How Ad Based Digital Content Allows Us to Reach Engaged Customers

Though we’ve witnessed the demise of Napster, dozens of other file sharing networks have risen in their place creating a network of 9.4M simultaneous peer-to-peer users legally, and illegally, trading music, movies, and other content. What does that have to do with Marketing you ask?

Intent MediaWorks, endorsed by various record labels, has begun seeding P2P networks with songs embedded with unobtrusive pop-up advertisements. By December, they expect over 10 million downloads of their songs which, at a $5.80 CPM for ads on songs, allow advertisers to reach this attractive audience.

Consumers claim to welcome this form of advertising as their desire is not to download/share illegally yet, the ease of use and speed of download outweighs their penchant to obey the law. One has to wonder, while they welcome the occasional pop-up on music or videos that have been downloaded, how will they feel when their catalog of thousands of songs has been replaced with ad based music? How would you feel seeing a pop-up each time a song plays?

Those concerns aside, this strikes me as a wonderful opportunity not just to engage with this audience but to remarket your brand which may already associated with a song or video. Consider advertising with TV shows in which your product is featured or alongside the music that plays during your TV commercial (I confess, I still can’t get The Pussycat Dolls “Don’t Cha” out of my head since the Heineken Light commercial aired).

In a unanimous decision by the the U.S. Supreme Court, Justices stated that most music piracy occurs within file-trading networks and that a new business model is required to support the marketplace and demand for digital sharing. In that finding, the Court cited Intent MediaWorks as the only company capable of offering a viable option. This raises the question of how the RIAA will be able to pursue illegal file sharing when an viable alternative exists. Could users not claim to use the network with the assumption that they are downloading these legal, ad supported files? Since the ads are pop-ups, how is one to know if they file they’ve downloaded is supported by an ad they simply haven’t seen yet?

Clearly, Intent MediaWorks is worth your attention if you have interest in this engaged, entertainment minded consumer. I for one need to stop singing, “Don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like me” in front of my wife.