MERGED-->HTDAAB Marketing Blitz Discussion

[Flying FuManchu]

Any sign of this whole U2 marketing blitz for HTDAAB being a failure?

Alright, the big week will soon be upon us and U2 IMO defintely has done more advertising/ hyping the release for this album then I can remember.

(1) IPOD commercial that I see almost all the freakin time.

(2) Interviews and major articles on the band for the past few months.

(3) Music video directed by a "hot" director(s).

(4) Somewhat hyped snafus (lost CD, leaked album, album in a suitcase handcuffed to a person)

(5) The usual radio promos.

(6) Streaming album preview.

(7) The U2 special edition IPOD and digital box set.

(8) Three different album packages.

(9) A lot of butt-kissing by album reviewers.

(10) SNL on the week of release.

Will this be enough to give them a huge opening? Will this album sell. IMO part of selling millions and millions of albums is hype just as much as quality (subjective of course) music. Just ask Santana or N'Sync or Eminem.

Is there potential for U2 to fall flat on their faces?

 

[boosterjuice]

$17mill Advertising Blitz

Okay, the album is almost officially upon us!

U2 is spending $17Mill USD on advertising for this album. When are we going to see it and how?
We've already seen a lot of publicity in the way of Magazine artile reviews, but U2 doesn't pay for that. They also didn't pay for the Apple Vertigo commercial. So all of that does count for the $17mill.

I'm predicting we see a lot of TV ads (in conjunction with HMV or another CD outlet).
Print: I'm guessing newspaper ads will be abundant.


What is everyone expecting? HAve you already seen advertising?

 

[Flying FuManchu]

I see the IPOD commerical all the freaking time. I'm actually getting sick of it.

 

[boosterjuice]

I see the IPOD commerical all the freaking time. I'm actually getting sick of it.

I'm jealous, I've only seen it twice. Maybe they don't play it too often in Canada.

 

[mikeuk]

there was a short commercial in the UK, in the ad break during the hall of fame induction. Black & red coluring, count in to Vertigo and release date


Mike

 

[boosterjuice]

there was a short commercial in the UK, in the ad break during the hall of fame induction. Black & red coluring, count in to Vertigo and release date


Mike

interesting. I bet we'll see more the same commercial over the weekend.

 

[LiveFire]

I see the IPOD commerical all the freaking time. I'm actually getting sick of it.

During the baseball playoffs it was on ever commercial break.

This season of heartbreak brought to you by U2 and Apple. Thanks guys.

 

[LiveFire]

Re: Any sign of this whole U2 marketing blitz for HTDAAB being a failure?

Is there potential for U2 to fall flat on their faces?

I'm of the opinion that the album isn't that great and therefore U2 while not having fallen on their faces hasn't achieved the level of success that U2 should achieve with the release of a new album.

That said tha album isn't bad and is very sellable and they seem to be selling it really well. To me Rattle and Hum and Pop are better albums than HTDAAB and they are regarded as U2 fucking up. To me I believe they fucked up not in the album but in how it was marketed. R&H got the negative backlash of them trying to be the beatles. Pop was supposed to be a techno album in the time when techno was supposed to be the next big thing and the album was certainly not techno nor was the album really a commentary on pop culture and yet that's what it was named after and what PopMart was based on. So far the marketing blitz just seems to be about selling the record without a lot of preconceived notions. Expectations will be for something like ATYCLB and expectations will be met. I don't really see them falling on their face in a publicity light although personally I think that it might do them some good.

 

[boosterjuice]

Re: Re: Any sign of this whole U2 marketing blitz for HTDAAB being a failure?

To me Rattle and Hum and Pop are better albums than HTDAAB and they are regarded as U2 fucking up.

Why do you consider R&H to be a better album than HTDAAB?? I'm really curious to hear this.

 

[ZeroDude]

maybe "all i want is you" is a reason

 

[LiveFire]

Re: Re: Re: Any sign of this whole U2 marketing blitz for HTDAAB being a failure?

Why do you consider R&H to be a better album than HTDAAB?? I'm really curious to hear this.

Desire, Silver and Gold, Angel of Harlem. I mean they do lose some points for All Along the Watchtower cover blandness but in general you've got some great songs on there that really rock plus it's half just live versions of JT. I've always liked it but then again I wasn't a fan when it first came out.

Oh yeah and All I Want Is You is another fine fine reason. Seriously take out all the covers and JT stuff and you get an album that is two or three songs away from being complete.

Desire
Hawkmoon 269
Silver And Gold
Angel of Harlem
When Love Comes To Town
Heartland
God Part II
All I Want Is You

 

[U2_Guy]

maybe "all i want is you" is a reason

Maybe HEARTLAND, Angel of Harlem and Desire are other reasons too.

 

[popacrobat]

There's always potential to fall flat on their faces...but it's U2 and if nothing else, it'll sell a lot just because it is U2.

 

[Dr_Macphisto]

Rattle and Hum is up there in my top 5. I haven't heard HTDAAB but I hope it is better than R and H. I need something to blow my mind... 2004 music has been pretty shitty on the music scene, so much so that the Darkness blew my mind from Jan-June

 

[Dr_Macphisto]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Any sign of this whole U2 marketing blitz for HTDAAB being a failure?

Oh yeah and All I Want Is You is another fine fine reason. Seriously take out all the covers and JT stuff and you get an album that is two or three songs away from being complete.

Desire
Hawkmoon 269
Silver And Gold
Angel of Harlem
When Love Comes To Town
Heartland
God Part II
All I Want Is You

don't forget:
Love Rescue Me
Van Diemen's Land

 

[riteshbhatt1]

I think the album will sell well in the next 2 months then drop-off a bit and then pick back up when the tour opens. U2 is all over the place right now. Honesly, I can't see anything besides ABOY a hit. The other songs are great songs but aren't really singles that will be played on the radio stations that we have now in the US. Maybe Sometimes... will be a surprise hit.

 

[roy]

R&H has the following four songs:

Angel of Harlem,
When Love Comes To Town,
Love Rescue Me,
Van Diemen's Land

meaning HTDAAB is much the better album.

 

[FullonEdge2]

I could never get sick of a U2 commercial.

 

[boosterjuice]

R&H has the following four songs:

Angel of Harlem,
When Love Comes To Town,
Love Rescue Me,
Van Diemen's Land

meaning HTDAAB is much the better album.

very much agreed.

R&H has Heartland, All I want is You going for it. Not much else in my books. I do like the passion that shines forth in Silver & Gold. But R&H doesn't even come close to HTDAAB.

 

[Flying FuManchu]

I can never listen to R & H all the way through... maybe I should try again.

 

[LiveFire]

very much agreed.

R&H has Heartland, All I want is You going for it. Not much else in my books. I do like the passion that shines forth in Silver & Gold. But R&H doesn't even come close to HTDAAB.

My point was that the quality of the album has very little to do with why and how popular the album will be nor whether or not it will be regarded as a success.

For further discussion of Bomb see my post in the review thread.

 

[beau2ifulday]

There is actually a TV ad in circulation right now for HTDAAB in Britain.

 

[boosterjuice]

There is actually a TV ad in circulation right now for HTDAAB in Britain.

Tell us about it. Please.

 

[beau2ifulday]

Tell us about it. Please.

I've actually only caught it twice, but it's not very exciting - just a black screen with those red stripes from the Vertigo artwork randomly appearing from the top and bottom of the screen. That happens for about 10 seconds, and then it comes up with U2 - 22/11/04. Oh, and it has the opening 'Vertigo' riff playing in the background.

Not much, but enough to cause me to spurt my drink out in delight

This is good though - hints at a more full blown ad upon the album's release

 

[U2girl]

Maybe the giant blitz rumor wasn't true after all...

It's the week before album release and I haven't seen anything that would affirm the multi-million figure that we read.

TV promo shows don't cost that much (and they played more of those in ATYCLB time, especially US)

TV ads? I don't think I read about any so far

TV series use of songs probably also isn't worth that much

NME and similar streams would not happen IMO if it wasn't for the leak

Ipod thingie is split 50/50 between Apple and U2, and they didn't get payed for the Vertigo ad

So...where is the huge marketing blitz that was supposed to happen?

 

[beau2ifulday]

Just a note - NME were lined up to play the album before it was leaked anyway.

I mentioned in another thread that i've seen an advert for HTDAAB, but it was only brief, and i've only seen it twice.

Other than that, I have no idea where the marketing blitz has gone - maybe upon the album release we'll be bombarded with TV ads and, er, billboard posters?!

Or maybe they lied about the ipod thing :/

 

[ADecentMelody]

We'll see in the first week. They are expecting to sell 1 million copies in the first week. That should be a bar to measure.

I think they'll accomplish this.

 

[zoopop]

U2 is playing Saturday Night Live this weekend, they just play Radio 1, and are on tons of magazines. I think this is part of the plan.

 

[U2girl]

They played SNL last time around too, and I am guessing various radio and TV appearances and magazines are regular promotion, not a "giant marketing blitz" that requires millions of money.

 

[zoopop]

I'm sure it'll sell around 1 million. U2 will be all over the weekly ads this coming Sunday. Target, Best Buy etc. There are so many people who buy albums just because it has a huge picture of the CD with the $9.99 price tag. People won't even know until Sunday that U2 has a new album.