OK, so perhaps “mashup” is a poor word choice relative to autos. But then again…American automakers have struggled lately. Seems like every day there’s more news of labor strife, plant closings and job losses. But amidst the turmoil, there are signs of life, and new opportunities emerging for sports properties to connect with Detroit (and the rest of the auto industry) and develop creative “Web 2.0″ partnerships.
For background read:
Good overview from Fox News
Reaction from blogosphere
New Sponsorship platform emerging - inside the car
This is a classic sponsorship program. Consumer gets content for free (as long as he / she owns both a Ford / GM car and an iPod). Automaker adds value to the owner’s experience, which could spur new sales and loyalty to the brand; and music label gets sample distribution of its product - and gets paid to boot!
Music Podcasts
From WSJ: “What we’re doing with podcasts is taking the King Biscuit Flower Hour notion of sponsored content,” says Rock River President and Chief Executive Jeff Daniel. He is referring to a popular radio program in the 1970s and ’80s that was sponsored by a regional baking-products company called King Biscuit Flour. “It’s a patronage model.”
The WSJ article explains all about the copyright issues that have delayed these types of deals from happening before now. Chrysler will be first to market with biographical programs featring individual artists.
From WSJ: For now, Rock River has struck licensing deals only with Sony BMG, to include four to eight songs in podcasts created on behalf of its clients. The “Chrysler Music Legends” series focuses on a specific artist in each program, and includes 30-second ads from the car maker at a few points in the program. Subjects of the biographical programs have included Miles Davis, Johnny Cash and Journey.
The programs are available from Chrysler’s home page and from the podcasting section of Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes Music Store. The Ford series isn’t due to launch until later this month, but Rock River executives say they are in discussions to license content from multiple major labels.
Adam Block, senior vice president and general manager of Sony BMG’s Legacy Recordings, says the podcasts are “essentially a movie trailer for our projects.” He says the possibility of the shows’ being copied wasn’t much of a concern because the songs are embedded within a long program that would be difficult to redistribute.
Digital Automotive sponsorships for sports teams
This idea has a lot of potential for sports teams and other properties who sell sponsorships on their web sites. Teams have lots of content - and many have podcasts - which could be tailored for local dealerships and offered as “value add” through local dealer groups to fans who buy their cars. We could even make our own deals with local music groups, which would be messy, but would have potential to ignite stonger reactions from local cultural leaders.
On the national level, I wouldn’t mind seeing our league (NFL) make a deal with Rock River and extend rights to some of this music to the teams. We are constantly limited by pesky copyright issues when we’re producing our own video for the Web and podcasts.
What does this mean for Microsoft’s ZUNE player?
I couldn’t help but ask myself this question, but of course non of the press releases and (surprisingly) none of the major media commented on it. I did find this opnionated column at ZDNet. Surely Microsoft won’t take Apple’s auto partnerships lying down.
And while the new technology is cool, let’s not forget the importance of MUSIC in all of this
Music soothes the savage beast. Music fueled the Myspace phenomenon. And music is spreading the iPod craze. And now the iPod has jumped to the car, which opens up a whole world of possibilities for music, sports and other digital content creators as well as the automakers themselves. Suddenly, the car is no different from a living room.
The personal auto now houses broadcast content and a recording device, how long before their networked?
NFL games are already on Sirius Satellite Radio. Not to mention on iPod. College football and basketball games are already downloadable. (See this news from Online Media Daily). Will the iPod become the Tivo of sports audio? Or at least sports highlights? You’ve already got DVD players and multiple LCD screens in the car. Why even have a house? All we need is a fridge! Too bad cars are getting smaller.
While sports elicits strong emotions just like music does, there seems to be a limit the the “recorded” value of sports as compared to music. Sports content is much more perishable. While Americans love their sports, they like to watch it live, whereas music gets replayed over and over.
Perhaps we’ll begin to see sports highlights packages downloaded to cars while they’re parked and the iPod is sitting in its docking station - so that the driver can flip on the highlights when he or she gets behind the wheel without having to take time to download.
Or maybe NFL fans who are listening to the game on Sirius could be invited to download special content, even music, at halftime of a game? I don’t know if that’s possible, but that would present the music industry another way to push its content and add even more value to the automaker, Sirius and NFL. Hmm.
NFL tried an iPod program last year. I don’t know anything about it, but lack of news on-line would tell me that it didn’t work out so well. Check out the comments on this blog.
