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    The Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project returns

    The Smirnoff brand are bringing back The Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project, building on the great success of 2010’s global initiative. Like last year, the vodka brand is encouraging its fans to share what makes their nightlife original and vote for the best ideas. These will be implemented on November 12, the big night. This time, 50 countries all around the globe will be involved in the night swap.

    These one-of-a-kind nightlife parties, which will include music, drinks, places, tastes and dances, will be hosted at special venues: Just like in 2010, people from one country will contribute ideas for a party to be arranged in another country. Last year, the programme was launched in 14 countries (the USA, Australia, Canada, the GB, Thailand, Brazil, and Germany, to name but a few) in 10 different time zones, engaging 2 million people through Smirnoff Facebook fan pages. This year Smirnoff decided to give an opportunity to say ‘I was there’ to as many as 10 million fans, by extending the cultural exchange project to include 50 countries in total. Some of the countries involved are Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Dubai, Germany, Ghana, Great Britain, Israel, Serbia, US and Vietnam (find the full list in the press release)

    This year, the Smirnoff brand also partnered with Madonna in a search for “the Most Original Nightlife in the Universe”, to find the best dancer to join Madonna’s next tour.

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    Revellers worldwide are invited to co-create and participate in the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project by contributing ideas on what makes their local nightlife distinct in the categories of drinks, dance, fashion, music, places, and more creating a nightlife cocktail of unique events. The most inspiring suggestions from each region will be captured online and exchanged with another country on November 12, when the night swap takes place.

    By participating online, fans will have the chance to win a place at one of the global events or experience another country’s party at a Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project event in their own city.

    Find out more on Facebook or Diageo’s homepage.

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    How your Dad’s taste in music has influenced yours

    There are many reasons why you listen to the music you do today. For many, one of their great influences is the music their Dad listened to at home, or maybe a concert he took them to. Some of you may have sworn to never listen to anything like your Dad’s music again, some may have loved it. Either way, the music your Dad listened to when you were young had an effect on your taste today.

    Folks at the multi-room music system makers Sonos asked ‘What do dear old Dad’s listening habits say about the artists in your repertoire?’ and created a flowchart predicting what kind of music you prefer by the tunes your father listened to when you were young. If you’re lucky, your father exposed you to a variety of music during your formative years.

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    Illustration by Column Five Media.

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    ABSOLUT to Launch the ‘Cee Lo Distilled’ Film on Facebook

    In March 2010, ABSOLUT Vodka teamed up with Jay-Z to release a 14-minute documentary about the musician’s life and work, and now it’s announcing another two-part film starring rapper and record producer Cee Lo Green.



    The first chapter of their work titled ‘Cee Lo Distilled’ will appear on the brand’s Facebook page on June 27. As for now, ABSOLUT launched a 1’45’’ teaser, which previews the upcoming film produced by the brand in cooperation with The Fader. The new creation is taking viewers into the world of the celebrated rapper as he tells about his family and childhood, shares on what ‘being truly exceptional’ in today’s world of music means to him and what inspires and influences his work. In general, the movie seems to be just a new piece revolving around another performer—but since this musician has a unique charisma and talent, the film is really worth seeing. The second and the final chapter of the documentary will go online on July 6.

    Read more on Popsop.com

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    PressPausePlay - What is technology doing to culture?

    We’re living in a time of digital revolution. Today anyone can become a writer, musician, photographer or filmmaker. But what happens to the quality of culture when everyone becomes a ‘creator’?

    Nowadays, culture has more or less become democratic, with many opportunities for those who want to explore, create and share. At the same time, it has never been easier for creators, musicians and consumers of culture, to get lost in ‘the ocean of garbage’.

    “When humans make stuff we tend to make interesting things” Moby says. But, does this apply to all humans who get hold of a camera or a computer and a broadband connection? Hasn’t new technology dissolved the mystery of creation?

    Yes, there are many opportunities with all new technology. Yet at the same time it has made it harder to find good quality, which might leave us satisfied with culture holding a level of mediocrity…

    The documentary PressPausePlay is a film about hope, fear and digital culture, containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.

    If you have a Swedish IP address you can watch the whole documentary here (available until the 2nd of July). If you’re not having a Swedish IP address you can get a glimpse of the documentary below.





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    SXSW 2011 Ups&Downs

    Eric Welles Nyström, member of the Heartbeats Movement and our man at this year’s SXSW, gives you the ‘ups&downs’ in regards to bands and brands performing at the much celebrated music conference in Austin, Texas.

    SXSW Brands Top Three

    • The ‘Fader Fort by Fiat’ and how they let Odd Future go totally ballistic onstage.
    • TDK and their new speakers series that combine 70s vintage design, 80s boombox concept and modern technology, to create the best product across the whole of SXSW.
    • AOL and their continuous well-thought-out and well-executed events.

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    SXSW Brands Bottom Three

    • The ‘Fader Fort by Fiat’ and their lack of new ideas and creativity compared to previous years. Having bands play on car parts was the ultimate low.
    • Chevrolet, Camel and Marlboro and their lack of understanding on how to introduce their monster products into a creative music festival.
    • All brands, companies and labels who wasted their marketing budgets on download cards, scrapers, useless gimmicks and flyers that nine times out of ten, were thrown away by whoever received them.

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    SXSW Top Trends

    • Brooklyn’s dark electro/art music scene of gothic, witchlike sets and strong influences of 80s synth and old movie soundtracks, received wider recognition with a number of parties outside of Austin.
    • Esben & the Witch, Glasser, Friendly Fires and Millionyoung continue developing their style with tribal drums.
    • One common denominator among SXSW’s best dressing artists… hats! Including Totally Totally Enormous Extinct Dinasour’s remarkable dinosaur feathers, Theophilus London’s wool felt cowboy hat, Twin Shadow’s brown furr hat, and Night Jewels traditional Fez…

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    SXSW Most Symbolic Moments

    • Theophilus London’s freestyle rap backstage at the Fader Fort, where he made up the ‘The Brand Song’, in the most branded place in the country.
    • Hanson and their hustle throughout the whole city. One day you would see their new album plastered across major billboards, and the next day you would find them in the audience of panels and hustling keyboard speakers for industry insight and feedback.
    • As the Saturday night came rolling in and local new media stated that it was the largest full moon in Austin for more than ten years, everyone from Jay-Z, Jamie XX and James Blake, along with countless other major artists (Kanye West, LL Cool, P. Diddy to name a few) and a couple of hundred other bands played free shows throughout the city.

     
    SXSW Most exciting projects for 2011-2012

    • iTunes project with Green Label Sound
    • Converse’s new recording studio in Brooklyn, Rubber Tracks
    • Vice’s concert recording site Noisey.com

     
    SXSW Top Band Performances

    • Glasser at the Central Presbyterian Church
    • Braids and the fact they don’t have an album yet
    • Gayngs and their 20+ people onstage performance
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    SXSW and The Fader Fort by Fiat

    As one of the worlds busiest and most important music events of the year, SXSW has today almost become just as much about brands as of bands. Since starting 25 years ago as an alternative festival in what still considers itself the ‘World Capital of Live Music”, Austin, the conference and festival (which also includes film and interactive), now features +2000 artists, from all over the world, showcases, parties, keynotes and major events taking place in bars, parks, parking lots, hotel pools and basically everywhere throughout the city, during a busy two week period.

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    In addition to that, Austin is flooded by innumerous brands that through official partnerships with SXSW or independent events try to get a share of the crowd of music fans, consumers and tastemakers. One event is The Fader Fort, a concept developed by The Fader Magazine and its parent company Cornerstone. Always featuring the most talked about talent, top of the line event production and lots of free beer, food and products, it has been the most popular and well-produced event at SXSW during the last few years. Basically, it is here you probably will see ‘the next big thing’ before anywhere else.

    Located a few minutes walk from the main SXSW venues the event is open for anyone over 21, who RSVP’s in time. Everyone at The Fader Fort is treated to a range of free products, and bands performing at SXSW are taken care of by special coordinators. As for this year, visitors could grab free hats from New Era, get their music gear tuned in a workshop lounge, play ping pong next to the DJ booth, and enjoy old school movie popcorn and free beer. From a special media lounge, bloggers and journalists helped promote the event to the external world, while Sirius broadcasted live satellite radio from a small booth in the centre. Further down behind the stage, The Fader team hosted interviews and streamed the event online. At the other end in an almost hidden lounge by the exit, VIPs and performing artists could pick up giveaways from Converse and TDK, and jam in a mockup of Converse’s new studio. In short, there were lots of places to hang out, get free swag and have a good time.

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    For the past few years, the setting of the dusty old warehouse on an equally dusty old street has been ideal for the Fort’s regular sponsor, Levi’s. However, after Levi’s surprisingly dropped their commitment at the end of last year, Italian car giant FIAT became the new title sponsor. Sadly, even though there was a potential of doing something new and original given the car company’s great history and widespread popularity for its older car models, it appeared like FIAT had no clue how to approach the event… The bright and shiny cars, which frequently were polished by teams of non-Italian-but-Italian-looking models, appeared like they had been dropped randomly inside the event without any natural connection to the event itself. Added by a number of oddly placed business reps hanging out in the midst of all the relaxed young festival goers, the vibe of car sales offices and bad Italian TV-shows was getting stronger by the minute. To top it off, a brass band was jamming music beside – using old car parts as the instruments. Previous years have also featured local brass bands welcoming guests to the entrance, but then luckily they have been allowed to keep their own instruments. Hopefully they will get to do that next year as well.

    By: Eric Welles Nyström, member of the Heartbeats Movement

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    Smirnoff extends its Nightlife Exchange Project

    In January, Diageo GB, which owns the Smirnoff brand, increased its year-on-year digital spend for the spirit by 115%, to build on the Nightlife Exchange Project (NEP), launched last year.

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    The NEP was a global initiative, which discovered and celebrated the best nightlife from around the world in one night, on 27 November 2010. Following the launch of the NEP in London, Smirnoff will now be hosting three more events in the UK.

    Agency RPM, the event planner of the project, has approached students from Hatfield University and given them £4,000 to create a bespoke area at the Hatfield event, which will be held this Saturday (25 March). The project will also go to Edinburgh and yet another location that will be voted on through Smirnoff’s Facebook page in the UK, www.facebook.com/smirnoffgb.

    “The Smirnoff brand is all about originality and creativity, so what better place to look for inspiration than with imaginative students?” said Chris Lock, marketing director at Smirnoff.

    The Smirnoff NEP successfully involves its consumers by inspiring them to partake in the shaping of the best brand experience, created by the brand and shared with the consumers.

    In a move to cement its brand positioning around nightlife and music, Smirnoff is further staging a dance music event in the UK, which will be held in London on 13 August, featuring acrobats, lightshows and sets by well-known DJs.

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    There’s a door open to new music services

    “Now, in days where content scarcity no longer exists, experience is the product…Content is no longer king. Its throne has been taken by experience. Yet how many music services really focus on experience?”

    I read this quote by Mark Mulligan (Forrester Research) a while ago, and find it to be quite true. Just think of it… How many music services do we have, that really focus on the music experience, aside from the listening part?

    Research has shown us that today people listen to music on more platforms than ever before (Millward Brown BrandAmp Study 2007). Another study lets us know that youngsters listen to music approximately 3.66 hours per day (Why do we listen to music?), and yet another, more recent study, tells us that people consume music three times more via YouTube than via legal downloads (Nielsen and Midem Study 2011). This tells me that there’s room for more music discovery in people’s lives, and that the door to that room is open, especially to services and music sites that let music consumers experience what they’re listening to, while they’re listening.

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    If you have a look at the Music Website Heatmap from 2010 (US) it shows that music consumption on the web is increasing as a whole (with one contributing factor being that the percentage of people that have internet access is growing, but still…),  it also lets you know that watching is the new listening (again). Approximately 31% of YouTube videos are music videos. Roughly estimated, its size is more than 3 times everything else combined on the map.

    This makes me believe that there’s a door open to new music services, or improved existing ones, that focus more upon delivering greater music experiences to consumers. What consumers would appreciate is not yet another streaming service that offers them a monthly listening subscription. What they would appreciate rather, is a music service that allows them to experience the music as a whole. Why not a service that takes them as close to a real gig as possible? Why not a service that offers pictures and high quality videos from gigs, festivals and perhaps documentaries as well?

    Just think of it… If for some reason you missed out on a gig last night, or tonight’s gig is taking place on the other side of the globe, wouldn’t you like to experience that gig anyway?

    There is probably a huge market for new music services, far beyond what we can imagine, and I welcome any new service that lets me get as close as I can to experience the real stuff.

    Right now I’m actually a bit excited, because there is a service on its way that might meet my wish. It’s called Noisey.coman online music discovery platform centered on concert videos. It’s launched by Vice, Intel and Dell and will be released at SXSW later on today. Will the site meet my expectations? That remains to be seen…

    Written by: Sara Zaric

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