The Impact of Digital Advertising on Artists: Redefining Star Power and Fan Connections.
Someone should research the connection between talent advertising (such as recent artist music video ads) caused by the digital revolution and how it is affecting and reducing the potential star power of advertised artists/musicians.
I mean, don’t you think that presenting yourself as a product rather than an entity to be desired is making fans see you differently? Celebrities are the most desired people on earth; they are not products.
Celebrities are the most desired people on earth, they are not products.
Topic Rationale: The Rant Begins 🙄
1. More content than ever before: Digitization has created multiple sources of entertainment, news, and gists, resulting in limited attention. It is this attention that artists crave and need to build their brand, dreams, and stardom upon.
A bit of background: Back in the day, we had specific times to watch the latest shows on TV, such as Super Story episodes, Passions, Inkan mbe/Labe Orun (for those of us who liked African horror stories 😂). If you missed an episode, there was a strong sense of dissatisfaction because you had missed probably the best content of the week. Some of us were in school during midweek replays and were left with classmates acting as master storytellers 😂, almost reenacting the episode and frequently interjecting with “that is not what happened.”
Back to the rationale: During that time, we had fewer contents that we literally worshipped. Remember our passion for the “Super Eagles”?
“Ordinary friendly match with Cameroon, my alfa that year go declare holiday, we go set tv for ile kewu”
Those moments connected me to “Naija”, few sense of being a Nigerian i have in me, we were like soldiers supporting the eagles in victory, with unimaginable hope and determination.
On the flip side, get your white smock on! with a scientific eye you can see less passion in National football, which is gradually distributed towards other contents, EPL/FPL, UCL, New music, BBN, tech, content creation, story telling etc.
So, as a young artist (or business) in today’s world, you are in a tougher fight to grab the attention of your audience. They are far more decentralized, craving and going for content that catches their interest. Their world is curated, and you would win with the right content that steals their attention (I will define this in the coming week).
2. Ads are just ads; a great story takes away the selling/advertising: Research tells us that the new consumer psychologically turns off when they see an ad (ad blockers are causing publishers up to $78B)
The artist has lost a real connection with their fans the moment the ad is on, especially those YouTube ads 🙄 (that’s what made me start this rant in the first place).
My argument here is that the sponsored label on online ads has a strong psychological hindrance on music content. Artists should consider other creative ways to distribute their work content naturally, thinking beyond conventional marketing. Out-of-Home (OOH) and radio advertising are less intrusive and provide a sweet mix of creative expression that is natural to the content, unlike digital platforms that face privacy issues.
“Artists should propose non-exclusive partnerships with brands that have massive OOH and radio ad inventories as a sure way for mutual growth. — Na me talk am!”
3. Well, we have more celebrities than before! (TikTok: the magical algorithm; let’s talk about the rise of new creators entertaining thousands and millions with one slo-mo video, or the billions of #Dontleaveme challenge — possibly the only Nigerian content to reach such a feat).
Be a tiktok creator yourself, be creative and consistent, the algorithm shall find you.
Learn from what TikTok did for Ckay, what Instagram has done to the beauty industry, and Comedy, building creators. Do You know How much Spaghetti & Tomato is charging for one influencer video? Much respect colleagues!
Start the plan B, get digital not just social. Access your digital audience & fans, you have to build a community directly or indirectly, think towards how to reach, and interact with people that will love your art directly at little to no cost.
Conclusion
