Not so bright marketing from Bright Eyes

 by Martin Belam, 4 January 2007

Yesterday I came across what I thought was some pretty poor online marketing for the band "Bright Eyes". I'd read some favourable comments about them recently, and so went to visit their homepage. I got greeted by an opening splash screen that wanted to harvest my email address before I could get into the site.

20070104_bright-eyes.gif

I wasn't actually particularly lured in by the promise of a new streamed track, I just wanted to find out something about the band. I gave my email address and entered the site, to be greeted with a page that only had one link on it - to stream the new song.

And that was it.

No discography, no news, no tour dates, no buy our back catalogue here, no nothing.

It turned out that I didn't like the track, so as part of their 2007 marketing campaign I am now signed up to receive a newsletter from a band that it turns out I don't like, and whose entire website consists of two pages - despite the fact that they have been releasing records since 1998.

Well, I'm sure some marketing team member somewhere will be giving a great PowerPoint presentation about how they generated n number of mailing list sign-ups for the band as part of their bold online marketing strategy.

20070104_spam.gif

Of course, what they won't be able to measure is how many of these people like me go on to report the first email we receive on behalf of the band as spam in Gmail, because that is easier than going through a two-click unsubscribe process.

11 Comments

I see there it says "new site coming soon"

>> I see there it says "new site coming soon"


Yes, but most companies or bands don't completely remove all of their web content for a while just because they've got a re-design coming up, or make people sign-up to a newsletter before they discover that the site consists of two whole pages

ok, well, it's a new site anyway

hmm...I don't know if you can read or not...but is clearly says "new Site comming 2007"...if you want Info go to saddlecreek.com...and you will want info cause Bright Eyes is a very talented group and their new track is pretty killer too. cheers

>> hmm...I don't know if you can read or not...but is clearly says "new Site comming 2007"


Erm...yes...see my point above. It isn't usual in business to take down your entire site for a while prior to a re-launch - nor to harvest email addresses only to reveal nothing once you've subscribed.

hey you are a dumbass, bright eyes never had a web site, and the one they now have is only temporary, just for the new record Cassadaga, if you want to learn about the band, which is really only one person, go to saddle creek. thats where its been for years. P.S Bright Eyes is amazing.

Hey Scott, not sure if you actually read my article?

Regardless of whether Bright Eyes have never had a website, the question this dumbass is asking is why did their marketing team think it such a good idea to harvest my email address on the splash page of a site, and then have no content there, so that I now have them marked as a spammer in Gmail?

I'll say one thing for Bright Eyes, they have obviously picked up a very loyal fanbase who don't like any criticism of the band or their web marketing, judging by the comments I am getting here!

surely its not that taxing to unsubscribe from the mailing list... the site is probably under the control of the label rather than conor himself... and the fact that you listened to one song and decided you hated all of their nearly 10 years worth of music... slightly jaded, are we?

>> slightly jaded, are we?

Well, I don't know about that, but I don't see how you blame me for dismissing the previous 10 years of music when that is exactly the point I am making...that the website was just harvesting email addresses before giving any information. And had nothing to indicate there even was ten years worth of music to dismiss

You could've always gone to Saddle Creek Records, or www.saddlecreekrecords.com to get information about Bright Eyes.

They've got a bunch up there, since it was more or less Conors group of friends that started the label.

Sheesh, publishing this was obviously like poking a hornet's nest of fans ;-)

I'm sure Bright Eyes are very good. The point I keep trying to make is that their website harvested my email address, and in return gave me nothing. How was I to know that I had to go to Saddle Creek - there was no link. How was I to know there was ten years of music. There was no information. BUT, they still wanted to obtain my email address before I could even get into the empty site. I'm not talking about whether the artist is any good here - I'm talking about whether an online marketing campaign that insists you sign up to a newsletter first, then gives you nothing in return, is a good idea.

Keep up to date on my new blog