eMusic Calls on Music Legends for Integrated Campaign

An integrated advertising campaign from music download service eMusic draws on music greats. The online component supports print, television and outdoor with banner ads and search placements.

One online banner featuring a photo of Johnny Cash reads, “Music that will make you weep, and not the way boy bands do.” Meanwhile, print creative using a photo of the same artist reads, “For your listening pleasure, we’d like to recommend something in black.”

“We want to try to capture the imagery and get people to click on the site,” said eMusic SVP of sales and marketing Chris Hoerenz. “What we’re doing online is taking elements of the campaign and building banners [that will] send people to the landing page.”

Users who click on the ads land on a promotional page set up for the campaign. Messaging includes a promotional trial offer for 25 free downloads; a mosaic of album covers, also used in other branded media; and the ability to watch the TV spots.

Creative was created by Boston-based agency MMB. Banner formats include leaderboard, wide skyscraper, full banner and additional IAB standard sizes. Online media buys are being finalized in-house. VNU-owned IMS Media Solutions in New York handled the offline buy.

Online placements are set to run on indie music site Pitchfork Media and similar sites. Ads on magazine Web sites like Spin, Relics, Downbeat and Paste will appear as print ads run in the offline counterparts.

“We were able to negotiate some package deals,” said Hoerenz. “It make sense that if we’re running [an ad] in Spin Magazine, we’d want ads on their site.”

Additional online placement will run on Advertising.com and other media networks. eMusic plans to refresh its ongoing search campaigns on AdSense and Overture. Keywords will drive traffic to the campaign’s landing page. “We’ll certainly dial that up,” said Hoerenz.

Display and search advertising are both components of the music site’s online campaign. eMusic also built viral elements, such as tell-a-friend links, into the landing page. Hoerenz commented, “The viral nature of the Web will hopefully be exploited.”