yates street sunset
- February 27, 2006
the photo above is from the sunset on my street tonight. the longer you stare at it, the more you'll see..
i had a great weekend. dustin h was over from seattle -- we made another new track (which will air on proton radio next week along with cascadia), shiloh was over from vancouver, hanging with them was excellent as usual. top notch. i have a remix due this weekend for a los angeles record label named ritual sounds so i will not be heading over to vancouver, alas. also preparation for WMC in miami has to be taken care of, as well as a radio show, and i have a friend in from toronto for a visit, so victoria it is this weekend.
Posted by davin at 9:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
focus and direction
- February 21, 2006
Posted by davin at 8:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
the great beyond
- February 20, 2006
Posted by davin at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
isn't
- February 19, 2006
it is what it is and right now it is all it is meant to be
Posted by davin at 3:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
heinous messaging
- February 16, 2006
and the award for most remarkably out of touch marketing campaign this week goes to:
milk who has put out this 30 second commercial. I saw it slotted in during The Daily Show with Jon Stuart. tonight. okay watch it before reading any further.
yes that's right, you get four (?) girls singing about how urban milk can truly be with a hillbilly DJ raising the roof and farmer jed doing flips over a cow. the death-ray of misappropriated popular culture hits in full force when they drop the URL at the end: www.milkhiphop.ca!!!!
this is not hip hop. including a DJ and someone breakdancing, also not hiphop. getting girls in the video singing, you got it, still not hip hop. and they're not even joking.
this marketing campaign falls under the "tragically unaware" category along with that vonage commercial i was talking about yesterday. who-ever fesses up to this (i couldn't find a link to any parent company on the site) will get an extra big gold star from me. i promise.
Posted by davin at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)
power delivery
- February 15, 2006
well, as marketing is and has been one of my main interests for years, and also i studied it for years in college, i figured i might as well start writing bits and bats about what i like, what i don't like, and what i am seeing in marketing, as well as marketing related banter with other people. my first example is taken from a random spamming on myspace.com that i received yesterday.
----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: hibernate
Date: Feb 14, 2006 11:43 AM
i make electronic music and i wanted to see if you would join my friends list. check it out and tell me what you think.
----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: davin AFK
Date: Feb 14, 2006 5:45 PM
this looks like a copy and paste message. pffft. not impressed.
----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: hibernate
Date: Feb 15, 2006 9:20 AM
well i m sorry. i want to get the word out to people. all advertising is cut and paste to a degree isnt it? i like to talk to people once they respond but to get them to i play the numbers. anyway.. i have an album at radikal.com for sale. its called OCD. u might like it.
thanx and message me anytime,
[name withheld]
----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: davin AFK
Date: Feb 15, 2006 8:39 PM
not all advertising is copy and paste. the difference is in the method and the application.
sales targetted towards specific people is a push method. this is the more personable, 1 on 1 approach. marketing is the copy and paste you speak of, but it's a pull method, as in advertising placement and a call to action within the advertisement. it isn't done directly to people as real people, 1 on 1, can pick up on the fakeness of the message and ultimately reject it. hence why it is not done effectively.
davin
this brings me to one of my first points about marketing that i'd like to put out there: marketing is huge. it is much more than un-solicited direct mailings, spamming, blog comment bombing, mailing list and contact database swiping -- these kind of items get shovelled under the marketing umbrella but this is really the tip of the iceberg. and it's not real marketing. to start, real marketing requires research on three levels:
- the product or service. yes, it can happen -- a marketing department will not do the research on their own product to open up the possible uses for it. what does it do? what makes it worth anything at all to anyone? what's different about it? this is a pretty good place to start. sometimes this step is .. skipped.
- the people who would possibly buy this kind of thing. why would they buy it? what else do they do? what do they need it for? what else does it work with that they probably already are into? are they sophisticated or trashy? what will get their attention?
- what do these people read / watch / listen to? what kind of avenues are there for advertising buying, what channels are there for marketing this thing to the right people?
sometimes you'll see a completely useful product or service but the advertising is failing to convey the features. the selling points are not reaching; this is plain and simply bad advertising. they needed to think it through a bit more first before broadcasting to the world -- spend more time researching number 1 and get it right before wasting a budget on an ineffective campaign.
i'm not totally certain who some of the new, bright orange VOIP commercials are supposed to appeal to, but idea in marketing is that, while trying to gain audience, a marketing campaign must not piss off the target market. vonage's campaigns could do a lot better. i found the name of their company by googling "annoying voip commercial." their site came up as number one on the search.
sometimes you'll see a new tampon commercial during a hockey game. someone didn't do their research on number 3.
failing to research number one will leave everyone unaffected, failing to research number two will cause marketing efforts to appear unfocussed and therefore useless, and failing to research number three will hemorrhage the advertising budget.
Posted by davin at 8:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
sleepers
- February 14, 2006
what is that bed thing for?
Posted by davin at 1:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
grouse mountain, vancouver
- February 13, 2006
they're not lying, it's fucking gorgeous up there in the sky.
Posted by davin at 12:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
thursday evening sunset
- February 9, 2006
taken footsteps from my desk at work 3 minutes ago
Posted by davin at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
flying dreams
- February 7, 2006
took this photo on the way home from work this evening.
oh hey! that fundraiser for the open door is this thursday at hush. i just practiced with the angry samoan and it's going to be one heck of a show. be sure to be there in all sureness.
i just booked my tickets to florida! holy crap omg! krishen + wmc! how cool is that? so i have that in march and a five day trip to calgary in april.
2 out of 3 trips finalized .. next is uk + france in august.
time to crashola. gnitola.
Posted by davin at 11:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
llandudno, wales
- February 4, 2006
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violent silence
- February 2, 2006
c79 (pictured) has a new EP coming out on Pacific Front Recordings and it's getting some serious attention. sandra collins has been charting it and the most prominent website in all progressive music did this review on it:
C79 - Shy Terrorism EP
Pacific Front Recordings
[PFR011]
Rating: 8/10
Pacific Front Recordings
[PFR011]
Rating: 8/10
- Silent Violence (Original Mix)
- Silent Violence (Kan Shinomura Remix)
- Violent Silence (Original Mix)
- Violent Silence (AFK 'Passive Agressive' Mix)
C79, otherwise known as Charles Paul is quite an underground hero in Vancouver. Producing also under the aliases of Chompers and Obakeh, his style is really quite hard to pin down. Ranging from subtle and mellow soundscapes, to quite heavy sounding techno. the "Shy Terrorism EP" highlights both of these sounds, and even more. Quite an unusual release on Pacific Front, who in the past have kept to quite a similar sound. Perhaps they are embracing a more forward thinking outlook on their releases, which is always a positive.
"Silent Violence" is a track which would sound very at home on a label such as Border Community. The mellow path it takes is a blissful introduction to the EP, and perhaps one of the strongest of the four tracks. The percussion is light, and the melodies are soft. You really need to close your eyes, sit back, and just take it all in for maximum enjoyment. I was quite surprised - but in a very pleasant way - to see such a track featured on a Pacific Front release.
Canada's Kan Shinomura is quite well renowned amongst techno fans, and his mix of "Silent Violence" is highly contrasting to the original. While the percussion may have a very strong techno element to it, this is contrasted by the warm melodies found in the original, but sliced up a little. It is quite interesting, as I personally do not have much to do with techno; I tend to stereotype the music. But it was very refreshing to see techno which possessed this element of depth and emotion. If you are forward thinking in your taste, you really do need to check this one out.
We then get to "Violent Silence", and after hearing "Silent Violence" it was amazing to hear how C79 had so quickly gone from a minimal sound to a much more upbeat techno tune. Many subtle complexities make up the track, and are supported by a fast moving techno pace set up by the percussion. The track really made me think twice about my pre-conceptions on techno music, and if more like this surfaced I would in fact be very interested in digging a bit deeper into the genre.
Finally, to keep long time PFR fans happy, Davin steps up under his AFK guise to provide an absolute stormer of a progressive breaks remix for "Violent Silence". Twisting up the aforementioned subtleties into a powerful mood setter, he slowly brings in some own melodies of his own to add to it. The result is perhaps one of AFK's most solid remixes to surface in recent times, and keeps up the strong tradition which PFR is renowned for.
The high score I've given this release is truly deserving, as it has shown me another side to a genre which I (and many others) have a tarnished perception of. This release is sure to turn many heads, and hopefully push them into delving deeper into the depths of what for many will be uncharted territory. It will also be very interesting to see where PFR head with their future releases, and if this is any indication then they shall have a very exciting journey ahead of them!
well that's pretty kick ass. jarius miller just finished his remix of the new Tiebreaker tune Markarian421, c79's remixing it as well and one other person. Formulate's remix of Lush is 90% done and there is a couple of other people remixing Lush that I am very excited about, as well as Steve May (EQ / Baroque) remixing my new AFK tune "Eclipse." the collab I did with Dustin H (L2 Recordings) is 90% done. He'll be over later this month and we have a few more things to work on. although i feel pretty relaxed right now it's pretty amazing to think all of this is going on. it's good to keep track..
Posted by davin at 8:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)