Put Your Records On
The first time I heard the song, Put Your Records On, I thought the singer had the sweetest voice I had ever heard. I didn’t know who it was, the sound wasn’t familiar, but I knew she captured me. I wanted to hear her sing in person. I wanted to meet her.
But I was in my car and my cell phone rang and within seconds, I was onto something else. And I forgot about the angelic voice until I heard the song again. This time the artist’s name appeared on my dashboard: Corinne Bailey Rae.
Who is she, I wondered. I was home moments later and Googled her. And there she was on my desktop singing to me. The Google search turned up all kinds of biographical information on Corinne Bailey Rae - about her Grammy nominations and her roots and her early musical influences - but none of it mattered. I could watch her sing, and see her walk through meadows and within minutes I was buying her music online.
Now think about it. There was no advertising here. It was all digital PR, which allows you to show your clients’ product in a highly personal way, in a living way, without having to bow and scrape before a TV producer. You simply post it on the Web, find a way to drive traffic to it, and people (just like me) visit and buy.
This is one of the great powers of digital PR. In this realm, we don’t have to tell stories. We can show them. We can create videos and bring our clients’ products and services to life in a way that words can’t rival. I bought Corinne’s music because digital PR made it, and her, irresistible to me.
There is a growing universe of people who don’t like to read. Ask The New York Times. And there is a growing universe of people who prefer to absorb as much as possible through the Internet. Ask the producers of Jackass 2.5.
If you are a PR professional who is married to words as your primary form of communication, you will fail. The world is moving one way and you are going in a different direction. The wrong direction.
Start dreaming in pictures. And then bring your dreams to the Web. And the world will buy your music.