Can Elvis Win A New Generation Of Fans Without Scuffing His Blue Suede Shoes?

"I can’t try to sell somebody Elvis who doesn’t know who he is … that
he’s not just some guy who’s been gone for 30 years," Paul
Jankowski, chief of marketing for Elvis Presley Enterprises told the
AP.  In 2007 year he intends to do something  about it.

Next year more video, music and other material from the Presley archives will be placed online. "We will take our MySpace page and we will focus on expanding our
number of friends on MySpace, that kind of thing," Jankowski said.
"There’s all kind of Elvis content on YouTube, things that we put up,
things that fans put up."

Getting younger buy-in may be crucial the the brand’s long term success, but availability does not equal success.  How do you get generation who had it’s own heroes, albeit ones that change daily, to focus on a dead over-hyped rock star?  Here the details from the estate get sketchy.  Perhaps sneaking more of Presley’s music and image into new content with audio and video mashups would be
a smart bet. But how far do you go?  Elvis plays football in the latest Madden NFL video game? Elvis goes metal?  Studio created duets with Elvis Cortney Love or Fifty Cent?

When marketers start thinking about music as a brand instead of a legacy and the choices are driven by an investment group like the one that now controls the Elvis estate (and American Idol and more), the potential for going too far is enormous.