Status Quo album to be sold via short-code text promotion system
Veteran rockers Status Quo are pioneering a new method of buying CDs using short-code text promotions, which will allow consumers to buy direct from online retailers.
Sanctuary Records, the label that the band are signed to, says that the promotion is the first of its kind in the music industry.
Television ads for Status Quo’s album The Party Ain’t Over Yet, created by Sanctuary’s in-house production team and planned by media agency Sold Out, will break at the end of this week.
The TV ads, along with flyers distributed at concerts and a direct mail to the band’s 40,000-strong fan club, will feature a shortcode text number. Fans who text the number will be asked to send back their e-mail addresses and will then receive links to buy the new CD direct from Amazon and HMV’s online shop.
Wap and 3G customers will be able to purchase the album through their phones, and each time a purchaser uses the e-mail link to buy the album Sanctuary will receive an affiliate fee.
Sanctuary vice-president of digital business development Richard Wheeler claims the promotion, provided by text specialist Txtfo, does not penalise those who do not have state-of-the-art mobile services.
He says: “Almost everyone is set up to send text messages and use e-mail and that is the real attraction in this service – it takes mobile marketing down to its lowest common denominator.”
