I’ve always loved jingles. I’ve always wanted one for my web site. I found one that I thought was perfect for Ancestry.com once. I sung it to myself every time I heard their name.
So I was inspired by a small business that started over the holidays. People like case studies about how small businesses succeed with social media. Here is an example of a business that was started with social media. It was started, get this: over this Christmas and New Year’s, by a musician in Sweden who has never had a business online.
His name is Love Harnell and he’s a musician
I found out about Love Jingles through an email (great blogger PR) and then I called and got an interview with Love Harnell. I’m not used to calling men other than my husband Love but he let me know the Swedish pronunciation which is more like Louve (as in the Paris art museum).
He writes and performs jingles for brands. He makes a video of his performance and then promotes it. His story has been on Mashable and Adrants. Yahoo! has signed up to celebrate their 15 year anniversary with a jingle. So has a 12-step program (it booked 14 days to tell their story in song).
The idea is decent but it’s the way he markets it that people talk about
If you’ve heard of the Million Dollar Homepage or IWearYourShirt.com, this is in the same style. Here’s how it works – each day of the year you sign up to have a custom-made jingle and every day the price goes up. So on January 1, 2010 it cost $1 and then on January 2 it is $2. I got in for $85. You can upgrade to have your logo added on the video and on the blog post.
Time to Market and Costs
Time to market: a few weeks.
Cost to start: good luck, connections and talent.
Advertising: his friend Nils at Pronto Communication emailed 10 bloggers (which is how I found out about it), told his clients and the word started to spread.
Potential revenue if he sells every single day at the minimum price: $67,000.
How LoveJingles Works
Everyone gets a live recording of their jingle on YouTube, and a blog post with their video (in other words, customers help create the content). Then it’s promoted on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. Even though it’s less than a week old just type Lovejingles.com into Google to see how many references there are to the site already (over 5,000). This is the new advertising.
LoveJingles.com was started in an industry that has been bleeding – music. It’s a perfect example of making something worthy of talking about (all done word of mouth). It has viral built right into it (meaning it markets itself by the great stories from the various people who’ve purchased jingles).
What can your small business do in 2010 to leverage social media and get a lot of buzz? It’s more about your imagination than your budget. Love has definitely Crushed It. Let this case study inspire you to do the same.
Joel Libava
Hi Janet,
Thank you!
I remember my friend, Jim Kukral, mentioning this a couple of months ago. I think he even had one made, just for him.
Cool idea, but one has to jump in early. He books his spots fast. (Plus, as you pointed out, it get a little more expensive as time goes on.)
The Franchise King
Fantastic post Janet.
Just got here through Anita’s update on Facebook.
What a great idea. I found it inspiring and a brilliant case study.
It’s amazing how the word spreaded through those initial 10 bloggers until now…and keeps growing. This sequence, reminded me of “The Tipping poin” from Malcom Gladwell.
Thanks for sharing
Fred
RedHotFranchises
Great post! This has inspired me to dwell on further into Social media marketing.
Diane Helbig
This is a great example of using your network and word of mouth marketing. It also shines a light on the idea of having a goal, creating a plan, and then working that plan.
Janet,
If you ever do something in this vein for PR, please let me know ASAP so I can get in early. Great story and which of his jingles is your favorite?
Lee Bartelme
I like the article. I think it’s really amazing the way people keep finding new ways to get user generated content to make money and keep a site profitable. YouTube really is a godsend to some organizations and businesses.
One of the best, most useful, entertaining and down right great posts I have ever come across! Major BRAVO, Janet!
ParkAQ nick
Awesome. I just finished my jingle by ordering from Nickdep.com. Price does not go up and they are truly custom. Whata great idea. Thanks
Thanks for the tweets and comments.
Joel – any feedback from Jim? I saw his jingle – it was one of the first ones up.
I got pitched as one of the original 10 bloggers but got busy & never blogged about it — until now.
ParkAQ – isn’t that for ringtones (not jingles)?
Another service is http://anyluckyday.com – which holds a contest a day. You submit your product/service they help publicize it including on various social sites. It also goes up every day. I’m booked for Feb. I’ll tell you how it goes!
What strikes me is how a business could use these methods to promote their products/services. Backcountry.com is great at this with their deal sites like SteepandCheap.com but they fail to include social media in it.
Huge opportunities….
-Janet
This is an amazing story, and very encouraging for those of us still thinking about starting a small business.
Thank you for the encouragement.
travis
funny stuff indeed… he wrote one for our beers hosted on http://www.fusionbrewing.com.au/main
traffic is up and customers love it
Joe
How is “his friend Nils at Pronto Communication emailed 10 bloggers (which is how I found out about it), told his clients and the word started to spread.” social media exactly? “The idea is decent but it
Anita Campbell
Hi Joe,
Thanks for commenting. I’d like to address your concerns.
There are a number of connections with social media. One connection is that when people are active on social media, they share content and links online much more so than those who are not — and they share it via social media sites. And the more social mentions, the more brand recognition they create for your brand, and the easier it is for the public to find you online.
As for those marketers, think of them an intermediaries — connectors if you will. Sure, marketers may share content more frequently and comment on blogs more frequently, etc. But they serve as the people who connect others, making content spread so that a broader audience sees it. It would be folly to assume that ONLY marketers will see online content. I know for a fact, based on my own experiences, that many many more people see messages that those marketers help spread. So, do I want marketers to be my followers on social media? The answer to that is a resounding YES! Because they help spread the word.
– Anita
It’s amazing to see the power and impact of applying creativity to the social media networks. There is so much opportunity out there for people to take part in.