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+++ NOVEMBER,
2k +++
Street
Teams Get A Black and Blue Mark
Source: Live
Daily.com
11-1-00
Inside.com
reported on a marketing strategy behind Backstreet Boys' forthcoming "Black
and Blue" album. An L.A.-area marketing firm and the group's management
company have rounded up a reported 12,000 fans--dubbed the Backstreet Boys
Official Online Street Team--to assist them in promoting the album. ("Street
teams"--in which fans literally take to the streets of their neighborhoods
to promote a band--have been around for some time.)
The fans receive
newsletters that importune them to do things like write about the new album
on chat rooms, vote for the first single on MTV's "TRL," and pre-order
the new album. One goal is to create in the minds of the fans the idea
that they are BSB insiders.
One of the
marketing jagoffs, referring to a similar effort on behalf of 'NSync, was
quoted as saying, "The kids themselves started to challenge one another
within the group, not to just buy one record or two records, but to buy
three and four copies because they were so focused on beating the Backstreet
Boys' first-week SoundScan record."
Whoa. What?
If any member
of 'NSync's or Backstreet Boys' "street team" is reading this:
It's A Cult.
You Must Bail
Immediately.
Marketing People
Are Not Your Friends. They Laugh At You During Lunch. That Laughter Masks
Their Virulent Self-Loathing.
And What The
Hell Do You Need More Than One Copy Of A CD For?
And Why The
Hell Do You Care About Someone's SoundScan Record?
Bail.
Spread The
Word.
Be Your Own
Street Team.
From staff
reports, compiled by opinionated James Woster.
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