“Big Blue Moose was extraordinarily helpful in translating our business and our brand into a successful, realistic and achievable content strategy. Robert helped us to manage all the moving pieces – translating the diverse Web site, social media, brand and content – into a cohesive successful project.”
Laura McCorkindale – Dwight’s Manager
Description:
Dwight Yoakam is a music icon. The long-time Angeleno has sold more than 25 million albums worldwide, placing him in an elite cadre of global superstars.
He has 12 gold albums and 9 platinum or multi-platinum albums, including the triple platinum “This Time”. Five of those albums have topped Billboard’s Country Albums chart with another seven landing in the Top 10. More than 30 singles have charted, with eighteen going top 20, including the incomparable hits “Honky Tonk Man,” “Please Please Baby,” “Little Ways,” “I Sang Dixie,” “It Only Hurts When I Cry,” “Fast as You” and “Thousand Miles from Nowhere.” He’s won two Grammys and earned a staggering 21 nominations.
Challenge:
Dwight’s online brand and content strategy required a major re-design. Big Blue Moose was challenged with formulating the new strategy to build upon the existing Dwight Yoakam brand.
This included a new online fan club Web site to drive fan participation, a new content focused public Web site – and a new social media strategy to increase participation with Dwight and his fans.
Execution:
The first phase was to work directly with Dwight and his management team to devise a new online strategy that would provide the mechanism for him to create a community, while staying true to his his iconic brand.
Once the online communications strategy was finalized, Big Blue Moose assembled a team of Web site designers and technologists to re-design the existing Website, while designing a new “Members-Only” fan club.
Simultaneously, we established a social media strategy through a number of channels, including MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, iLike, YouTube and others.
Because of all the disparate content sources, from news, television appearances, concerts and even his food brand, special attention was paid to creating a content workflow process that would empower Dwight’s management to have control over all the various Social Media channels.
The result was:
A dedicated online fanclub at www.Route23club.com – a paid online fan community site, where fans can message one another, have access to Meet and Greet for Dwight’s concerts and download everything from screensavers to ringtones
A re-designed Web site at www.DwightYoakam.com – representing Dwight’s true creative brand – and providing for a centralized portal for news, film clips and access to an online store.
A social media strategy, focusing on MySpace andFacebook for centralizing fan interaction – and general announcements for Dwight’s community
Measuring Success:
- Increase In Web Traffic: Explosive Web site traffic increase to millions of pageviews per month
- MySpace Engagement: To date, more than 975,000 profile views, 360,000 plays of music and more than 28,000 friends
- Facebook Engagement: Since going to the “page only” strategy mid-last year almost 110,000 new friends
- Fan club Engagement: Thousands of new members, and a new revenue stream to cover online marketing costs
