The Doctor Who 50^th anniversary is coming up. The event needs little promotion, given the massive fanbase who have been eagerly awaiting The Day of the Doctor. The fans have been instructed by the Doctor himself to use the hashtag #SavetheDay for any Who-related content.

The #SavetheDay campaign highlights the benefits of user-generated content:

• It provides an outlet to share and read consumer opinions. Whovians around the world can speculate how The Doctor could possibly cross his own timeline to save the world from the Zygons on social media, forums like Reddit, even on Youtube comments.
• The content is authentic. When seeking information, users trust peers more than they trust companies. Moffat lied to us about Paul McGann. Rule #1: Moffat lies.
• Virality of positive WOM. The response to any and all new content that is released to the public is immediate sharing, especially on the social media Big Three (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
  
• Brand advocates provide free advertising and increased brand awareness. Whovians are the best at putting the spotlight The Doctor.
  
• Fresh content and back-linking can help SEO. Whovians can spend hours perusing the BBC Doctor Who website. In response to this, the BBC is constantly posting new Who content. 
• Reveals insights and allows better engagement with community. The BBC caught onto how Whovians react to Who-related content (through fangirling and spamming the Big Three). The BBC has essentially created a vicious cycle of fangirling. They’ve developed a website that is powered by these natural reactions to uncover new content that will in turn, cause more fangirling. Amazing. 

• Poor moderation of content on website can drive traffic away. I’m assuming this isn’t the case since I haven’t seen any non-Who related content on the site yet. But perhaps a couple instagram shots of wedding invites could be hidden in those nodes somewhere. I highly doubt that a couple unrelated images would deter a die-hard Whovian from leaving the site. 
• No control. While the BBC rarely has any issues with Whovians posting content to their detriment, sometimes you really just don’t want to see weird Who fanfiction. 
• Virality of negative WOM. Just as Whovians can quickly spread the word about positive news, they can do the same with negative news. When Colin Baker, the Sixth Doctor, criticized Moffat for not contacting any of the pre-reboot Doctors to appear in the 50^th, claiming to be regarded as “surplus baggage,” the news was everywhere from social media to Canadian Sci Fi talkshow InnerSPACE.

October is prime time for gigs and shows. It’s why it’s been aptly referred to as Rocktober (by me [and at least other person, come on!]). If you’ve ever been to a really memorable show, you’ve probably experienced Post-Concert Depression, or PCD. PCD involves going home elated and then waking up the next day sulking and listening to the band’s album on repeat for a week (or six). I equate PCD to an extreme form of brand loyalty (and also withdrawal).

Despite the masses of brooding fans, bands get a lot out of PCD:

But the process of becoming a brand advocate and being a fan of a band isn’t exactly the same. Finding a band and listening to them is a more organic process. You fall into a soundcloud discovery hole and then two years later the band finally makes it big enough to go on tour and play your city. So how can brands generate something close to PCD?

A recent study done by Momentum Worldwide looked at the positive WOM generated from the most common types of brand interactions, from simply visiting their Facebook page to going to a branded event. What they found was that attending a live, branded event was the most effective means of driving (65% of) people to recommend brands and driving (59% of) them to buy the brand at a retail store. A branded live event even trumped a friend’s and a trusted influencer’s recommendation – the traditional drivers of WOM.

A branded live event can be anything from a concert, to a sports game, to a food festival. The more interactive and memorable the brand experience, the more buzz the brand creates for itself. 93% of people who attended branded events were likely to talk about the event.

 Furthermore, a live music event resulted in more positive affect about the brand. What this means is that brands can leverage the PCD or its sports- or (food- [I was like a Bieber fan at Eat! Vancouver watching Chuck Hughes do a demo on cooking with kale. So yes, it’s possible.]) equivalent by sponsoring live events. 




Not only will their brand be attached to a memorable event, but they gain a host of other benefits (using a concert example):

• Musical tastes can be so subjective that they in themselves are psychographic measure. This can allow brands to tune into certain demographics and target these fans by attaching their brand image to the music they love most.
  

  Source: Forrester Research
• Everybody likes music, and hosting free events can grow a brand’s target audience. I don’t drive, but a free You Say Party show hosted by Scion? Sure, why not.
• Your brand can become embedded in the band’s existing culture, or at least gain some residual cool. Assuming you’ve done your research and the band’s brand image aligns with yours (or your ideal), by being attached to the band, you’ll inevitably earn some cool points. In essence, you get to say, “I’m with the band.”

Discovering new bands and then professing my love for them on social media is one of my favourite pastimes. This is especially true if a band’s music is released for free, which seems biased. If I like a band’s music, I like their music. So why is it that the majority of the tracks I share on my social media trifecta (Facebook, Twitter, and sometimes Instagram) are free? There are two sides to this: The Penny Gap and Ownership.

Nothing highlights The Penny Gap – the psychological abyss that lies between a (digital) good that is free and one that costs a penny – better than free tunes. The Penny Gap is essentially that internal struggle you get when you’re deciding whether you want to spend your last iTunes dollar on that new Foals track or if you should just wait until your deluxe vinyl box set comes in two months . This decision-making process of evaluating and considering is probably best known as the conversion funnel (but I like “internal struggle” better).

The best way for a new band to grow their audience is to release free singles. Why? Because freemium models eliminate the internal struggle by saying, “Hey, don’t worry about it Steph, just take it and enjoy!” Within minutes of discovering the band, their song is already on my phone and ready for me to listen to while aggressively shoulder-dancing on the bus.

A closer look at all the tracks I’ve shared have a common thread: the band occupies space on my hard drive. Whether it’s an older album, photos from a show, or a free download, I’ve either invested in the band by paying for ownership of their tracks or a ticket to their show, or the band has given me permission to own their track for free.

So what does this mean for everyone else? Getting over The Penny Gap by simply bypassing it is key for new bands and brands. If you’re asking consumers to pay for your good when they barely know who you are, you’re asking them to take a giant leap, even if you’re only asking for a penny. The difference between a penny and no penny is the associated risk and opportunity cost of that penny. Bypassing that risk and Nightcrawling consumers to the other side means they’ve got nothing to lose in sampling your product. And if fans and consumers are anything like me, their relationships with b(r)ands can shift from complete stranger to friend to brand advocate within the first 30 seconds of the song. 

And just for good measure, here are some free tunes for you to aggressively shoulder-dance to on the bus: