exploring the podcasting space? After all if you want the hipsters to love your product and tell their friends, you should go where hipsters go; and right now that’s podcasting.
"Although it only emerged as a viable mass medium within the last six months, podcasting is already a craze among younger "digerati," says AdAge.com. "The new entertainment technology has also quickly drawn mainstream advertisers like General Motors Corp. An estimated 22 million Americans have iPods or MP3 players that can play podcast audio files."
"Durex last month launched an unusual brand integration campaign featuring unscripted X-rated banter on the “The Dawn and Drew Show,” the No. 2 podcast as currently ranked by visitors to PodcastAlley.com. Dawn and Drew are a Wisconsin husband and wife team whose freewheeling audio files are now distributed almost instantly to younger listeners around the country as well as the world."
“…The 18 to 24 [year old] segment is the first generational wave where we’re really starting to see the impact of broadband,” said Liz Daney, senior vice president and chief media officer for Interpublic Group of Cos.’ Fitzgerald & Co., Atlanta, which arranged the Durex podcast buy. “It’s the first group where they’re spending more hours online than they are with TV.”
Podcasting gives Durex “a way to demonstrate the brand in a way that’s very, very relevant,” she said. “We could have the product actively being used. We’re showing it exactly as we want to position the brand, as fun, as playful and sensual.”
"And tasty. On the first podcast originally uploaded last month, Dawn and Drew and their dog, Hercules, put various samples from a Durex variety pack to the taste test. In a subsequent show, they tried a new line of tingling lubricants."
