Four Reasons Your Entertainment Promotions Should be Digital

Your entertainment promotions may run into some trouble if you're not keeping up with the times. If you're still handing out trade show giveaways like pens, hats, and coffee mugs, you're going to lose some of your street cred with your customers.

These days, your entertainment promotions need to include digital incentives like music downloads and ringtones. Here are four important reasons why you need to stop giving out the logoed apparel, the baseball caps, and the 1 GB thumb drives as promotional incentives.

Generation Y Loves Digital Entertainment Promotions

This year was first time Generation Y outnumbered the Baby Boomers, 82 million to 78 million. These Millennials were born with a computer mouse in one hand, and a cell phone in the other. Their media consumption is more online than offline. They read their news online, they watch YouTube and Hulu instead of TV, and they communicate by texting on their cell phones. Some of them are so mobile, they don't even use email anymore.

This means if you want to appeal to Generation Y, your entertainment promotions need to be digital in nature: music download cards (plastic or digital), ringtones, free online movie rentals, etc. Any of these are going to appeal to Generation Y more than the typical knickknack brick-a-brack you find at every bank opening, community festival, or trade show.

Tie your entertainment promotions into both sales and just showing up. Give people a free song download for visiting your location, and five more for spending $50. Doing this will create both goodwill for your brand, and will give people the kind of incentive they really enjoy.

Increase in Broadband Boosts Digital Entertainment Promotions

Back in 2009, broadband Internet access had reached 60% of American homes. Broadband means we can go online faster. Pictures and documents download faster, communication is faster, we can watch movies online, communicate via video. And best of all, music downloads faster.

When you consider that Generation Y are some of the biggest consumers of digital music, increased broadband makes entertainment promotions like music downloads a win-win situation for both the customer and the marketer. Why not take advantage of that with your next entertainment promotions campaign?

Smart phones are becoming more popular

There are so many cell phones in this country, you'll have an easier time finding people who don't have a cell phone than trying to figure out who does. We love our cell phones. We trick them out, download all kinds of apps and ringtones, and even take pictures, record videos, and listen to music on them. And if you have the time, you can even talk to someone.

People love customizing their phones so much, they'll even pay money for snippets of songs for ringtones. They'll download wallpapers of their favorite brands. And they'll even buy skins to decorate their phones. So your entertainment promotions should take advantage of this cellular obsession, and start giving your customers what they want: a cooler phone than the ones their friends have.

If you're sponsoring a special event, include some digital swag in your entertainment promotions campaign. Let people download custom ringtones, special wallpapers, and even promotional apps.

Digital Entertainment Promotions Mean a Bigger Bang for Your Buck

Rather than paying for design, production, and shipping costs, a digital promotion can be done strictly via websites, SMS (text), email, and even Twitter. So if your budget is limited, why sink your shrinking dollars into preparing your entertainment promotions campaign?

Why not take those dollars and put them into increasing your number of giveaways, the scope, or even the promotion of the campaign itself? Why pay to ship 500 coffee mugs to a trade show, when you can collect business cards and send emails for free? Why pay for embroidery costs on 1,000 baseball caps when you can spend the extra money on giving away music or ringtones? By using digital promotions, you can remove all those costs associated with just preparing your promotion, and put them toward actually giving away the entertainment promotions swag.

--Julie Ann Ross

Music Download Cards Promotion of Candlewood Suites

Music download cards are a great digital promotion to reach both Generation Y as well as Generation X and Baby Boomers. While many people think that only Generation Y uses digital media, there are plenty of Gen Xers and Boomers who love their MP3 players too. And they're buying music like crazy.

Hotel Stays = Music Download Cards

Holiday Inn brand, Candlewood Suites, used that knowledge to reach their own customer base by offering music download cards to their Holiday Inn Priority Club members. The typical Priority Club member tends to be people in their 30s and older, frequent business travelers, and probably still listening to the music they heard in high school and college.

They created an entire campaign of music download cards around Classic Rock songs — music of the Boomers and older Gen Xers — that would appeal to many business travelers: stay at Candlewood Suites Hotel, and for each night you stay (because business travelers stay more than one night), you'll earn Priority Club points, be entered for a chance to win a $1,000 Ticketmaster gift card, and get five free music downloads. One night, one card; two nights equals two music download cards.

Users could choose from the hit list on the custom landing page, or find their favorites on the entire catalogue. All they did is punch in the numbers on their music download cards, download their favorite songs to their MP3 players, and they were all set. Now, business travelers could be reminded of their youth, while making grown-up salaries.

Book Online More = Music Download Cards

They even sweetened the deal: book your stay online, get another card. This meant that if you were a frequent traveler, you got as many music download cards you could shake a mouse at.

The upshot of this is that by having guests book their suites online, they can reduce call center costs. And reducing call center salaries for the cost of giving away some music download cards means Candlewood Suites saw an immediate ROI, before the final sales figures were ever calculated.

Measuring the Effectiveness of Music Download Cards

If a company chooses, music download cards can also be tracked to individual users. Since each card is given a specific number, the analytics can show when a particular person uses one of their music download cards. They can also pinpoint how frequently a person stays, visits the corporate website, and whether the program increased their number of stays. Future promotions can target only those guests who stay a certain number of nights, or use specific features of the website.

User Interaction Improves Response

Finally, users were encouraged to vote for their favorite classic rock hit. The Beatles won with 3,096 votes, Led Zeppelin came in second with 1,595 votes, and Queen was last with 432 votes (despite the awesomeness of "Bohemian Rhapsody"). All told, the top 10 bands earned 9,755 votes. Or to put it another way, at least 9,755 people participated in the program.

How to Use the Data

Let's consider some possible future uses of this data. Claire spends six nights in Candlewood Suites over the summer, and she downloads a few Journey songs (among others). Next summer when Journey is back out on tour (yes, they still tour), Candlewood Suites can send Claire some notification emails when Journey is going to be in cities with a Candlewood Suites in them.

Carl spends six nights in Candlewood Suites and downloads songs by the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and The Eagles. When the Stones release their next album (no, they're not dead yet), they can offer it as a digital promotion gift to Carl if he stays for three nights at a Candlewood Suites next Spring.

While we're not sure of the final results, we do know that Candlewood Suites saw some great success with their music download cards program. With some careful planning and market research into your customer base, companies can increase (and easily measure) the ROI of a digital promotions campaign.

--Julie Ann Ross

Digital Promotions Creating Customer Loyalty of Gen Y Forever

Digital promotions continue to spur billions of dollars in annual sales for product suppliers. By offering promotional incentives, through mobile promotions, online promotions, music download promotions, and other custom promotions, companies can tap into a vast pool of consumers that would otherwise be all but unreachable.


Promotional Currency brings a powerful combination of brand promotions including promotional incentives, entertainment promotions, music download promotions, ringtone promotions, mobile promotions, online instant win games and artist licensing - offering brand partners the first one-stop source for all online promotions, wireless and digital promotions.

The Music Download Promotion: Powerful Green Promotions with Promotional Risk Coverage

Music download promotions are as powerful and wide-reaching as they are ever green. They give your company a multi-faceted promotional tool with which you can leverage popular artists to grow your brand and excite your target market. Because new artists are continuously catapulted into the spotlight, your business has access to an unlimited resource of popular music. You can harness this resource to meet an unquenchable consumer demand. In doing so, you'll improve your brand and create a surge in product sales.

Below, we'll give you a comprehensive preview of music download promotions. You'll learn how they work and the unique promotional advantages they offer your business. We'll also describe how to use digital promotions to deliver a memorable impact at a surprisingly low cost. Lastly, we'll explain how you can tailor music download promotions to form a seamless fit for your target audience, regardless of your marketing objectives.

How The Music Download Promotion Works

Digital music incentives are delivered to your customers online through customized landing pages and branded music stores. The music download promotions are launched by distributing promo codes and website URLs in-pack, on-pack, through email, text messaging, signage, custom-branded cards, and other platforms. You can customize your marketing campaign to control its reach into your target market.

When your customers visit the website URL listed on your promotion, they'll be able to choose from a library of popular artists and songs. Once your customers select their downloads, they are prompted to enter their promo code.

You'll enjoy a tremendous level of flexibility in customizing your music download promotions. You can broaden your music library to include millions of songs, or tighten it according to your audience and marketing objectives.

Harnessing The Advantages Of Music Promotions

Because the landing pages to which your target market is driven can be customized with your company's logo and artwork, your music download promotions dramatically improve brand recognition. And because music has such universal appeal, it is one of the most potent levers for increasing customer loyalty.

But, that is merely scratching the surface of their marketing potential.

When your target audience arrives on your customized landing pages, you'll have an opportunity to introduce them to new products your company is launching. You can also require them to provide personal information prior to downloading songs. That allows you to build a valuable database that you can leverage for future marketing campaigns. While music download promotions can be harnessed to generate a boost in immediate sales, their potential effect on your business's bottom line extends much further.

Digital Promotions: High-Performance Promotional Impact At A Lower Cost

Digital promotions have quickly evolved into a multi-billion dollar industry. Companies have realized music download promotions and other digital incentives can broaden their marketing reach at a remarkably low cost. Promotional incentives can be delivered online to mobile devices, through email, or customized landing pages. Given the high-performance impact of these promotions, the cost of distribution to a massive audience is exceptionally low.

Tailor Music Download Promotions To Your Audience

Your target market can likely be broken down into tight segments. You can launch music download promotions that cater specifically to each of these segments, according to their taste in music. The tighter your focus, the higher response you'll enjoy.

For example, suppose you're promoting a brand that appeals to multiple age groups. A younger audience may be motivated by music download promotions highlighting alternative rock and hip hop artists. An older audience might be more willing to respond if offered classic rock songs. Still other segments of your target market may be motivated to respond by music download promotions featuring Latino artists. Each market segment represents an opportunity to refine your focus and tap into a targeted pool of consumers.

Entertainment Promotions Leverage High-Profile Entertainment Content

Music download promotions are merely one of several types of entertainment promotions that can help drive your brand. Entertainment that has been created to promote high-profile content such as films, video games, television shows, and CD releases can be licensed and offered as digital incentives. That allows your company to benefit from the top of mind awareness enjoyed by these entertainment properties. Imagine launching music download promotions for your brand that ride on the coattails of the latest Hollywood blockbuster or CD release.

Executing Music Download Promotions For Your Company

You can penetrate new markets, invigorate your current customer base, improve brand recognition, and spur long-term sales by launching customized music download promotions. Your entire campaign can be designed as a turnkey solution. There's no need to host the music library on your site. Nor do you need to take an active role in driving web traffic to your branded landing pages. The delivery and fulfillment of your digital music incentives are also handled as components of the back-end system.

If you are not already leveraging music download promotions to reach more deeply into your market, now is the time to do so. Leverage your music download promotions with the leader in digital promotions.