Us chaps in the Absolute Radio Digital Media team like to think we’re full of good ideas. Unfortunately we can’t claim the credit for The Rock-Off; our battle of the music forums which is proving a hit with online music fans. No, this one has to go to the clever chaps at i-Level.
There are about 850,000 registered users on Internet fan forums who are dedicated to Absolute Radio’s core artists. That’s a massive potential audience of music fans to tap into.
But forums are tough nuts to crack for businesses looking to connect with the communities within. These Internet-dwellers are a passionate bunch, and they don’t get much more passionate than the ones you find hanging about in music fan forums. They don’t suffer fools gladly and see straight through thinly veiled attempts at promotion. Did someone say spam?
We invited fan forums to submit a playlist, encouraging active discussion between forum members and incentivised administrators with a prize that the whole forum could enjoy – their own show on Absolute Radio, and on-air/online promotion to the value of £15,000.
The Rock-Off was picked up by almost half of the forums we identified, which is fantastic for brand awareness, but also for link equity at a time when we are looking to lessen the impact of losing the virginradio.co.uk URL. The playlist selection process generated over 30,000 views and 3,000 posts on fan forums. On the first day of voting, when Coldplay and Keane fans went head-to-head, we saw an 18% increase in unique visitors to absoluteradio.co.uk and The Rock-Off counted for 10% of site traffic.
But it’s not just numbers and complex Google Rankings that matter. The Rock-Off has also generated a lot of positive buzz. The competition has been well received by forum members, and comments posted by users show that new listeners are tuning into the station to hear the on-air elements of the competition:
Oooh yessss!! I’m up for that! – Kaiser Chiefs Forum
This is a great idea – Green Day Community
Hey! that idea rocks! 4 me “Bob Dylan at Budokan” is ‘d greatest live album in rock’s all time history – Bob Dylan Forum
We’ve definitely got to go for this – great way to get The Damned noticed at last by the general public at large – Official Damned Messageboard
This is a great way of putting essays off :D – The Official Forum for The Cribs
They just mentioned this on the radio. Apparently, the forum that wins, will take control of Absolute radio for a show – The Keane Message Board
So why is The Rock-Off succeeding in doing something that more often than not fails to create much impact, and in some cases completely backfires? I think it’s about being relevant, open and honest. We’re not ramming web links down the throats of forum members, or pretending to be Joe Bloggs, posting comments about finding “something really great” on the Absolute Radio website. Forums aren’t closed off to businesses, they just don’t like being taken for fools.
Forum administrators are a great place to start if you want to connect with these micro communities. They appreciate a one-on-one approach, and can give feedback on an idea before going public with it. The more involved they are, the more likely the idea will be a success. We didn’t post anything, instead using administrators to manage the competition on their own forums. This ensured that the competition got maximum promotion and involvement on each forum.
Hopefully, by going about things in the right way, we have built up some strong relationships with passionate groups of music fans, and perhaps we’ll give The Rock-Off another run out in 2009. Tune in to Absolute Radio on Monday 22 December to hear the winning forum’s special show.
