What Digital Marketing Experts Should Learn From 2009's UK Christmas Charts

Every December, people in the United Kingdom look forward to the biggest chart battle in the music world. This is the war for the #1 Christmas single in the country. In 2009, the clash was between 1990 rock legends 'Rage Against The Machine' and X-factor winner Joe McElderry. The top spot was finally won by the rock legends, partly due to a user campaign on Facebook against their rivals. Their expletive-ridden 1992 hit 'Killing in the Name' was the first ever Christmas number one that was available only through downloads. Unexpectedly, it sold more than 500,000 copies in a week.

Digital marketing experts have a lot to learn from the Facebook campaign run against Simon Cowell, the talent show judge and music producer, promoting the second place finisher, Joe McElderry. This campaign was started by Jon Morter, a 35 year old part-time rock DJ, who created a Facebook group to thwart Simon Cowell's desire to top the Christmas Charts for the 6th year in a row. Through his campaign, Morter appealed to members of his Facebook group to buy a record from the competition, to ensure that a protégé of Simon Cowell would not win again.

Besides the debates on music and politics, this clash also presents an extremely important lesson for digital marketing professionals. It displays the digital marketing power of social media networks like Facebook to generate thousands of sales, using limited digital marketing resources. The messages sent by Morter during his anti-Simon Cowell campaign were so captivating that they helped him single-handedly enthuse over 800,000 subscribers, and sell over 175,000 copies of a song, in a week alone.

This example is a classic case where digital marketing promotion for a product/ service, can be masked as an interesting message. Of course in this case, the creator of the Facebook group merely wished to express an opinion, but there are many record labels and distributors that will generate big profits due to his efforts. This case proves how vital it is for digital marketing professionals to create something that is interesting, virally stimulating and relevant to the interests of a particular target group.

The top single 'Killing in the Name' also became the first single to hit the top of the Christmas charts on downloads alone. Priced at 29p to 99p per track, the high download rates for this song have ensured the ability of Internet music sales to generate adequate profits. Another interesting point to note is that Google was ranking relevant articles related to keywords for this online campaign much higher. This highlights the power of social media channels in ensuring the success of digital marketing campaigns.

Qudos Digital is a leading digital marketing agency and can be contacted on 020 8891 2077 or info@qudosdigital.co.uk.

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