Friday 26 June 2015

What we're listening to this week. The Eagles, Hotel California.


From 1976, Hotel California is considered the Album that really got The Eagles critical attention winning them a Grammy and remains their best seller in studio terms. Their 'Greatest Hits' Album will probably become the biggest selling Album of all time.

It was their 5th and their first with legendarily strange guitarist, Joe Walsh.

The title track was released as a single and it refers to "warm smell of colitas" which in fact, is Mexican slang for cannabis. Betcha didn't know that...

The cover is a shot of the Beverly Hills Hotel and sometimes an Album can be justified by two or three standout tracks. This is one of those - 'Hotel California', 'New kid in town' and 'Life in the fast lane' are worth it alone and after that, it gets a bit lost. Although 'Last Resort' is there too. 

Hardly the masterpiece that everyone touts.....but undoubtedly three great songs anyway that make it really worthwhile. And that's not to be unfair to them because they were solidly, consistently good. One of us here, has seen them live and they are a great live band.

It's country rock really, albeit with a big studio sound. Here's a live version YouTube link below, from the year after release and it'll give you an idea. It certainly went down well at Streamabout this week!

But every good collection should have this in it. It's evocative of a time and a band that developed that country rock niche all on their own. 


Tuesday 23 June 2015

Tinder add video.





Tinder is adding video.

The idea being that brands (such as a test with Bud Light) can get involved through video, in the dating app. Ideal too for brands trying to reach that young, engaged audience but should take cognisance of the 'editorial environment' too.

With 8 billion connections in 196 countries and 97,000 swipes a minute, the average user spends 11 minutes a day on Tinder. Pretty staggering.

However, of course, do the users want to be interrupted by Ads? and then, these users will be very switched on to Ad blocking anyway.

But it again points to online video being important as an engaging ad platform (Video Ads) and the need for "publishers" to have it as an offering. And if you need Video Ads, go to Streamabot.com. 

But hey, let's be careful out there.

Monday 22 June 2015

Drinkable Ads.....


There's something very cool about this from Ogilvy. 

Using technology, traditional advertising, digital downloads to create samples and particularly Shazam, it's fairly cutting edge....

First mover advantage too.