👀 Anthro Newsletter #018 | 🎮 Nailing Livestreams, Superfans & Rebranding London
Your weekly newsletter on brands, campaigns, culture and insights.
Welcome to Anthro, a weekly community newsletter featuring must read content about the best and most exciting movements by brands, with a heavy focus on culture, actionable insights and brand’s relationship to business success. Whether you’re the founder of a company, at a start-up, in an agency or in-house - this is the place for your dose of industry news. I’m trying to make this one of the most valuable emails you receive each week. If you’ve enjoyed this issue, please like it above 💗 and leave me a comment 💬
Happy Sunday! Welcome to Issue 18 of this Anthro Community Newsletter! How has it been 18 weeks since Issue 1? M-A-D.
Big thank you to those of you who read every week - you guys are the bomb 😘 When I check out my analytics each week I’m a bit mind blown that hundreds of you come back week after week 💙💙💙 I’m writing this for you!
And hello and welcome to those new names I’ve seen sign up lately - thanks for your curiosity! I see you, and I hope you like what you read 🙌
Here’s what you’ll learn today:
How to nail your live stream and nurture community
How Sony smashed the PS5 launch
How to use Twitter Fleets, and mission statements
Nailing live streams, nurturing community and die hard fans
Okay, we’ve got another epic 2 part interview for you, this time with a fella called Duncan Byrne, a modest chap and super smart marketing brain behind the music industry’s renowned Involved Group Music AKA the group that includes Above & Beyond and their independent record labels Anjunadeep & Anjunabeats. I’m a massive fan of EDM as a genre, and these guys just seem to sign the best artists in the game. I’ve listened to a lot of Ben Bohmer over the last year if you fancy a cheeky listen 👂🏼 Duncan and his colleagues are masterminds in music marketing - whether that’s creating unforgettable IRL experiences, next level livestreams mid-pandemic, or consistently nurturing the most fun, loving and open group of fans on the planet - aka the Anjunafamily, big up! 👋🏼💞 Duncan speaks to us about all things community, recouping loss after pandemic concert cancellations, WFH music recommendations, morning routines and sooo much more. 3 key takeaways below for ya 👀 Read the full interview with Duncan Byrne (Part 1)
If you truly care about community, put them at the centre of what you do. Many other labels pay lip service to community, but you get out what you put in. The Ajunafamily is die hard loyal 🤘
Value the power of a human voice in your marketing. “By humanising our content, fans feel like they’re getting a personal recommendation instead of a sales pitch” 👀
Ideate a lot, and then choose the best idea! Consider how bigger motion can elevate your livestreams to make them more exciting. I.e. Duncan & team chose to film the ABGT400 event livestream on a boat on the Thames, and the changing scenes were consistent visual stimulation for viewers 🎥
Playstation’s simple but effective launch campaign for PS5
Everyone. Has. Posted. About. This. Also, how are we on PS5?! Swear PS1 launched like a couple of years ago? 😜 Sony revamped the iconic Oxford Circus tube entrances with the Playstation symbols and took over other public spaces, blasting the signage across Picadilly Circus, and rebranding various tube stations names and visuals. While there’s nothing deep about this campaign, it is a good bit of traditional advertising - raising awareness like a boss. And if awareness alone was Sony / Playstation’s goal, then so be it. It’s not that clever, but it’s simple and bloody effective. I don’t know about you, but the signage at Oxford Circus is making me a bit nostalgic of my childhood & playing Playstation with my big brother… Tempted to crack out the old Tekken or Crash Bandicoot 🎮 Overall the public have responded positively, with some LOLs about the proximity of Oxford Circus and the Microsoft store (sad times Xbox), and general praise for how cool all the ads look. However, there are some critics - calling out the collaboration between public sector TfL and “corporate money”.
3 points for pondering:
Local government body TfL is under fire for the “commercialisation of the city” - potential for Sony to get dragged into this ethical issue 🚦
Amazon is also under fire for #AmazonPS5Scam, whereby many people’s preorders were replaced with random items like bags of rice and air fryers. A warning to brands in age where safe shipping is more important than ever in lockdown 📦
Ultimately, the PS5 sold out in minutes after going on sale last Thursday - so fortunately for Sony, they have no complaints. But these are 2 issues brands need to take into consideration for product launches 💰
Other interesting things:
Twitter Fleets, a “how to” - Brandy Shaul, Adweek
Where do mission statements come from? - Shripriya, Spero Ventures
How to get hired in our industry during this pandemic - Phoebe Bain, Marketing Brew
And in case you missed it:
👀 Anthro Free Guide #1: Brand Strategy 101
👀 Brand Experience: What a Non-Whisky Lover can learn from Macallan
👀 Part I interview with Mark Carroll, Creative Strategist at Pinterest
👀 Emily In Paris: The basis of market research & cultural sensitivity
👀 Part II interview with Mark Carroll
👀 The power of partnership: North Face x Gucci
👀 Interview with Vikki Chowney, Global Head of Content & Publishing at H+K
👀 Social Commerce: TikTok x Shopify
Woop! You’re done. Thanks for being part of this Anthro Community.
As always, let me know what you loved - and hated!
Leave me a comment or drop me a line to say “hey” on hello@anthro.global and tell me what you’d like to see in future issues.
Ciao.
Sanya 😊
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Written by Sanya-Jeet Thandi, a brand strategist & consultant with a love for culture, start-ups and good karma. British Indian currently in Kent & London, and soon to be US ex-pat. You can connect with me on Twitter & Instagram.