THINK INSIDE THE BOX

“TODAY’S CONSUMERS ARE NO LONGER PASSIVE RECIPIENTS OF BRAND MESSAGES,” I say. “They’ve become active participants in co-creating the brands they love.”

That’s been one of my mantras as I’ve traveled coast-to-coast with my colleague Alan Rambam the past few weeks. We’ve been representing our agency, Fleishman-Hillard, in meetings with some of the largest advertising agencies in the world and other marketing services firms owned by our parent company, Omnicom, to showcase various agency capabilities.

The observation that brands have to shift from a “Command and Control” mentality to a ”Cultivate and Create” mentality sets the stage for my case studies on developing PR programs that “do something real” by involving consumers (meaning programs that bring value beyond simply delivering a message). And it also supports Alan’s discussion of youth marketing and the intensely interactive nature of personal networks.

Today, as I was looking online for updates on Maria Schneider, one of my favorite contemporary jazz composers, I realized one of the best examples I’ve seen of “active participation” in a brand was blinking back at me from my computer screen.

“WHAT’S THE ONE THING YOU CAN’T DOWNLOAD?”

Schneider is a Grammy award winner and one of today’s most respected and innovative jazz composers. She apprenticed with the legendary Gil Evans after studying at three top music schools, including the Eastman School of Music. Despite world-class credentials and enthusiastic acceptance by critics and fans alike, Schneider shuns traditional record labels. Instead, she is one of a growing number of musicians calling ArtistShare, a Web-based collective, their home.

In a remarkable example of the idea that ”form follows failure” (as discussed in my previous post) ArtistShare founder Brian Camelio saw that the traditional record label business model simply wasn’t working anymore — especially when it comes to nurturing innovative work from emerging artists and allowing them to share fairly in the financial rewards — and invented a new model that uses technology to allow fans to act as current-day Medicis to the artists they love.

“I got to thinking: What’s the one thing you can’t download, the one thing that the artist can hold on to? The answer: The creative process. That’s the product I’m offering: The creative process.” — Brian Camelio

Camelio founded ArtistShare in 2000 and describes it as “a place where fans fund the projects of their favorite artists in exchange for the privilege of ‘participating’ in the creative process.”

I think it’s an incredible idea. With a dozen or more projects by various ArtistShare artists underway at any given time, music fans, patrons of the arts, and creative process junkies have an unprecedented window on the act of creation.

WATCH THE REHEARSALS, GET LISTED IN THE CREDITS 

Take Schneider, for example.  By joining as an ArtistShare participant, I’m mere clicks away from participating in her current project, the bird-inspired Sky Blue. I can watch unflinching video of recording sessions in progress — rehearsals, errors, inspired revisions and all. I can listen to snippets of final recordings, view a gallery of photos from rehearsals and recording sessions, read Maria’s journal about her inspiration for the project and her creative process. I can even download actual scores and individual parts from the orchestration … including all updates and corrections as the project evolves in the studio.

Certain membership levels (the $1,000 “Bronze Participant” to the $18,000 “Executive Producer Participant”) offer a particularly impressive perk: a listing in the credits on the final CD.

Sure, you can find a few of these features on fan sites for mainstream commercial recording artists, but two things impress me about ArtistShare: First, the content isn’t slick marketing stuff. It’s authentic and produced at the artist’s own hand to create real engagement with the participants. Second, the participant is genuinely enabling the creativity they see before them by supporting it financially upfront. It’s a complete reversal of the traditional model.

I have to say, as a musician, I’ve spent uncountable hours in rehearsals, recording sessions and performances, and yet, I still find it a thrill to be able to “participate” in the creation of Maria Schneider’s “brand.” It’s fascinating to watch her creative process unfold and it’s rewarding to feel I’ve had a tiny role in supporting it.

JUST A PRELUDE

My money’s on the new model. Not only for music, but for other things people buy. Of course, countless brands are well underway experimenting with User-Generated Content (UGC). In fact, the idea of having consumers actually create real ads for major brands has already moved from marketing innovation to new media cliche.

But while most marketers have focused on engaging consumers in co-creating their communications, the future will likely take consumer beyond the front office and into the back rooms where products and services are actually developed. Exactly how, I really don’t know. But then again, I couldn’t have imagined ArtistShare. Thankfully, Brian Camelio could. And where old ways stop working and new ways can be imagined, the outcome now will likely bear the fingerprints of the consumer as well as the inventor.

© 2007 John Armato
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