So here it is, finally. DRM is dead, I’m glad.

von | Jan 4, 2008 | Blog, Digital Culture, Marketing Trends

Business Week features an article that says Sony BMG drops DRM. Peere pressure or not, I don’t care, I am just very happy about this. That’s the last Giant of the 4 to drop DRM.

Will Apple now drop their DRM so that I can listen to the songs I purchased (and I did purchase some, indeed!), everywhere I like?

But Sony won’t make their whole collection DRM free:

Sony BMG, a joint venture of Sony (SNE) and Bertelsmann, will make at least part of its collection available without so-called digital rights management, or DRM, software some time in the first quarter, according to people familiar with the matter.

Sony apparently noticed, that there can also be positive sides to offering music online:

Sony has been experimenting with DRM-free songs for about six months. The company began giving away DRM-free promotional downloads for recording artists that sell less than 100,000 units, and at least one artist gained mainstream exposure through the effort.

Given that and the Pepsi Promo I blogged about earlier, I think we can savely look forward to 2008 being the year, when the music industry finally awakes and joins the digital era.

Best and worst ads of 2007

von | Jan 3, 2008 | Ad News, Blog, Digital Marketing, Online Advertising

The Wallstreet Journal published a list of the best and worst ad campaigns of 2007. Amongst the best were the ad campaigns of Dove, the Simpsons Movie, Cadbury. Some of the worst were bud.tv, General Motors, Snickers and Chrysler.

Interesting fact: while I have seen/read about all of the good ones, I know none of the bad ones. So even while being over here in Germany, I know (about) the good ads. And I did see / learn about them through traditional media. Get it?

1 billion songs promo in 2008

von | Jan 2, 2008 | Ad News, Blog, Digital Culture, Digital Marketing, Marketing

Pepsi always seems to play the big numbers in their promos. A few years back, they had a lottery for 1 billion dollars with a monkey doing the final draw (so I heard).

Now they started a cooperation with Amazon to offer 1 billion songs in 2008. The details of the promo will be announced during the superbowl. That should be interesting, especially since after the superbowl, there isn’t even a whole year left to give away these mp3s. It means that they will have to give a way more than 3,000,000 songs per day (roughly calculated for 300 days).

Considering the fact that iTunes sold 1.5 billion songs in the last few years, this truly is a big number. And it should resultin in an inflation of the mp3 market, lowering the value of digital songs in general. Don’t you think?

A complete list of web marketing areas

von | Jan 1, 2008 | Blog, Digital Marketing, Marketing Trends, Online Advertising, SEO / SEA, Social Media Marketing

I am impressed with this extensive list of web marketing areas by Jeremiah Owyang. It’s, as he calls it „A Complete List of the Many Forms of Web Marketing for 2008“ and for the moment it does indeed look very complete.

This document catalogs the many tools and tactics available for corporate web strategy in 2008. Even if your strategy or resource limitations restrict you from entering all spaces, awareness of the changes in our digital landscape are critical. This document is intended for decision makers roles such as CMO/VP/Director of Web and Marketing.

If anything, it shows that digital marketing has become a considerably large field of opportunities! At the same time it shows that there is still huge potential and opportunities for most companies out there.