OPINION: MySpace (and Franz Ferdinand) show how to make brand activation rock

Tim Burrowes

January 7, 2009 1:20

Lots of brands talk about brand activation, but few really pull it off.

MySpace Australia is one of the exceptions, excellently leveraging its entertainment relationships to deliver first class access for its most loyal consumers.

This has included secret black carpet screenings of pre-release movies. Batman, for instance, saw a packed and excited audience who knew they had the social networking site to thank for their exclusive tickets.

And the site put together a similarly exclusive experience with a live show – and first Australian MySpace live streaming – from US act Death Cab For Cutie in Sydney last year.

Subscribe to keep reading

Join Mumbrella Pro to access the Mumbrella archive and read our premium analysis of everything under the media and marketing umbrella.

Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.

Topics

3 COMMENTS

PR Warrior 7 Jan 09

Good point Tim. While it’s not rocket science by any stretch of the imagination, it constantly amazes me how many brands ignore the power of leverage and activation, citing low CPM as an excuse. Hello? Quality will always beat quantity (that’s how consumers see it anyway) and with leverage, if you’re clever about it, you can generally get quality AND quantity.

User ID not verified.

Kate Richardson 7 Jan 09

This ‘up close and persona’ has been in the bag of tricks for a while but when done well, it really works.

This one really came down to a band wanting to reward and interact with its fans.

User ID not verified.

talkingdigital 7 Jan 09

i think when you’re the number 1 music site in the world you can pull favours like this from amazing bands like Franz Ferdinand. For brands, not so easy unless the chequebook is out … can’t imagine the Scot’s doing this for Pepsi or Top Shop.