Month: July 2007

Brandweek reports that automaker Toyota’s youth-oriented brand, Scion, has launched their own branded radio player on their website.

The term radio should be interpreted loosely here, as there is far more than just audio here. Videos of Scion owners’ gatherings, races, short independent films, live music performances, and more traditional “radio stations.”

These stations are of interest as they were created with some real underground partners. For example, they partnered with Wax Poetics, the UK magazine devoted to soul, reggae, jazz, and hiphop. That is going to have a certain amount of cred with a portion of their target audience. Wax Poetics is not one of those glossy, advert filled mags that cater to the chart-topping performers. It is more of a journal. The fact that Scion sought them out shows how in tune they really are. [No pun intended.]

Scion impressed me from the start with their marketing savvy that reached beyond glossy flyers. At the annual auto show here in town three years ago, they handed out CD samplers featuring two quite underground record labels as the source for the songs.

When it comes to hitting that age group that everyone is aiming at, Scion does a good job. Does it sell cars? At least a few…

Radio 2.0 blogger Mark Ramsey highlights today an announcement from Philadelphia’s WXPN; they will be gathering the 885 Most Memorable Musical Moments. [885 corresponds with WXPN’s FM frequency 88.5 — clever.]

He posits that which may be on other people’s minds as they see more and more social media vehicles emerge: “One of the toughest parts of integrating social media tools into a radio station website is plugging in those tools which listeners actually want to use on a radio station site as opposed to wherever they’re accustomed to using them now.”

As some major media companies spread themselves thin over all platforms to little effect, this becomes more apparent. Separate YouTube & Flickr accounts, Facebook and MySpace pages go only as far as the effort put in will take them. The decline in corporate interest in Second Life presence, both fiscally and in actual presence, points to a collective realization that perhaps the wrong tactics were used. The “L.A. Times” recently featured an article about this exodus.

Presence is not the only factor; being at the cool party doesn’t necessarily make you cool. Being able to make use of social media in a manner apropos the community and tool itself is key.