FRUKT on Music

Dudley Ashton

Vodafone is building upon it's presence in the micro-blogging platform Twitter in an attempt to drive traffic to its Vodafone Music store. The mobile operator has created a new service which it is billing as the "first-ever interactive real-time top 40 chart for music lovers". Making use of Twitter's 'hashtag' capabilities, users add the artist and track name that they are listening to, proceeded by the RealTop40 hashtag. These votes are aggregated on the realtimetop40.com website, where a constantly updating top 40 list sits and of course all tracks can be purchased from the Vodafone Music webstore.

The headline-grabbing, investment-driving phenomena that is Twitter has stamped it's place firmly into the Zeitgeist. From Obama to Stephen Fry it's hooked an estimated 10m users worldwide, claiming consistent year on year growth of 1000%. If MySpace is synonymous with music and Facebook for friends. Twitter is about opinion and soap-boxing. What's more, researchers at Penn State University found that 20% of tweets are about brands, so harnessing and shaping the platform's chit-chat (and making it positive) has never been so vital.

Along the same lines as wearehunted.com, the Real Top 40 is a neat activation. Music has broad appeal and people are willing express their opinions on it, so the activation is inherently viral. Moreover it makes use of the Twitter's hashtag functionality and carefully, almost surreptitiously mobilizes Twitterers off-site for a soft-sell with relevance.

Four tips for mobilizing those Tweeters:

1. Give them a reason to engage
Deliver an activation that is interactive and go for instant gratification, Tweeters want to be a part of something there and then.

2. Make it viral
Of course the realm of Twitter is inherently viral, but build in broad appeal to your activation to ensure it echos.

3. No one likes a pushy brand
Allow the users to own it and let your brand take the back seat. This is their territory so be respectful. In the case of Vodafone's activation there is no company name grandstanding. The branding amounts to a logo on the website.

4. Offer, don't sell
Of course there is an end game to all this, but again don't be too pushy. The 'offer' should have relevance.