Flooder Companies Employed To Advertise Coke

[GhostShip]

It seems the Cartel advertisers have at last woken up to the fabulous marketing opportunity that is P2P 

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116113611429796022-_5EZVscJYWWFqv1AmPvXCiOjJms_20071018.html?mod=blogs

A video clip from Jay-Z's live concert in June at Radio City Music Hall is popping up on all sorts of illicit music-sharing hotspots. But Jay-Z isn't upset.
That's because the rapper, at the request of Coca-Cola Co., agreed to allow distribution of the eight-minute clip -- which included promotions for Coke -- on the peer-to-peer sites, using technology usually used to thwart music pirates

The unusual alliance demonstrates a new tack being taken by the music industry to deal with the challenge posed by widespread music piracy. For years, the industry has been suing individual downloaders and file-sharing services, hoping to discourage the practice. In a tactic little known outside the music industry, record labels have also started to hire outside companies to plant "decoy," or fake, files on the sites. (One such company, ArtistDirect Inc.'s MediaDefender, says it has deployed decoys for as many as 30 of the top 100 Billboard songs at any given time.) The decoy files frustrate users because they fail to download even though, thanks to the companies' technical expertise, they often claim the top spot in search results for a tune.

Some music acts are using peer-to-peer sites to gather marketing data. Over the summer, MediaDefender ran a promotion for the alternative music group Gin Blossoms. File sharers looking for songs got files with links that asked if they wanted to win a free iPod preloaded with Gin Blossoms tunes. If they clicked on the link, they landed on a page that asked them to fill in demographic data, including name, age and email address, and 25% of them did. MediaDefender executives say they were surprised so many responded, but they believe that placing the questionnaire on ArtistDirect, a well-known music site, gave the promotion legitimacy.

This is a long and interesting article and I think its worth a read in full.
Many of you may be wondering why they have only just woken up to the fact that P2P users like music and purchase large quantities of the stuff, more so in most cases than non P2P users.
Its nice to see that they are catching the bus at last and utilising a golden opportunity for their artists.

PS: folks never give out your name or email to anyone on the net, spam usually follows, its nice of them to warn us of this activity eh folks ?

[Scyre]

Good advice, Ghost. It amazes me how gullable people are as soon as they see the word 'free' somewhere. You would think after YEARS of using this marketing tactic that people would wise up. But, apparently, and sadly, it still pushes people's 'impulse button' for some reason.

I think we are gonna start seeing a lot more media that includes advertising, but then again, maybe that is the way to go...

Everyone is happy that way. I don't mind seeing an add for Coke, or Cingular, or any other products, if it means that I can get some free media and no one can say "Look at the filthy pirate! He is destroying the earth with his blatent disregard for the rights of the big media companies to rape the world's wallet!"

I guess I am not that picky. They can make their money from the sponsors, and I will carry on enjoying the things I like. After all, If they don't do it that way, they aren't gonna get all the money those greedy jerks are after. The people will never pay the ridiculously high price for most of the junk that is put out, and without being able to test music or movies, I will not purchase something in a 'black box' if you know what I mean. I don't like unknowns when it comes to spending my hard earned cash, and MANY others feel the same.

This would be a happy medium. I will watch advertisements, and if the actual media is good, I will buy a copy. That is why I decided on all the movies I have now. I took them for a test drive and liked them. Music is kinda easier. Radio plays all the newest stuff for free. Why don't we have free receivers for the latest movies?
Maybe this would be the way to make an equivalent outlet for all the video media that people are not willing to pay $40 to go to the cinema to 'test', only to eat stale popcorn and have an empty wallet before realizing they made a bad choice of movies (based on some bullshit commercial that completely misrepresented the value of the movie to begin with).
I think the decline in cinema sales is proving that. People are fed up, and the tactics used to 'stop p2p piracy' are useless and completely ineffective.

GS, you are absolutely correct in saying they are finally waking up. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to realize that most people would be satisfied with seeing a movie with a marker on it saying "Free version" or having ads\commercials in it, or even a lower quality version of it than the DVD... In fact, many people are watching those sorts of things right now, completely content.

AND IT DOESN'T KILL THEIR DESIRE TO GET A GOOD QUALITY COPY IF THE MOVIE IS WORTHWHILE AND WORTH THE MONEY FOR A DVD PURCHASE!

If the entire film and music industry would grasp that fact, they could be making a hell of a lot more money, and no one would need to be sued for anything (especially getting sued just to make up for the industries poor decisions which have cost them most of their profits!)

This, after all, is the way to the future. Even if they want to be stubborn, or short sighted about it. Everyone wins and no one has to hate anyone lol.

kk, off my soap box now

Best Regards, and Be Good!
Scyre