The Advance Guard

Today, we’re pleased to announce a new beginning for The Advance Guard, as we officially join forces with one of the most exciting brand storytelling companies we know, Campfire.

When we launched The Advance Guard in 2007, we never had any grand plan to merge with - or be acquired by - another company. We often talked of how we would be happy working as a small partnership for the rest of our careers, provided we could continue to attract top tier clients and execute great projects for them. While so many companies seem to set out with a clearly defined “exit strategy”, we always believed the path to success lay in concentrating on how to stay IN business, simply by being the best.

But as we sat in a quiet little bistro in New York City earlier this Summer and the idea of an acquisition was first floated, it opened up so many possibilities we hadn’t considered. We’ve worked for Campfire on a variety of projects since our inception - indeed, our office is within the walls of their company. Together we’ve thrown block parties for Verizon FiOS, sent mysterious letters to taste-makers for True Blood and Terminator: Salvation, and helped online fans face their fears with the launch of F.E.A.R. 2 and Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. In many ways, we were already working as a well-honed team, one that truly seemed to understand new and innovative types of marketing, which we believe brands will increasingly need in today’s changing media landscape,

Together, we comprise a top notch team of creative, strategic and business savvy individuals, with strong backgrounds in entertainment, advertising and community building. We can offer a unique set of services to clients that takes us beyond just a social media agency. Together we can start to tell brand stories within communities, in ways that have never been done before.

While we have no doubt social media will continue to be a powerful tool for CRM and Customer service, our experience to date has shown us the huge potential for communities to embrace and absorb multi-channel marketing narratives. Partnering with the expert storytellers at Campfire seems like the natural next step to channel our expertise. It’s a really exciting decision for us, and we hope all our Friends and Fans will join us for what we expect will be a wild ride.

You can read the official press release below. A social media press release is also available.

CAMPFIRE ACQUIRES THE ADVANCE GUARD TO CREATE FULL SERVICE CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT FIRM

Team of Experts Tackle Next Generation Media

August 24, 2009. New York. Campfire, the New York-based brand entertainment shop responsible for some of the industry’s more memorable campaigns for Sega, Levi’s, Audi, Pontiac, Verizon, HBO, and Discovery Channel, has acquired The Advance Guard, one of the first marketing consultancies to focus on the consumer conversation side of emerging technology and community platforms. The Advanced Guard co-founders Steve Coulson and C.C. Chapman will join Campfire’s executive team of partners, Steve Wax, Mike Monello, Gregg Hale, and Jeremiah Rosen, as Creative Directors. Financial terms of the acquisition are undisclosed. The Guard’s 2008 billings approximate $1 MM, while Campfire’s annual billings are estimated at $7 MM. The merging of the two companies will bring Campfire to a total staff of 25.

Since its own inception in 2007, The Advance Guard has collaborated with Campfire on several groundbreaking campaigns including HBO’s ‘True Blood’ viral controversy; Verizon FIOS’s original TV makeover series, ‘My Home 2.0’; Discovery’s ‘Shark Week’ adventure marketing; and Snapple’s latest digital ‘Real Facts’ initiative. Such successful collaborations led to Campfire’s decision to acquire the shop.

“This acquisition was a natural step forward in providing Campfire with access to The Advance Guard’s thinking from day one,” explains Steve Wax, Managing Partner. “We are delighted to have them in-house at Campfire.” Director of Accounts, Jeremiah Rosen, commented, “Steve and C.C. have proven themselves crucial to our ideation and execution process time and again. And we now have a new, accessible offering for our current and prospective clients.”

Coulson and Chapman founded The Advance Guard to fill a void in the realm of social media. Coulson comes from a rich alternative media background. As an agency director at both JWT and McCann Erickson, his portfolio included award winning brand work for the likes of DeBeers, Ford, Smirnoff, WSJ and Unilever. He is also known for creating the successful pop culture blog www.yesbutnobutyes.com, which to-date feeds a community of up to 1 MM readers per month.

Chapman, whose background is in social engagement, is revered as a pioneer of podcasting and new media. He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and Boston Globe and appeared on CNN during Obama’s inauguration to comment on the CNN/Facebook integration effect. As the host of the famed weekly podcast, Managing the Gray, Chapman educates people on how to best leverage the social media landscape.

One of The Advance Guard’s earliest successes was a pioneering social media experiment for American Eagle Outfitters. This led to more breakthrough work for the likes of Coca-Cola, Warner Brothers, St Martin’s Press, and more.

“Steve Coulson and C.C. Chapman are the master navigators behind the social media scene who make transmedia storytelling possible,” remarks Mike Monello. “We think cross-platform, they execute cross-platform. We create addictive and entertaining content, and they disseminate it strategically based on research and analytics. It’s a perfect match that brings Campfire completely full circle and full service.”

Campfire opened its doors in 2006 and has helped the advertising industry achieve great strides in brand storytelling and entertainment marketing ever since. Monello and Hale, two of the shop’s founding partners, recently celebrated the 10 year anniversary of their 1999 classic cult creation, The Blair Witch Project, a pitch perfect study in the power of social media marketing.

“We’re eager to fully integrate our process into Campfire’s legendary narrative efforts in marketing,” says C.C. Chapman. “Bottom line, brands should be managing their own conversations – and the trend toward bringing on experts to help them do that will continue to grow. Both The Advance Guard and Campfire were built to assist brands in precisely this way, and we look forward to a successful and entertaining ride.”

For More Information Visit: www.campfirenyc.com and www.theadvancedguard.com

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With Press Inquiries Contact: Alyssa Siegel, alyssa@aj-media.com, 212.396.9179

If you visit The Advance Guard’s New York office, the first thing you’ll notice through the glass walls of the conference room is a large oil painting hanging on the wall.

Reminiscent of a Chinese communist propaganda poster, it features a flag-waving group of workers, among scenes of technological progress (including rockets, satellite dishes and - strangely - atomic explosions) and, floating above the procession, the disembodied faces of The Advance Guard’s founders C.C. Chapman and Steve Coulson. It’s an image printed on most of The Advance Guard’s marketing materials, and it usually leads to the same question.

“No, that doesn’t make us communists - and we’ve been asked that several times ” says Coulson with a grin. “But it’s an iconic symbol of a radical change in the way brands connect with their audiences. There’s a people’s revolution going on, empowered through emerging technology and social networks, and we’re helping Companies embrace that change. And besides, it’s kind of a cool illustration”.

Although only just over a year old, The Advance Guard has already made an impressive mark on the emerging social media marketing industry, conducting programs for Coca-Cola, Verizon, American Eagle Outfitters, HBO, Warner Brothers and St Martin’s Press. The case studies on their site detail work using Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, bloggers, podcasters, and run a range from simple PR and buzz building campaigns to involvement in complex Alternate Reality Games. They’ve also worked with startups eager to try alternative marketing methods to gain a foothold, and have even advised government analysts on methods for tracking viral propaganda and conversation monitoring.

But working with major brand names is nothing unusual for Coulson, an award-winning Creative Director who has spent the last 12 years working his way up at two of the largest advertising agencies in the world (McCann-Erickson and JWT). His portfolio includes work on well-known campaigns including De Beer’s A Diamond Is Forever, Ford, Jet Blue, The Wall Street Journal and Unilever.

“My most memorable moment was working as part of a pitch team for a new client” he relates. “We’d immersed ourselves in strategy and competitive analysis for a couple of weeks, and then one morning, the ECD came into the room and said “I had this idea while I was in the shower - how does this sound? There are some things money can’t buy, for everything else, there’s Mastercard.” It was one of those ‘hairs on the back or your neck’ moments. Of course, I was just the web guy sitting at the back of the room. But it was still great to be a part of that team. First and last time I ever saw a client tear up during a pitch.”

Always more interested in the bleeding edge than the mainstream, Coulson found the ideas he brought to the table were often hard to understand for creatives who made their living in TV, and so - after a brief stint as Chief Creative Officer at crayon - he decided it was time to set up a company where he could create programs he really believed in.

Yet while he had a wealth of production experience for Fortune 100 clients, and had even created a successful pop culture site (YesButNoButYes, which regularly gets up to 1 million readers every month) he still was missing a vital component.

“When it comes to social media, I had the media part down pat, but the social side, not so much” he says with a laugh. “I needed a partner who not only knew the conversation marketing space as well as I did, but was the consummate connector. Someone with very deep connections to the blogging and podcasting world.”

From his desk in Milford MA, C.C. Chapman has just finished an appearance on CNN. It’s Inauguration Day, and he’s been interviewed for comment on the experimental CNN/Facebook integration that’s happened during the event.

Being called on to offer public comment is not unusual for Chapman - he’s a prolific and seasoned public speaker and commentator, with 10,000 twitter followers, 3000 Facebook friends and countless subscribers to his growing cadre of blogs, podcasts and videocasts. He’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal and Boston Globe, has seen his photographs published in Rolling Stone and has recently been featured as an “American Storyteller” on The Smithsonian Channel . But his excitement is still infectious. “Being on CNN because I happened to videoblog about them this morning? Now that shows the power of social media.”

It’s this infectious enthusiasm that has served him well as a pioneer of podcasting and new media. His early passion for independent music led to multiple awards for his Accident Hash independent music show, and becoming one of the first producers signed to Adam Curry’s PodShow Network (now Mevio) and the Project Manager behind the PodSafe Music Network. While attending an advertising conference, he realized that he knew more about the changing market then most of the people in the room and decided to share that knowledge with his weekly Managing the Gray podcast which helps educate people in how to best leverage the social media landscape. And it was while overseeing a program for Coke in the virtual world of Second Life that he met Coulson. “I knew his avatar long before I met him in the flesh. And so it goes.”

Now, although the partners sit 200 miles apart, meeting face-to-face only once or twice a month, it’s a working relationship closer than most. “We start each day with a Skype video conference and usually end it with a chat session.” Sometimes, I actually forget that we don’t work in the same office”.

Virtual work environments are just a part of what makes The Advance Guard a unique and cutting edge company. On any given day, tasks can range from sending out vials of fake blood, to planting locked suitcases in dead drop locations, persuading complete strangers to send virtual kisses, or making childhood toys Twitter. Quite a diverse portfolio for a company so young.

After forming in October 2007, The Advance Guard quickly landed one of their largest clients, American Eagle Outfitters, for whom they have created innovative blogger outreach programs, designed Spring Break microsites, built Facebook applications, sent Mommy bloggers to launch events (featuring the Jonas Brothers no less), and contributed to an ongoing strategy that has seen over 300,000 customers become fans on Facebook.

“I don’t think the enormity of how quickly we’d established ourselves dawned on me until about 10 months later” says Chapman. ” I was standing in the pit in front of the stage at NAMU, overseeing the bloggers and podcasters we’d invited to cover the concert, and I looked up to see Anthony Keidis, Jack White and Bob Dylan through the viewfinder of my camera. It was pretty amazing.”

Midway through the year, they were joined by Head of Production Victoria Fishel, who brings over 12 years of web development and project management experience to the team, on clients such as LG Electronics, AT&T, AIG, Akamai, and Goldman Sachs. Now supplemented by a team of art directors, programmers, strategists and writers, The Advance Guard is still redefining their offering on weekly basis.

“The really interesting thing for me” says Coulson, “is that we don’t have a defined process, or manual. Each and every marketing program is customized from the ground up, doing things that probably haven’t been done before.”

“I remember, our first planning meeting at a diner in New Jersey.” recalls Chapman”. We talked a lot about blazing new trails, of being on the vanguard of new marketing. There was a wireless connection in there so we were using Google to get inspiration for a company name, and we came across a quote by Herman Melville, who wrote Moby Dick. He said ‘We are the pioneers of the world; the advance guard, sent on through the wilderness of untried things, to break a new path in the New World that is ours.’ And right there and then, the company was born.”

Coulson adds “Now that quote is on the back of all our business cards. And with a very cool propaganda poster on the front!”

FURTHER READING

• Get The Advance Guard gear in our Cafepress store

2008 will be seen as the year Social Media hit the national headlines. With the growth of social networks and messaging applications such as Facebook and Twitter, the world seem to shrink a little more, enabling conversation between a global community through a new form of online connectivity.

At the same time , Verizon FiOS embarked on a marketing program that would test whether social media strategies could prove equaly effective at the other end of the spectrum - connecting fans, early adopters and potential customers of their services not only nationally, but also at a regional and local level.

My Home 2.0 is an ambitious marketing campaign created by Campfire that combines a TV program, local events and website to demonstrate the transformational effect that FiOS high speed network can have. Local families are “auditioned”, and a few are selected to receive a technology home makeover. A team of Techno-Gurus then get to work, transforming their home, and revealing the results at a local block party where the whole community is invited. Along the way, they demonstrate that technology - specifically high speed internet and TV services - are a means to end that can help reconnect families and enable them to lead richer lives.

Engaged to help plan and execute those parts of the campaign that connected with early adopters & influencers across social media and online networks, The Advance Guard realized that there was an opportunity to create campaign hooks that achieved three aims:

• Create national-level conversation that generated buzz across top blogs, websites and amongst influencers & authoritative voices
• Supplement regional penetration of the program with geo-targeted and niche interest social media initiatives
• Create opportunities for local bloggers and the community to get involved on a personal basis, either via social networks or actually on-site at the family’s home location.

To begin seeding the national story, a series of DIY videos featuring the Techno-Gurus were created. These segments were designed to form short, self-contained (and potentially viral) introductions to the TV show, while each targeting a specific niche audience, including music lovers, sports fans, parents, and kids.

One highlight was a DIY project that showed how to take an old animatronic teddy bear, and connect it with the online microblogging service, Twitter.

In a program that included viral videos, an ebay auction for charity, a live uStream video show and an interactive video feed, Twittering Teddy gained national prominence, featured on Gizmodo, Engadget, and BoingBoing, raising the interest of influencers such as Chris Pirillo, and provoking hundreds of Twitter comments.

At the same time a series of Blogads - and social media ads on Facebook - targeted potential FiOS subscribers by niche interest or region. Those who found FiOS on Facebook has the opportunity to join the My Home 2.0 Group to get updates on the latest build, and to accept an invitation to the local block party to see “the big reveal”.

On set activity was supplemented with a visit by Cali Lewis, the star of top technology podcast GeekBrief.TV. She visited the to the “lair” where many props and ideas for the show were made, and created several segments for her show.

And as the block parties grew nearer, local bloggers and podcasters in the Philadelphia were invited along, provided with Flip Cameras to record the event, and offered the use of a specially-provisioned “bloggers tent”, fully equipped with FiOS high speed connection.

A success both quantitatively and qualitatively, conversions gained across the entire program provided a cost per acquisition than rivaled direct response methods, while providing national coverage of the Verizon FiOS technology as it begins to roll out from state-to-state. The TV show averaged 100,000 households per episode, the block parties attracted a total of 6,000 guests, the Web site counted about 500,000 visitors and a 4.75 percent click-through rate to verizon.com, and the video series registered 100,000 online views and more than 200 blog entries.

What’s more, the program was to go on to win awards that recognized the work put in by the team - including one in the Best Social Marketing category at the 2008 Mixx Awards, and also a Buzz Award for Best Integrated Campaign.

“The lesson of all this” says Beth Mulhern, Verizon’s director of Go to Market for the Mid-Atlantic region, “is, do not be deceived and think that social media is all about widgets — and do not think it is about putting TV commercials online or running banners on networking sites.”

“In the end, social media shouldn’t rely on ‘hand me downs.’ You can’t create mass media or direct- response executions and shoehorn them into social-media spaces and expect success. Start with your vision, your target audience, your product and your partners — determine what people are saying vs. what you want them to say. And then build an experience across all tactics, leveraging your existing tactics, and deliver to the sweet spot.”

Twittering Teddy couldn’t agree more.

FURTHER READING

• Cali Lewis visits My Home 2.0 - a Flickr slideshow
• Scenes from a My Home 2.0 Block Party - a Flickr slideshow

When launching a new technology tool, using French Maids as your spokepersons may not seem the obvious choice. But as mDialog found out, in an increasing competitive landscape, getting noticed increasingly means taking an unconventional approach.

As a new startup in a growing field - mDialog’s problem was one faced by many new technology companies - how to convey a unique set of services to a target that is already inundated with messages and pitches.

mDialog offers much more than other competitive video hosting sites. With embedded surveys, private channels, opportunities for monetization, an integrated iPhone application and instant high resolution encoding for Apple TV and iPhone, mDialog has created a diverse toolbox specifically geared to new media content creators.

“mDialog had just returned from a successful Macworld Expo where our services and technology were very well received.” says mDialog President Greg Philpott. “But it was apparent that no one knew about us. In fact we had a lot of people asking ‘Why have I never heard of you folks before?’”

Faced with this challenge, The Advance Guard was selected to worked with the company and its partners to develop and implement an ongoing strategy to increase their profile, generate use of the service, and sign up new users.

The first challenge was to identify market segments that could benefit from mDialog’s unique offering, and among a sea of sticky notes and research, the brainstorm began. What resulted from the initial strategy phase was a program with multiple components, beginning with a push to introduce the mDialog brand to new media content creators who were already using online tools for video production. It was felt they could be told the mDialog story, quickly appreciate why it was different, and be used to evangelize that message.

The program began at the 2008 South By Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. This hot bed of influencers, filmmakers and musicians from every corner of the globe has become one of the must-attend events for online creators and video bloggers. The SXSW For Newbies Channel on mDialog was created, featuring The Advance Guard’s CC Chapman exploring the festival with online influencers such as Fast Company TV’s Managing Director Robert Scoble, wildly popular technology podcast hosts Cali Lewis and iJustine, and social media guru Chris Brogan.

Interviewing such high profile creators realized two goals - firstly it served as an introduction to the brand, giving each a personal demonstration of mDialog in action. Secondly, by offering online content to the followers of these creators, it increased the potential for the clips to spread virally across the Blogosphere.

After the success of this initial exposure, The Advance Guard planned a full program of attendance by representatives from mDialog at events targeting new media influencers. These growing gatherings were the perfect location to interact with mDialog’s target and sponsorships of both PodCamp Boston and PodCamp NY lead to exposure and new users of the service.

And to insure that all these people being introduced to the brand didn’t miss out on the growing list of improvements and new features, a custom newsletter was set up to be sent out monthly and keep the members up to date

With buzz growing around the brand, the next step was to was to expand the reach to other vertical markets. Key influencers and bloggers in politics, technology, pop culture and parenting were identified and targeted with a very unique outreach.

Engraved iPod Touches were loaded with the mDialog iPhone application, along with a personalized video message from President Greg Philpott, and sent out. This resulted in multiple blog posts, twitter mentions and even this extremely positive video post from technology guru and Gnomedex founder Chris Pirillo.

Which leads us to those French Maids, the stars of the wildly popular French Maid TV.

“Social media has changed the rules for advertising forever.” says Tim Street, creator and producer of the show. “Marketers and content creators need to understand the power of new social media tools and how they can take advantage of them by starting new conversations with their consumers before their competition starts conversing with them.”

Working with his team, a customized episode of the show was created, featuring mDialog technology, and viewed through the mDialog player.

The resulting episode received over half a million views alone, with double that across the French Maid channel, showcasing mDialog to a new mass audience, creating renewed buzz around the brand and delivering site visits, and - most importantly - a legion of new users to the service.

“The Advance Guard’s understanding of social marketing, and the enabling technologies that support the various social networks, are a key strength they brought to the table.” says Greg Philpott. “Today you need both, it is not enough to only understand social marketing, you need to be a practitioner too. And that is what The Advance Guard is.”

FURTHER READING

• Canadian Video Sharing Site Delivers Video Content to iPhone, Apple TV - Beet.TV
• mDialog: A Suite of Video Management Tools - Web Worker Daily
• mDialog goes hi-res, offers pay-per-download - Macworld

It was a mystery that proved to be the core of a robust new media seeding strategy - how to create buzz by trying to KEEP a secret.

Created and executed by multiple creative agencies - including Campfire, The Advance Guard, …and company , and Deep Focus , the marketing campaign formed an elaborate prelude to the premiere of True Blood, HBO’s new vampire series from Alan Ball, writer of ‘Six Feet Under” and the oscar-winning “American Beauty”.

The secret in question was the existence of a vampire community that has lived among us for thousands of years, waiting for the right moment to emerge - a fiction designed to activate fans and early adopters to begin online conversations, and embark on a joint quest to solve puzzles.

It began with the compilation of a “red list” - a select group of online influencers, horror and vampire superfans, and known champions of ARGs and online puzzles. Painstaking detective work meant identifying not only the names and email addresses of this list, but also their home mailing addresses - a surprisingly difficult task in an age of electronic publishing, according to Steve Coulson, founder of The Advance Guard, the social media specialists engaged to target and engage these influencers. “So few blogs even have a contact email address. Finding out real names of bloggers, and their home addresses to mail a physical artifact to sometimes felt like an FBI investigation, using online databases, secret informants, and good old fashioned legwork”.

Once the list was compiled, each target received a cryptic mailer - one of several puzzles, written in a dead language (Babylonian, Sumerian, Ugaritic) and dramatically sealed with red wax in black envelopes.

Within 24 hours, videos began to appear on YouTube….

Simultaneously, the first of hundreds of blog posts started to discuss the mailers - what were they for? Who were they from? Who had received them?

The initial response was overwhelmingly positive, and was monitored closely using The Advance Guard’s unique online monitoring methodology. Says Zach Enterlin, HBO’s vice president of advertising and promotion “I was a little nervous and anxious as to what there reaction would be (but) we’ve launched materials and - I’m not kidding - we could follow the reactions online within minutes”.

In reality, the cryptograms contained clues that led to a URL - a website that, for three nights, hosted a live video stream of “The Gatekeeper”. This chic female vampire controlled access to a vampire-only intranet, packed with details about the secret underground that would start to expose the rich mythology that had been created for the campaign. Several hundred applicants tried - and failed - to persuade her to give them access until the final evening when the gates were unlocked, and the deeper mystery revealed.

This was the start of a four months of intense storytelling, that weaved elements from different agencies into one seamless prologue - websites, blogs, social networking groups, comic books, outdoor and print advertising, Video on Demand segments and viral videos. Jeremiah Rosen, Partner/Director of Campfire - who acted as the lead agency and co-ordinated all participating teams - said “This kind of integration must be planned for. It doesn’t happen by accident or in a vacuum”.

And what of the original “red list”, those influencers that were conscripted to plant the seed? They were rewarded with the first production-line vials of “Tru Blood”, the synthetic blood substitute that, to some, tasted surprisingly like liquid candy:

There was even a review from renowned social media wine evangelist, Gary Vaynerchuck of Wine Library TV:

The result for HBO? On Sept 7th 2008, over 2 million viewers tuned in the watch the premier episode of True Blood, kicking off a season that steadily increased to 6.8m viewers per week, and became one of the cable network’s most popular shows since “The Sopranos” and “Sex in the City”.

And it all started with the worst-kept secret in history.

FURTHER READING

• The Vampires are coming, but only after months of warnings - NY Times
• Move over Dracula: PR & Marketing Meet online - PR News
• Cross-Media Case Study: Once Bitten - OMMA Magazine
• Are Fake Websites the Future of Horror Marketing? - AMC Blog
• A compilation of posts about the campaign - Delicious

Once your music collection sat on a CD rack in the corner of a room. But since the invention of the the MP3, collections have become measured in gigabytes not wall space. As we bring more devices into our lives, the issue of where to store an ever-growing music collection - and how to synchronize it tracks across those devices - becomes increasingly complex.

A new startup - Didiom - aimed to tackle part of that problem with a unique place-shifting technology that allows you to stream an entire collection to your mobile phone, wherever you may be.Yet even with an award-winning technology, and an inked deal with CD Baby to bring over 2 million DRM free tracks to the Didiom store, the new startup was still faced with the problem of raising awareness amongst early-adopters.

“It was important for us to use social media to expand Didiom’s online presence beyond our website, and interact with beta users, music fans, social networkers, bloggers and podcasters.”says Didiom CEO, Ran Assaf.

Being a self-funded startup requires efficiency with both time & money, and so - when it came to creating buzz and generating new user signups, Didiom turned to The Advance Guard.

“The Advance Guard truly understands social media, with great entrepreneurial spirit and passion about early-stage startups and emerging technologies. We were definitely kindred spirits.” says Assaf.

The team took a professionally-produced overview video, and combined it with a Social Media Press Release to serve as the basis for an outreach. This unique form of fact sheet - created especially for the blogging and podcasting community - allows busy webmasters to quickly craft a blog story, with multimedia embeds, contact details, and all the relevant facts.

Once the release was crafted, the possible target for an outreach was assessed. Sometimes casting a wide net is the best solution, but for this first push a finely tuned scope of influence was chosen - technology sites, mobile software blogs and niche blogs that concentrated on both music and blackberry solutions were determined. Personalized e-mails were sent to each individual, introducing Didiom with a link to the SMPR, video and including a custom-designed offer for free tracks from the Didiom online music store.

The story instantly began to gain traction. In a world saturated with iPhone news, writers were excited to try something new on a different platform. What began as a bubble in the smaller blogs eventually led to coverage in the mainstream press, and on top technology blog, Gizmodo. During the four weeks of outreach, sign ups rose 670% and continued to rise as the long tail of blog posts introduced new people to the amazing place-shifting capabilities.

“The Advance Guard developed and implemented a great outreach program for us and helped us capture the attention of our target audience creatively and cost-effectively. Up until recently, Didiom has been a hidden gem, but thanks to The Advance Guard we are no longer hidden.” says Assaf.

With a New Year and continued focus on growing, Didiom and The Advance Guard are now planning the next wave of influence. Didiom not only allows placeshifting, but also has a unique marketplace that allows you to define what you pay for your music. Place-shifting has changed the way you listen to your music and now it is time to for everyone to realize why it will also change how you buy your music. Stay tuned.

Pittsburgh is probably best known for The Steelers Primanti Brother’s sandwiches and Heinz Ketchup. What they are not known for is being a tour stop for most major musical acts.

American Eagle Outfitters (whose headquarters are located in Pittsburgh) set out to change that in the summer of 2008 with the creation of The New American Music Union, or NAMU.

A two-day summer music festival, with acts carefully selected by Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and with a college band showcase on a second stage, the goal of the festival was to provide an unheard-of line up at a price that anyone - especially American Eagle’s younger target - could afford.

“Music is a defining influence in our customers’ lives. said Kathy Savitt, Chief Marketing Officer for American Eagle Outfitters. “We’re excited to offer AE them the opportunity to see today’s best musicians—both professionals and college acts—at a price that’s unheard of for a summer festival of this caliber.”

Realizing that, to be successful, they had to attract the attention of more then just local fans, American Eagle set out to build buzz around the festival nationally. Working with social media agency of record, The Advance Guard, a three-phased marketing and communications strategy was developed that began with casting a wide net of buzz generation, narrowing down to a secondary level of contact that included a ticket give away to key pop culture blogs, and finally organizing an innovative on-site program for local and national bloggers at the concert itself.

From the day of the initial press release, every major blog or podcast that focused on music, entertainment or pop culture was sent of the show with links to a specially-designed Social Media Press Release which provided easily-accessible facts links, graphics and quotes. This combined with traditional PR activities to create intense interest across the country.   ”It’s exciting for Pittsburgh,” says Melissa Franko, marketing director for WYEP-FM. “I think it’s going to bring some national recognition to the city.”

Meanwhile, The Advance Guard began to design the NAMU web site - a constantly evolving beach head for information surrounding the concert. Starting with the line-up announcements, ticket information and purchase links, it would evolve to include full bios and song samples for all the artists. Once the lights dimmed on the concert stage, exclusive performance videos from the show would be posted to the site.

With a line up that included The Raconteurs, Spoon, Gnarls Barkley, The Black Keys and Bob Dylan on the main stage and a second stage with fifteen of the top college acts vying for a major prize, it was an impressive and eclectic mix. Anthony Kiedis summed it up by saying, “My experience tells me that concerts can be life changing. That is how I approached putting this lineup together.”

Ticket sales began strong and - with the team creating listings on major music social networks such as Last.FM and integrating promotions into the AE Facebook Fan Page - it didn’t take long for concert to sell out completely, exceeding all expectations.

A block of tickets had been held in reserve specifically to offer to a select list of blogs and podcasts that had reacted positively to the initial outreach. . Knowing that each site editor knows their audience better then anyone, they were encouraged to run a contest that fit their style and their readers. Some asked Pittsburgh Trivia, while others decided to do a good old-fashion raffle to give them away. One wanted to hear the most desperate plea for tickets in order to determine a winner.

August 14th 2008. The parking lot two blocks from American Eagle’s headquarters had been transformed into a stage and, as the artists began to arrive for the show, so did the press and blogging communities. Publications including Paste Magazine and Blender Magazine were invited to attend, and - alongside the traditional press - local new media creators were given all-access passes.

In the photographer pit at the front of the stage, it was no surprise to see a blogger with an iPhone shooting beside a seasoned veteran from Getty Images. A Flickr Photo Pool under a Creative Commons LIcense was set up so that all the photos from the day could be shared by all, and it was a photograph from this pool - shot by The Advance Guard’s CC Chapman - that was used as a full-page ad in Rolling Stone congratulating the winning college band, The Black Fortys.

For all those in attendance - both audience and media - the concert was an amazing event. Paste Magazine wrote “The festival as a whole was a great success… Seeing these bands without even needing a video monitor was a nice change of pace. To have this (level of access) with the caliber of bands Kiedis and AE attracted is truly remarkable.”

To maintain the enthusiasm generated from the stages, exclusive video from the performances were quickly edited together and posted to the web within 48 hours of the last fan leaving the venue. Everyone who had covered the concert to date was contacted again with links to the videos. Fan sites of each band were also notified with links directly to their favorite artist’s videos.

Ultimately, Pittsburgh showed that it could be the host for a major music festival, made possible by the vision of American Eagle Outfitters. By transforming their local parking lot into a venue into the hottest concert venue with thousands of appreciative fans singing along, they brought a world-class music festival to Pittsburgh, and national and new media attention to the City of Bridges.

FURTHER READING

• The New American Music Union Festival Report - Blender
• New American Music Union Recap - Popwreck(oning)
• Highlights From The New American Music Union Festival - GeekStar.com
• Dylan, Gnarls Barkley and Other Rock SouthSide Works - Times Online