BACKGROUND

Research has shown that an artist's music sales are directly influenced by the consumer's awareness of the artist and the artist's music. In today's visual society, one of the best ways to increase that vital awareness is through the targeted use of music videos.

Around the nation there are many video programs that play music videos of all genres of music. Within that group are roughly 50 - 60 video shows that specialize or feature Country and Americana music videos. These shows range from national shows like Great American Country (GAC) and Country Music Television (CMT), to multi-regional shows like Music Row Profiles, to local shows like Sidewalks Entertainment and Austin Music Network.

Additionally, there are video pools like ET Videos and Screenplay Video that provide monthly video compilations to retail stores, including Virgin Megastores, Rooms-To-Go, Princess Cruise Lines and several airlines to name a few. There are also several internet video sites like FMiTV.com and AmericanMusicChannel.com.

STRATEGY

The strategy behind Visual Image Marketing's marketing is creating awareness for an artist's video and ultimately for their CD at a retail level.

Visual Image Marketing is hired by record labels or artist management to be an integral part of their artist's marketing plan. Our objective within that marketing plan is to increase the awareness of the artist with the music buying public through video marketing and promotion to these 50 - 60 video shows. The key word here is AWARENESS.  Awareness translates into Sales at retail.

That Awareness is enhanced by "Face Time".  Face Time is our term for the amount of time a video show will devote to an artist and their video. For instance: Let's say an artist has a video, an electronic press kit (EPK) and has some available video liners. Also, most local and regional video shows are either 30 minutes or 60 minutes in length. If a video show plays the artist's video (4 minutes), their EPK (5 minutes), and the programmer relays information about the artist's tour schedule and current events (30 seconds), that artist has been given roughly 9 minutes and 30 seconds of Face Time on a 30 or 60 minute show.

This awareness also increases when the artist's record label sets up promotional giveaways and contests that run over several weeks. Many programmers will feature the artist's CD cover art, inform their viewers that the video is from the artist's current CD and the CD is available in their local retail store. That visual of the CD cover art helps the viewer to make a retail connection between the artist, the video, the song and the CD.

Visual Image Marketing is hired to create this awareness for the Life of the Video, which is usually 12 - 15 weeks. We contact these video outlets each week, relay pertinent sales and marketing information to them and strive to increase the Face Time each outlet gives an artist, as often as possible.

Each week, the client is provided with an accurate accounting of airplay at each of the video outlets for the previous week. This verifiable airplay becomes an integral part of the artist's marketing mix. The airplay information is formatted by SoundScan regions and by DMAs so the sales and marketing department can correlate where airplay impacted sales.

The  following details some of the video shows we work with to increase the awareness for our client’s videos.

NATIONAL SHOWS

Country Music Television (CMT) - 58 Million Households (HH) - Owned by CBS Cable - Available in 209 of 210 DMA markets - Typical CMT viewer is married, 40.8 yrs old, earns $45K+, is a homeowner, and lives in non-MSA. (Source: Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau)
Great American Country (GAC) - 18.7 Million HH - affiliated with Jones Radio - Typical GAC viewer is married, 25-54 yrs old, predominantly female, earns $40K+ and is a homeowner. (Source: Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau)
Country Crossroads - 40 Million HH – This video outlet only schedules videos 4 months at a time, so airplay may not fall during promotional timeframe.
Americana Television - 26 Million HH – Carried on the America One Network and on the Dish Network.  Though not a full time cable network yet, it is expected to be full time within 2002.
VH1 Country - 8 Million HH – One of the VH1 family of channels. 

MULTI-REGIONAL & SYNDICATED SHOWS

Music Row Profiles - 30 minute show - available in 40+ markets including the DMAs of  Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Wilmington and  multiple others on the America One Network - Potential available households are 6+ million.
Night Tracks – 1 hour show – available in major markets including: Atlanta, Houston, Pittsburgh, Dayton, Las Vegas, Huntsville, El Paso, Grand Rapids, Albuquerque, Greensboro, Albany – Potential available households are 14+ million.
Power Play Country – 1 hour show – available in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Detroit, Atlanta – Potential available households are 7 million.
America’s Country Connection – 1 hour show – available in Chicago, Indianapolis, Corpus Christi, Jacksonville, Baton Rouge – Potential available households are 15+ million.
Global Music Network – 1 hour show – available in Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Detroit, MI, Phoenix, AZ, Pittsburgh, PA, San Diego, CA, Hartford, CT, Salt Lake City, UT – Potential households are 9+ million.

VIDEO POOLS

We work with 5 major video pools with each project.  Video Pools take videos from multiple sources, compile them into targeted video reels & distribute them to retail clients such as: 5-7-9, TransWorld Entertainment (Coconuts, Camelot, Recordtown, Strawberries), Hard Rock Café, Rent-A-Center, Rentway, JC Penny's, Boot Country, Boot Factory, Sony Transcom (American Airlines & TWA), Virgin Megastores, Sears, Nordstroms, US Post Office, McDonalds, Foot Action and 100’s of hospitality and club outlets. 

DMX/AEI

ETV

Screenplay

Promo Only

Rock America

Many of the video pools’ customers run these reels in hundreds of store locations across the nation, giving each video thousands of plays each month.

CLOSED CIRCUIT

Ameristar Casino Hotel – Located in Kansas City, MO - Videos are played on a video wall and on the hotel hospitality channel.  Videos run at least 49x/week.

Travel Entertainment Network - Videos are played on video loops in 25 hotels in the Southeast. Each video plays at least 84x/week in each hotel. Potential reach is 60,000 persons per week.

LOCAL VIDEO SHOWS

Comprised of Cable, Broadcast and PBS carried shows, the local video shows offer excellent, targeted video exposure for an artist’s video.  Most are not governed by radio charts, so they can take chances on new artists and can be invaluable in growing grass roots support for the artist and their video/music.

These shows are particularly suited to maximize a CD give away promotion, offer tour support & ticket give-aways and many will utilize an artist’s EPK.  These shows also will make use of in-studio artist interviews when an artist is in their area. Many shows will build a complete segment around the artist with the video & EPK.  

Several of these local shows have either reporting or non reporting radio ties.  Many of these video outlets will also play a segment of or the full artist’s interview on their radio show. This radio/video setup is also a very fertile area for cross promotion possibilities.

INTERNET ONLY

American Music Channel – Programmed out of Nashville, TN
FMiTV.com - Programmed out of Los Angeles, CA
Tunes.com - Part of Rollingstone.com - Programmed out of Chicago, IL
Launch.com - Programmed out of Santa Monica, CA
LikeTelevision.com – Programmed out of Charlotte, NC
Throttlebox.com – Programmed out of Johnson City, NY

VIDEO PROMOTIONS AVAILABLE

CD Give-away & Artist Mentions
This is the most basic way to give your artist more exposure.  We send the programmer 5 - 10 CDs and a couple of hats or shirts. The programmer will give them away during a set timeframe to be determined. The CDs are given away only when the artist’s video is aired. The programmer also displays the artists’ CD on camera and informs the viewers they can buy that CD at their local record shop. The hats or shirts can be given away to viewers that participate in a call in or write in contest.  This promotion works very well, especially at the local level.

Taking that one step further, especially for the regional shows: A 15 - 20 CD give away, with a grand prize of shirts, caps, jackets, etc. These grand prizes are usually signed by the artist.

Another way to utilize the local, regional and multi-regional shows are as tour support.  These shows can give away tickets when the artists are performing their area and will highlight tour dates on their shows.

Timelines
Since these video outlets operate on daily, weekly, bi-monthly and monthly timeframes, it is imperative to have at least 3-5 weeks of lead time to set up these promotions.  This is not to say the promotions cannot be set up in under three weeks, but to insure proper placement and to give the most control over when the promotions are run, more lead time is better.  Usually the promotions run 4 - 6 weeks at an outlet. 

PRICING

Though each promotion and marketing campaign is unique and can be configured several different ways, the following is a general pricing guide for Country and Americana Video Promotion and Marketing. 

All-In Video Promotion and Marketing Campaign:  $ Determined by scope of promotion  

Timeframe: “Life of Video” is defined by promotion of the video up to the point where there is no further growth available for the video, usually around 12 - 15 weeks.

Reports:  Weekly, detailed airplay reports broken out by SoundScan regions and DMAs. Data is presented showing three weeks of airplay to highlight trending.

Promotions:  Setting up Basic 3-4 week CD giveaways at selected video outlets (up to 10 regional and/or multi-regional outlets).  Cost of CDs and mailing is re-billed to client.

Interviews:  When an artist is in the area of selected video outlets, we will set up interviews if possible.
 

Pricing does not include video duplication, mailing costs of videos or mailing costs of CD/product giveaways.  These costs will be billed directly to the client.

ADD ON CHARGES

Promotions:  More than 4 weeks of promotions and/or promotions involving more than 20 regional and/or multi-regional outlets or promotions involving multi-prize coordination - Price depends on depth and scope of project.

Specific timeframe or specific regional promotion campaign: Price depends on depth and scope of project.

Consulting & project coordination: including but not limited to setting up all video duplication and mailing of videos and giveaways and general video consulting. - Price depends on depth and scope of project.

Niche marketing with Video and/or CD Single: setting up multiple, symbiotic video and/or single marketing opportunities to increase an artist’s presence to viewers/listeners and to increase potential retail sales. - Price depends on depth and scope of project

International Video and/or CD single awareness marketing: There are multiple international awareness marketing opportunities that can be put together to start or enhance an artists sales and presence overseas.  - Price depends on depth and scope of project.

Ad buys at the video outlets: net pricing plus 10% agency fee, payable immediately upon receipt.

Development of Ad spots: pricing varies on elements of the total spot.

Note:  These charges do not include tape duplication or mailing costs.  Those costs are billed separately directly to the client.

Interested?  For more specific information contact Visual Image Marketing.